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Last night I was pressing new ball joints into my control arms. On one of the inner ball joints, the socket placed below the ball joint pinched/cut the boot. Well, that sucks.
Anyone know if I can repair it? One guy said I can replace the boot itself, another guy told me I could use some sort of flexible glue to fix it. I’m really hoping the answer isn’t to trash it and buy a new one. :unsure:
You can replace them but I don’t know where to buy them without new ball joints. I did buy some slip on polyurethane boots along time ago from bmp design I think but I don’t see them anymore.
GOOP- will fix that for a decent lenght of time. Just clean well with brake cleaner and smear a healthy amount on. Works well on intake elbow also as long as its clean with no grease or oil.
I thought that the common wisdom was that ball joints aren’t worth replacing, just replace the control arm. No?
I would not take a chance on a used control arm on a race car, regardless of how good the ball joints are.
I replace mine every two seasons or after somebody hits me in a front wheel, whichever comes first.
I would not take a chance on a used control arm on a race car, regardless of how good the ball joints are.[/quote]
I understand the caution. However, have you seen a control arm fail in a manner that would suggest it is prudent? E.g. fatigue fracture, not a major wreck.
Yes. Mine. At road Atlanta going into T10 with my son driving. At least he was going slow and only ended up in the gravel. Non-contact; it just snapped off the subframe.
The next turn is very high speed so lucky it failed where it did.
[quote=“ctbimmer” post=71599]Yes. Mine. At road Atlanta going into T10 with my son driving. At least he was going slow and only ended up in the gravel. Non-contact; it just snapped off the subframe.
The next turn is very high speed so lucky it failed where it did.[/quote]
Wow, thanks for sharing. What exactly was the failure point?
While it did not completely break, I have a control arm in the junk pile that cracked on one side of one of the holes. I suspect an agricultural excursion had something to do with it. And a few years back I saw a control arm fail on a DE car between the knuckle and CAB.
There is a lot of repetitive stress on control arms, so occasional failures in a track/race environment isn’t beyond reason.
Where can you buy just the ball joints? I was hoping to replace the joints and the bushings on my E39 but i can’t figure out where to buy the ball joints by themselves. I can’t see buying a brand new control arm, pushing out the new rubber bushings and pressing in poly bushings, then tossing out my old set. Just seems like a waste.