Upper / Lower Ball Joints

[GT53]

Hey All,

Although my Roadster kit is not scheduled for delivery until mid Sept, I am in the process of sourcing/buying parts for mods that many of you have made. Regarding upper and lower ball joints/boots, I have scoured this and the other forum and am now more confused than when I started. Many of you have replaced the uppers with Howe Racing / Energy Suspension but I can’t seem to find if you guys have replaced the lowers as well.

If I am correct, the lowers are pressed and the uppers threaded so why replace the lowers if in fact any of you have done so. This has likely been discussed in previous threads but I am bleeding from the eyes looking for it.

Thanks in advance and as has been stated many times before, without this forum there is no way in hell I would attempt to build this car. You guys are awesome.

Greg

[Indy Shu]

I have not seen people replacing the lowers. Replacing the uppers is not something you "need" to do. Some have had problems threading the uppers, but it seems like that issue may have been resolved. The Howe ball joints are a little nicer piece, but personally I don't see the need to spend extra $.

[JohnK]

The upgrades that many (myself included) do on the front suspension are expertly summarized here (https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/showthread.php?18591-EdwardBs-Mk4-8674-20th-Anniversary-Build&p=208643&viewfull=1#post208643).

[rich grsc]

I'm likely to take some heat, but the Howe joints are a complete waste of money. I have a buddy who was positive he needed them to improve the handling on his car. We spent the better part of a day doing the swap. The only thing 'different' than the original joints was the ability to adjust how much preload you could apply to the ball. They where the same height and stud length, so nothing change on the geometry on the suspension. If you set them too loose, you could get play when under heavy loads, setting them too tight and it increased the steering effort. He didn't get any improvement in performance. If you had no ball joints, or the old ones where trashed, then the extra cost could just be a wash/

[phileas_fogg]

I seem to recall that folks upgraded to the Howe ball joints when they had difficulty getting the F5-provided ones to install properly. Lots of folks could not get the F5 ball joints to thread properly into the upper fitting, and some had problems that when installed the joint rattled around in the fitting. These issues pointed to a quality control issue in manufacturing tolerance.

Howe seems to have a better handle on the quality control, leading to their popularity.


John

[mbisett]

I received my complete (?) kit a couple weeks ago. The FF upper ball joints would only turn about 1 or 2 turns and stop. I cleaned all the paint out of the threads in the UCA and off the upper ball joints, then froze the ball joints overnight and WALA! they went right in.

[ggunter]

My ball joints were the same as everyone elses. Until I buffed off the powder coating they wouldn't go in, but after that they screwed right in.