Gap at wishbone to bell housing
- Thread starter Neil Mylar LakewoodCA
- Start date
john in illinois
Well-known member
That means your ball is not worn out-a good thing
John
John
Neil Mylar LakewoodCA
Well-known member
Actually there are two gaps.
One between the bell housing and the inside, upper cup.
Then one between the upper cup and the lower cup.
Are you sure that is normal?
One between the bell housing and the inside, upper cup.
Then one between the upper cup and the lower cup.
Are you sure that is normal?
Joe K
Well-known member
The ball retainer assembly is "spring loaded." The ball seat (part directly on the bell housing) should be "close" as in touching. The ball retainer (part on the lower side of the ball) is "free floating" and held against the wishbone ball by retaining springs.
The ball retainer has larger holes than the bolt by a considerable amount. There are actually annular "sleeves" which the ball retainer slides over: the springs are outside of these and on the lower side of the ball retainer.
The nuts are held from compressing the springs "solid" by these sleeves. The proper setup has the nuts as tight as they can be, the compressed spring with small gap between the turns, and a small gap between ball seat and ball retainer.
It is possible if there is considerable downward force on your wishbone that it could compress the springs, cause the ball retainer to drop, loosen the contact between the ball and its ball seat, and a gap to form between the ball seat and the bell housing. This I would consider unusual. And possibly a reason to replace at least the springs which in time may lose their compression.
This quite a bit different from the aftermarket ball caps which when assembled are "solid" - and the make-up made in the rubber ball.
Joe K
The ball retainer has larger holes than the bolt by a considerable amount. There are actually annular "sleeves" which the ball retainer slides over: the springs are outside of these and on the lower side of the ball retainer.
The nuts are held from compressing the springs "solid" by these sleeves. The proper setup has the nuts as tight as they can be, the compressed spring with small gap between the turns, and a small gap between ball seat and ball retainer.
It is possible if there is considerable downward force on your wishbone that it could compress the springs, cause the ball retainer to drop, loosen the contact between the ball and its ball seat, and a gap to form between the ball seat and the bell housing. This I would consider unusual. And possibly a reason to replace at least the springs which in time may lose their compression.
This quite a bit different from the aftermarket ball caps which when assembled are "solid" - and the make-up made in the rubber ball.
Joe K
john charlton
Well-known member
From your picture it looks to me that the bottom retainer is cast iron not pressed steel . This is the aftermarket rubber ball setup which I myself am not a fan of . With the all steel setup you can see what is going on with the hidden rubber ball you cannot . The reason that the rubber ball setup is used is because of excess wear on the radius ball (gone oval) If the ball is oval the parts houses sell a shaped washer to take up the slack . If it were my car i would ditch that setup and go back to standard .
John still in thanks to Covid 19 Suffolk County England .
John still in thanks to Covid 19 Suffolk County England .
Neil Mylar LakewoodCA
Well-known member
john charlton
Well-known member
Looking again I can see OOOOPS !!!
John in same place same weather .
John in same place same weather .
Miles in MN
Member
The sleeves are supposed to hold the upper cap firmly against the bottom of the bell housing. I would look for some interference between the upper cap and bellhousing that is preventing the cap from seating tightly at the bellhousing.