Howard Jones
Supporter
I am in the process of building an all-rod-end suspension for my old GTD. I have finished the entire rear and am now working on building a set front lower A-arms to incorporate rod ends. I did the top one several years ago to allow for easy camber and caster adjustment. I am in the planning stage, and it occurs to me to investigate the possibility of using a simple screw-in ball joint and weld-in cup at the bottom. This makes the design of the a-arm a little simpler and a bit lighter, However, I am having a bit of trouble working out the existing ball joint taper spec. so I can find an appropriate ball joint.
large end = .892"
small end = .807"
lenght of taper = .75"
This works out to approx. 3.2 inches per foot or 3.24 degrees
Everything I have read on ball joints says they are nearly all 7 degrees taper with the remaining, mostly 10 degrees. I have used a couple of taper calculators as well as my own trig calculation, and I still come up with approx 2.5 degrees of taper angle. WTF!!! Do you double the single-side angle? This would still be a lot less than 7 degrees but at least it would be in the ballpark.
www.omnicalculator.com
I would rather keep the Granada spindles in order to not completely redesign the whole front of the car around the new ones. I have stopped tracking this car and it has become a Sunday morning toll road blaster so I have kept the uprights/spindles and just designed suspension links for them.
Does anybody know the taper angle for the original Granada spindle and ball joint? Is it possible that they are that much different than everything else? Or more likely I am completely off base with my calculations. Need some old guy's help with this. I could just use the old ball joints I guess but I would really like to have explored the options. Is there a different ball joint I can use that isn't so big and doesn't weigh enough to fit a Panser? I don't intend to do this again.
I have the original Granada spindles, wishbones, and lower ball joints. Same as these.
large end = .892"
small end = .807"
lenght of taper = .75"
This works out to approx. 3.2 inches per foot or 3.24 degrees
Everything I have read on ball joints says they are nearly all 7 degrees taper with the remaining, mostly 10 degrees. I have used a couple of taper calculators as well as my own trig calculation, and I still come up with approx 2.5 degrees of taper angle. WTF!!! Do you double the single-side angle? This would still be a lot less than 7 degrees but at least it would be in the ballpark.
Taper Calculator
Estimate the taper length and angle using the taper calculator.
www.omnicalculator.com
I would rather keep the Granada spindles in order to not completely redesign the whole front of the car around the new ones. I have stopped tracking this car and it has become a Sunday morning toll road blaster so I have kept the uprights/spindles and just designed suspension links for them.
Does anybody know the taper angle for the original Granada spindle and ball joint? Is it possible that they are that much different than everything else? Or more likely I am completely off base with my calculations. Need some old guy's help with this. I could just use the old ball joints I guess but I would really like to have explored the options. Is there a different ball joint I can use that isn't so big and doesn't weigh enough to fit a Panser? I don't intend to do this again.
I have the original Granada spindles, wishbones, and lower ball joints. Same as these.
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