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Another ball joint question - whats the truth?


mroman59

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I stopped at the store to buy my ball joints, they only had two sizes: 3/8 stud w/ RH 3/8 x 24 female end 3/8 stud w/ RH 7/16 x 20 female end two of the same come in a box, of course. As I was driving home I stopped at another lawn mower sales/repair place to see what sizes he had. We start talking about me taking my 5/8 shaft and machining it down to 7/16 to thread on ball joints. He stated that when I make my tie rod, one end of the shaft has to be right hand threads and the other end has to be left hand threads in order to do it correctly and make sure you have the correct toe and so that they will not un-thread when driving. I said then why in a box of two are they the same RH thread and not two different ones and how could they un-thread if you have a nut on the shaft before the ball joint to lock it in place? He tried to explain, but it still did not make sense. It said it you may be able to do it but it wont be right. What do you guys think? Thanks, Mike
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If you have one RH thread and one LH thread, you can adjust the length of the rod without removing one of the tierod ends from the arm it attaches to. Just loosen the jamnut and turn the tierod whichever way is necessary. If they are both RH threads, then you will have to remove one of the ends from the arm it is mounted to, so that you can turn the joint to make the rod longer or shorter. Both should have a jamnut on at least one of the joints. You can do it either way, and yes the mechanic was wrong.
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quote:
If you have one RH thread and one LH thread, you can adjust the length of the rod without removing one of the tierod ends from the arm it attaches to. Just loosen the jamnut and turn the tierod whichever way is necessary.
OK, now I understand. Maybe that is the point that he was trying to get across to me.
quote:
If they are both RH threads, then you will have to remove one of the ends from the arm it is mounted to, so that you can turn the joint to make the rod longer or shorter.
Geez, its only a lawn mower, whats the big deal removing it? What was that guy thinking, that I was repairing it to enter in an Indiana 500 race or something!!!!
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One other thing I forgot to mention in the first post. If the rod has both LH and RH threads, it can be adjusted to any increment of the length of adjustment. If both ends are RH, the adjustment is limited to only full turns of the rod end. I do not think this is critical or a show-stopper. As you said, you are not driving it in the Indy 500. The slop that is in the steering from the factory is probably more than one turn on the rod end.
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This may be a better blog to ask my question. Why couldn't tie rod ends/ball joints be adapted to the Sovereigns, as they are on the Sunstars? Is there a reason why this could not be done?
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Brett, You could adapt the Large frames to automotive type tierod ends, or heim joints if you want to spend the effort to do it. You could pick up the tierods with ends at one of the Pick-A-Part junk yards like we have here for just a few bucks. They make weld-on collars with a tierod taper in them. You can get these from a speed shop that carries parts for circle track cars. These are used to move the tierod attachment points when trying to eliminate bump-steer for wheel alignment of circle track cars.
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