Quote:
Originally Posted by tree233
Hey vtl, I'm scared.
I dropped off my ball joints to my machinist today to get them lathed down to 44.30mm dia. However tonight I've taken out the old bushings and measured the hole in the toe arm and it reads 44.50 - 44.90mm diameter depending which side I measure from...
FYI, I also plan to use these ball joints on the trailing arms. I've found that the standard toe arms actually use the same part number bushing as the trailing arms. So I though that measuring hole in the wheel carrier might give me some clarity. It turns out to be exactly 45mm dia.
So does the spring effect of the split bushing account for the difference in toe arm vs trailing arm/wheel carrier hole size? And therefore should these ball joints be lathed to different diameters for each?
I feel like I need an engineer to tell me what tolerance I need for an interference/press fit. But I don't know if it's different based on the material it's being pressed into...
fe1rx did you document the diameter of the camber arm hole that this ball joint was originally designed for? Or do you still have the camber arm available? Could you please measure the diameter?
Any advice asap from anyone knowledgeable would be heaps appreciated!
I know I haven't contributed much here yet but I'm just getting started with my 130i journey and plan to share my findings 
And thank you SOOO much for your posts fe1rx!! |
In my case I machined the parts down until they fit, and on average it was around 44.30. But this ended up being a wasted endeavour, the Febest bushings ended up lasting a month before they crapped out. Would probably have been ok if I purchased lemforder bushings and didn't weld them. You also need to put a bunch of washers in to make sure the boot doesn't rub on the subframe, ended up not being a great solution. Ended up buying a set of Hardrace toe arms instead.