Thread: Chrome Balls

Yes they are, and as Gav said they're a split item. 10 min job. They were both new when the engine went in, but that was 40000km of fast dirt and road ago.. Talk to AJ at British 4WD Imports.. 0409211548. He has them on the shelf and will happily post.

Great thanks Simon. I never know whether to use real names on forums!
I like the current wheel tyre combo with more rubber and less rim for this application. I think you can fit something decent in there with a bigger pad area and thick vented rotors to deal with the heat. I'm not planning the Dakar (yet!) and the 101 is not that heavy (nor is the cummins really, just a couple of large passengers worth!) or fast, so heat load on the brakes is pretty low. Large rotors would be nice tho. The brakes are pretty good I'm just not a fan of drums.
I assumed you replaced the seals which is why I was looking for a fix of the ball itself. I'll put a new seal in and that should get by roadworthy. I'll fix the chrome later. The relative movement of the seal and ball is pretty small in any driving conditions (including 110km cruising!). With pitted balls once the seals go hard they leak. The corrosion will only get worse too so worth fixing.
Did you service the cvs or bearings?
Cheers

They do linish the balls after stripping the chrome but they won't spend long on it. I'd rather do that bit. About the same amount of work as epoxy and paint.

You can do the plating yourself too HC1 Hard Chrome Plating Kit 4 Litre
Very good kits apparently.

HI I have had some success repairing pits and chips with devcon, plastic steel or similar. It the chip or pit has a strong well defined edge all the better.

My experience is most chrome pits of chip have a fairly sharp edge, that's what cuts the seals. you have the choice to "fair them in" if they are shallow and small. But once you remove the metal and make it smooth you can't easily do the Devcon repair.

Get the pit very clean by solvent, electra clean etc, have a dig around in there with a a scribe make sure it's clean. Mix up the resin or devcon etc and fill the hole, sand it smooth the next day. final sanding 2000- 3000 grit paper. The seals should easily seal on it as long as its smooth and follows the profile of the sphere. ( I usually buy a cheap set of thongs and cut them up to make a curved flexy sanding block).

Devcon is an industrial product and has a great reputation as an engineering repair product. There's no reason to expect a repair won't last for a few years, I would say less than $100 should do the job.


My existing spheres have some minor chips in them, if I feel one when doing a service I just give it a rub don with wet and dry paper.

good luck simmo

Thanks Simmo, the pits are quite shallow just the chrome gone and a little corrosion.
When I have it apart I'll try a repair.
Cheers

Crisco,

I think i read earlier in the post your seals can be replaced insitu because they are split type.

If that's the case you could repair the sphere pits without dismantling, that would be a big saving in your time and effort.

cheers simmo