Quote:
Originally Posted by Mister Moose
Along these lines, how much wear is acceptable on the ball joints? Given they are all under spring tension, what difference does it make if it's ovaled a coupled hundreths, the spring maintains contact with the same force, and when it doesn't, you can tighten the end nut... so when is it too worn?
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To answer your question, any wear that you can feel with your finger is too much. When you mention a couple of hundredths, that number is written as 0.020, -or twenty thousandths of an inch. That is enough to cause a shimmy if the cup springs are incorrectly adjusted, -or very difficult to steer if they are adjusted as normal.
As mentioned, when the load of the spring is properly adjusted in static or neutral position, when the tie rod is turned, the spring must be compressed further if there is wear on the steering ball. This not only make the steering more difficult as extra force on turning the steering wheel is necessary to overcome the spring pressure, -and even with extra axle caster, it also does not like to return to the neutral area (straight ahead) which can be a safety issue.