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PostPosted: July 5, 2012, 11:05 am 
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Location: Sidney, BC, Canada
This is the extension I built sitting in a Ranger spindle. I still have to make the bottom piece that clamps it in place when it's bolted in. For the lower ball joint, I think I will drill that hole out straight and make a tapered spacer similar to what cheapracer posted earlier, and similar to the original spacer in the top mount of the Ranger spindle (although I will probably make mine a true taper instead of the dual hole step like in cheapy's, since I want more lathe practice). The ball joint will probably end up being a bolt on unit, like the Moog k6291 or similar.


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PostPosted: July 5, 2012, 9:07 pm 
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Looks good! Can't wait to see it hanging off a Locost frame.

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PostPosted: July 5, 2012, 10:51 pm 
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The Postman has delivered :D


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PostPosted: July 19, 2012, 11:43 am 
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So, I don't have any pics yet, but I made a couple of tapered spacers for the lower ball joints, as per the attached drawing. Basically it's a 0.75" long spacer with a 7 degree taper on the outsise, and a 10 degree taper on the inside to fit a K6527 ball joint. This is a fairly small bolt on ball joint I found that comes from a Grand Am and the like. This spacer allows the lower ball joint to attach to the Ranger spindle from the underside. It has a vertical slit cut into it to allow it to expand in the original tapered hole and become a good friction fit. The major diameter of the K6527 is 0.625", which is smaller than the minor diameter of the original tapered hole (0.690") so no modification of the spindle itself is necessary.


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PostPosted: July 22, 2012, 12:28 am 
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Finally, I have a picture of the lower ball joint spacer, and how the ball joint fits in to the spindle from the bottom. The castle nut for the ball joint ends up being slightly recessed into the opening in the spindle. I suppose a longer spacer could be made, but the inside taper has to end where it is and it would have to be a straight hole further up.

I've started fabricating an A-arm that attaches to this ball joint, though I'm not sure if I like this design. Might do a book style one instead with the plate on top, instead of in between the tubes.


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PostPosted: July 22, 2012, 7:48 am 
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Consider what would happen if the lbj stem loosens it's wedge grip on the spindle through the taper adapter. You need a longer ubj stem to allow for a safety washer under the nut.

On the lca, I second offsetting the plate to one side of the tubes. Also try to maintain the crossection in the fore/aft view, outboard beyond the first lbj bolt center, by at least an inch plus 1/2 the hole od.

Add a strip the width of the tubes just inboard of the lbj to add some torsional rigidity to resist flexure from antiroll bar and coilover line of action. Limit alignment adjustments to uca.

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Miata UBJ: ES-2074R('70s maz pickup)
Ford IFS viewtopic.php?f=5&t=13225&p=134742
Simple Spring select viewtopic.php?f=5&t=11815
LxWxHt
360LA 442E: 134.5x46x15
Lotus7:115x39x7.25
Tiger Avon:114x40x13.3-12.6
Champion/Book:114x42x11
Gibbs/Haynes:122x42x14
VoDou:113x44x14
McSorley 442:122x46x14
Collins 241:127x46x12


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PostPosted: July 22, 2012, 1:48 pm 
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Posthumane wrote:
I've started fabricating an A-arm that attaches to this ball joint, though I'm not sure if I like this design. Might do a book style one instead with the plate on top, instead of in between the tubes.


I did something similar some time back and what I did was weld 2 plates either side of the tubes and cut some spacers from tubing to fit inbetween for the bolts to crush down onto.

Attachment:
tube.JPG



Miatav8,MstrASE,A&P,F wrote:
Consider what would happen if the lbj stem loosens it's wedge grip on the spindle through the taper adapter.


Looks like it can not go anywhere? (Caveat; just got home with some 12 year old scotch in me, not seeing too clear! ....).


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PostPosted: July 22, 2012, 3:09 pm 
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Your probably right. It looks like the taper's big end can't fit through the spindle's small end of it's taper unless he drilled out the spindle to remove the taper.

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Miata UBJ: ES-2074R('70s maz pickup)
Ford IFS viewtopic.php?f=5&t=13225&p=134742
Simple Spring select viewtopic.php?f=5&t=11815
LxWxHt
360LA 442E: 134.5x46x15
Lotus7:115x39x7.25
Tiger Avon:114x40x13.3-12.6
Champion/Book:114x42x11
Gibbs/Haynes:122x42x14
VoDou:113x44x14
McSorley 442:122x46x14
Collins 241:127x46x12


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PostPosted: July 22, 2012, 11:16 pm 
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Location: Sidney, BC, Canada
Miatav8,MstrASE,A&P,F wrote:
Your probably right. It looks like the taper's big end can't fit through the spindle's small end of it's taper unless he drilled out the spindle to remove the taper.

The tapered spacer cannot come out of the bottom of the spindle because, as you say, the diameter on the spacer is larger than the smallest diameter of the hole. Now, it could theoretically come out in the upward direction, but then it would only move about 1 cm before the ball joint itself hit the spindle, and there is no force applied that would pull it out upwards anyway since the A arm has the spring attached to it and pulls down, while the spindle pushes up.

Miatav8,MstrASE,A&P,F wrote:
On the lca, I second offsetting the plate to one side of the tubes. Also try to maintain the crossection in the fore/aft view, outboard beyond the first lbj bolt center, by at least an inch plus 1/2 the hole od.

Can you elaborate what you mean by this? are you saying the tubes end too far away from the ball joint centre? If that is what you mean, I think I agree with you. My thought was to put the shock/spring mount directly over the ball joint mounting hole, which would result in very little bending moment on the A-arm, but the shock may end up leaned over if the lower mount is that far out.

Cheapracer, I like your A-arm idea, might have to do that instead. It will sit quite a bit higher on top of the ball joint since it's quite thick at the end, but that's probably a non-issue.


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PostPosted: July 24, 2012, 6:56 pm 
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Yes, that's what I meant. Lots of ways to do that.

_________________
Miata UBJ: ES-2074R('70s maz pickup)
Ford IFS viewtopic.php?f=5&t=13225&p=134742
Simple Spring select viewtopic.php?f=5&t=11815
LxWxHt
360LA 442E: 134.5x46x15
Lotus7:115x39x7.25
Tiger Avon:114x40x13.3-12.6
Champion/Book:114x42x11
Gibbs/Haynes:122x42x14
VoDou:113x44x14
McSorley 442:122x46x14
Collins 241:127x46x12


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PostPosted: July 25, 2012, 11:57 pm 
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Location: Sidney, BC, Canada
Actually, thinking about it some more, what I might do is two longer strips of plate welded to that ball joint mounting plate at a 90 degree angle with several holes drilled into them to make adjustable shock mounts. This would both stiffen that plate up a whole bunch, and allow me to vary the shock mounting location slightly as I tune the suspension.


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PostPosted: November 19, 2012, 1:41 pm 
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The ideas you have come up with all great . I was thinking of mounting the spindle with the original ball joint from the ranger. I f i have to use a spacer on the top joint couln t I then just add to the top spacer to get the required hieght. I was wondering if it would change the handleing. Another option I was thinking about is to adjust the a-arm monting points on the frame to compinsate for the spindle mounting from the bottom. Ayway anyone have any thoughts? Thanks in advance. Rageing Viking.


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PostPosted: January 3, 2013, 3:35 pm 
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Location: Sidney, BC, Canada
I forgot to check this thread. Ath, the reason that I inverted the lower ball joint is that the stock configuration of the lower ball attaching on top of the ear puts the lower ball joint quite close to the centre of the hub. This may not be an issue if you put the top pivot high enough. The way I mounted the LBJ puts the lower pivot point around 6"/15cm lower than the centre of the hub.


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