Radius ball socket question

H

Hudsn47

Junior Member
Hello, on the 29 Tudor radius ball socket. I understand the parts needed for the original setup. My friend has the lower socket, springs, bushings castle nuts and cotter keys, also has a new spacer. He seems to be missing the upper cap, the one with the hole. He appears to have two lower caps. Question is can he turn one of the lower caps over and use it as an upper cap? Is the only difference that the upper cap has a hole in it? I know we can order a new upper cap but seems the vendors only sell the complete original setup and not the upper cap separately. Thanks.
 
the upper cap fits into the recess of the housing. The lower does not. Also, be aware that the caps wear, so you might need the entire kit anyway. If not, there are plenty of upper caps around. Try a post in the "wanted" section
 
There is another difference in the two caps in the stock design. Check the holes where the two bolts slip through and you'll notice the lower cap holes will be large enough to slip the two sleeves through. The springs are large enough to rest on the bottom cap to provide tension on the radius ball as the nuts are drawn up.
If you use two bottom caps you might use a couple thin washers to support the tops of the sleeves but it might make it difficult to tighten the nuts far enough to get the cotter pins in. Without the washers the sleeves will sit on the housing inside the top and leave you with a little less tension. Maybe the washers could be added to the bottom before the castle nuts to take it up. I'd try it out and take it for a drive to check for any shimmy/steering issues. Every car wev'e torn a part had some Mickey Duck work in this area, but they all seemed to drive OK.
Good luck!
 
Thanks for confirming this. Looks like we need to add radius cap set to the parts list. Might as well fix it right and not that expensive.
 
Farrell In Vancouver said:
There is another difference in the two caps in the stock design. Check the holes where the two bolts slip through and you'll notice the lower cap holes will be large enough to slip the two sleeves through. The springs are large enough to rest on the bottom cap to provide tension on the radius ball as the nuts are drawn up.
If you use two bottom caps you might use a couple thin washers to support the tops of the sleeves but it might make it difficult to tighten the nuts far enough to get the cotter pins in. Without the washers the sleeves will sit on the housing inside the top and leave you with a little less tension. Maybe the washers could be added to the bottom before the castle nuts to take it up. I'd try it out and take it for a drive to check for any shimmy/steering issues. Every car wev'e torn a part had some Mickey Duck work in this area, but they all seemed to drive OK.
Good luck!
Click to expand...

I have just added a new phrase to my vocabulary. "Mickey Duck".
Now I'm going to go have a glass of plonk.
 
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