Description
This is a great product that we have found in our stashes.
Here is the story:
Over 40 years ago, there were no newly manufactured lower spider joints to be had and the car tests were rock hard at that time, more than 3-4 mm of play on the lower spider joint / ball bolt warranted a re-inspection. We then tackled the problem, drilled apart the spot welds and then found a worn out fiber cup at the bottom of the spider joint. We manufactured a press tool and with a 100 ton hydraulic press we produced a new ball cup made of a bearing metal that NJA / SSAB used at the time as some kind of slide rails in iron production, so they were not bad ball cups we produced, however after some failures. We put in the ball cup of bearing metal where the fiber cup was and welded the spider joint together, sold it and got a bad one in exchange. A well-functioning lower chain link replacement system took off and it worked really well. There were those who thought it was frivolous to renovate spider joints, therefore we contacted a very talented machine mechanic who made an evaluation and a strength calculation of our invention. We received top marks and approval for a load-bearing weight of up to 10 tons, above that there were cracks in the sheet metal bowl that the ball bowl is placed in. We probably did about a hundred replacement spider joints before they were again newly manufactured by Rare Parts in California. Then we closed the project but saved the ball bowls that remained in our warehouse. Now we are selling the remaining ball bearings we have left as a do-it-yourself thing, you can save a couple of thousand with a little work yourself and the result is a lower spindle joint that lasts forever if you take care of it with regular lubrication. You see in the pictures an old worn out fiber bowl next to the new one in stock metal. We sell the new cooling bowls piece by piece, so for one car you need 2 pieces. But beware, we have a limited number left.
