-----Lower Ball Joint- Uniball Conversion-----

Z

Z-4runner

New member
Here is what I have.









The spacers are 17-4 stainless steel. The upper spacers is threaded with 2 holes on top for a spanner wrench (which will be included) to hold back while tightening the 5/8x18tpi grade 8 bolt. The kit will come with all hardware to install. It is a direct bolt-in replacement for the lower ball joint. Dont worry I milled out the weld on the bottom to clearance for the bolt as well as ground the top side flat to mate with the spindle. I am just getting to installing it on my 4runner and once I have all the other projects done for it I will be taking it out to barstow for testing. If it holds up there, than it holds up anywhere. Also I will not be sending anyone a set so they can test them out for me, so please dont ask.

I am still working on ways to help you people in the salt and snow. As of right now I do not have anything and would like to get the products strength testing out of the way and work on weather resistance in the near future.

I do not have a price on them yet, but will be doing the next set as a time study to finalize the price. Thanks for any support and feedback is always welcome!
 
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orbot said:
any dust cap for the lower uniball spacer available?
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Not yet, I am still tinkering with weather proofing them. I believe that the bottom will just get a rubber boot that will fit around the cup and the larger portion of the spacer but the tricky part is the top spacer. I believe that one is more important as debris will want to sit and wear on the teflon lining of the uniball. Haven't really come up with a solid plan on tht yet, but im working on it.
 
JWaldz said:
Be sure to re-up your insurance before you go testing these... Just in case lol :wink2:
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Yea insurance is current haha. I am 99.99% confident that they will never break (id be lying if I was 100%, always the irrational what ifs) but if they did then I guess full long travel, full cage, and supercharger swap would be the only logical thing to do at that point :thumb3:
 
0b6b9ffd3f30450472396d5f1ab519ff.jpg


That's about all I have to say about that.....

I think those have a good chance if being weatherproof-able though. Good choice on the stainless. That will help immensely in the first place.
 
On your way to Barstow, take the John Bull trail, drop down 18, and make a right to Johnson Valley and hit some Hammers, then head up to Calico and back down through Barstow to Silverwood lake for lunch. Then head back to Kleghorn road to the 15 to go home. That should do it!

:jk:
 
Z-4runner said:
The spacers are 17-4 stainless steel. The upper spacers is threaded with 2 holes on top for a spanner wrench (which will be included) to hold back while tightening the 5/8x18tpi grade 8 bolt. The kit will come with all hardware to install. It is a direct bolt-in replacement for the lower ball joint. Dont worry I milled out the weld on the bottom to clearance for the bolt as well as ground the top side flat to mate with the spindle. I am just getting to installing it on my 4runner and once I have all the other projects done for it I will be taking it out to barstow for testing. If it holds up there, than it holds up anywhere. Also I will not be sending anyone a set so they can test them out for me, so please dont ask.

I am still working on ways to help you people in the salt and snow. As of right now I do not have anything and would like to get the products strength testing out of the way and work on weather resistance in the near future.

I do not have a price on them yet, but will be doing the next set as a time study to finalize the price. Thanks for any support and feedback is always welcome!
Click to expand...

Sub'ed!
 
IBallEngineer said:
On your way to Barstow, take the John Bull trail, drop down 18, and make a right to Johnson Valley and hit some Hammers, then head up to Calico and back down through Barstow to Silverwood lake for lunch. Then head back to Kleghorn road to the 15 to go home. That should do it!

:jk:
Click to expand...

I was looking for something a little more challenging haha.
 
I hate to sound negative, because you've done some very nice work there, but I'd have serious concerns about the integrity of both the arm and the uni-ball cup after putting that much heat on them during welding.

That's going to alter the heat treatment on both parts, and both of them will have fairly critical tolerances for hardness.

I'm not a metallurgist by any stretch, but I've been around automotive heat treat processes for a lot of years and it's tricky business that has to be done right for the parts to perform like they're supposed to.

If you're planning selling these you should probably get some failure analysis done, have one cross sectioned and checked for hardness, and maybe consider another heat treat or draw after you've done the welding.

You'd be looking at a serious amount of liability if you sell them and have a failure out on the road that resulted in injuries.

Again, they're nice looking parts, but you know the old saying: No good dead goes unpunished! :pout:
 
jeremyc74 said:
I hate to sound negative, ....
Click to expand...

Those are very good points. By using an old casting and welding ontop, you change the OEM heat treatment of that material. It affects the casting, the ball, and the stud. You are also potentially applying heat unevenly, causing various internal stresses in the material and welds after it cools down. Those are points of failure.

The welds looks good, but even an experienced welder is never perfectly consistent every time. So even if you get this sample tested, there is no guarantee that all subsequent creations will have the same material strengths/properties. You would want the welds to be NDE tested (eg. radiographic, x-ray, magnetic particle) on every part that is made to make sure the welds are good quality. There is a reason why OEM parts are expensive.

Finally, depending on the grade of steel, the part/weld could become brittled in the cold. This will also affect the weld strength, especially if there are internal stresses already present from not properly heat treating the part after welding.

Sorry for the criticism and the OCD on quality, but these lower ball joints are such a critical safety component that I would be hesitant on taking this on as a business. It's the fact that Toyota designed the placement/geometry of these lower ball joints improperly from the beginning. I would be less picky if it was an upper ball joint or something.
 
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If you pay for shipping, I can send you my old LBJs - they have 140k on them. Still on the truck, but am replacing them in the next week or so.
 
I wrote this long thing and deleted it. Some of you guys make me laugh, do you honestly think the OPs part will fail before those four tiny ass bolts fail? Big deal if the heat treat is failed, I bet that part has an insane factor of safety on it inherently, and is even stronger with what OP did. I'm sure he could fabricate the entire thing himself if that would make people happier (and it would drive up cost I would bet which he doesn't want).

Granted you can have cyclic fatigue, but at the end of the day I bet that piece can withstand 50x the force that the thread tear our on the LBJ bolts is, and that is more than enough I could sleep happily at night. He could of used 1/8 as much weld and it would still be over built. I feel like most of you are way over thinking this, plus are overthinking it for a replacement of a known and common failure point. I doubt multi thousand dollar race suspensions go through all that testing stated above and are welded by hand, hold your horses.
 
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