Steering ball joints

**123rover50** · 29th December 2009, 07:05 PM

There is a seller on ebay selling s1 ball joints. These have an unthreaded section near the ball housing. He says as part of the ad that fatal accidents have been caused by using the wrong ones . Presumably the ones threaded right up. I have tried the latter with no problems in my S1.
Have they caused accidents or is this AD Talk?

**chazza** · 29th December 2009, 09:57 PM

As I understand it S1,2 and 2A and some 3's should have the shouldered ball joints. The all-threaded ones are not suitable and have been known to let go leading to total loss of steering

Cheers Charlie

**JDNSW** · 30th December 2009, 06:08 AM

The ad is correct. The change to tie rod ends without the shoulder for clamping on was made during Series 3 production, and the tie rod end and the tube it screws into must be the same, as clamping between an unthreaded and plain section is unreliable, and has been documented as the primary cause of at least one fatal accident. It is clear that losing steering because a tie rod end has unscrewed is going to be embarrassing at a minimum. Using the wrong tie rod end for the tube would also quite rightly make the vehicle unroadworthy and would, probably, make insurance void if it contributed to an accident.

There is no problem with using the fully threaded end in any Landrover provided the tube it screws into is also fully threaded and has the correct clamp. This is easy for Series 2/3, since the tubes are the same size, but the track rod and drag link for the Series 1 would have to be specially made. (And no, you can't just thread the unthreaded bit of the tube, it is larger diameter)

John

**back_in** · 31st December 2009, 11:01 PM

common sense
clamp on the theads
will hold
xheers
Ian

**123rover50** · 1st January 2010, 05:30 AM

Thats what I thought. I have clamped them up and cant move them with a pipe wrench

**JDNSW** · 1st January 2010, 05:57 AM

Originally Posted by back_in

common sense
clamp on the threads
will hold
xheers
Ian

Note that I said "unreliable", not that you can't clamp a threaded surface against a plain surface. The area of contact between the two parts is a tiny fraction of what would be the situation if the two surfaces matched, so that in a situation of alternating loads such as a steering system, it is very likely that plastic deformation or wear of the crests of the thread will occur, leading to loosening of the clamping effect.

Of course, an attentive driver would notice a change in the steering well before loss of steering, and reclamp the joint, but I doubt anyone would be impressed with this after an accident.

John

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