Heim and Ball Joints

[01bansheefox]

differnce?thx

[SDD]

Search.... thanks....

[Meat]

Heims will have a better range of motion over ball joints and the ones Iv seen are rated a higher tensil strength than ball joints. Ball joints have an advantage tho, they require less maintence than a heim because they are enclosed in a rubber boot. Now there's rubber boots for heims and if you take care of your quad\heims they should last just as long as ball joints. Heims are relatively new in ATV applications, but have been used in automobiles for years. Iv seen pictures of those million dollar Baja trucks with the 3 foot long shocks using Heim joints. I have Heim joints in my A-arms and after 3 years they are showing some play. But im not going to replace em just yet, they have the slightest wiggle in em and I'm not worried about it, hell there's 10 times more flex in my front tires than whats in my Heims. A-arms with heavy duty ball joints are very nice tho, Iv personally seen some hight quality ball joints and they look super tough and really industructable. I wouldnt be afraid to use either type, look more at the quality of the A-arms when buying a set of arms, research the products reputation.

[sredish]

I like them both. Like Meat said, quality heims have more flex and are a little stronger. However, ball joints don't typically limit you in a-arm flex or tie rod flex on our machines, so there's not the need of additional flex, and I'm not a personal fan of extra maintenance if it's not needed either. One thing I like about heims is they're clean, compared to grease oozing out everywhere, but the new sealed ball joints are super clean as well.

 

With that in mind, I'm running LSR a-arms with their new heavy duty sealed ball joints. These things can't be greased and they're sealed tight. I like that, shit can't get in, and shit can't get out and get messy. I'd probably like heims on the a-arms, but i'd always be worried about getting dirt and shit in there, that's how I am. With these ball joints I don't worry.

 

Now, I do run heim jointed tie rods. More because all the stronger tie rods out there are heim jointed so that's what I got. They seem fine and strong so we'll see how they work out.

 

I don't really think you could go wrong either way, just be sure that whichever you choose, that you keep it maintained in a way that is required for that joint.

 

Later.

[Meat]

ball joints don't typically limit you in a-arm flex or tie rod flex on our machines, so there's not the need of additional flex

 

I'll agree with that. Heims flex advantage would work better on a long travel setup. There are ball joints that can acheive high angles tho,akit of A-arm brands use ball joints, other brands swear by heims. Sredish, you mentioned mud and heims. XC racing is mud racing at 50% of the races. The vast majority of Pro racers use ball joints. Yokley and Duvall use heims in thier Roll arms.... I think. Everyone else uses ball joints. Prolly cause of the mud and maintence reasons.

 

Id like to own a set of the heim end tie rods. how they working out for ya ?? Post some pictures, what brand are they ? Someone just posted a picture of American Star heim end tie rods somewhere on the forum, they looked cool. Honda style tie rod too.

[sredish]

yep, those ASR tie rods are exactly what I'm using. I've heard some negative comments about that company, but so far I've had good dealings. He says they have a lifetime warranty on breakage, haven't tested that yet, and I've beat the hell out of them so far, did some tree hitting with the front tires, rock pounding, stump smashing.... Coming into a new race season, we'll see how tough they really are. I used them a little bit last season, not much tho, my stock tie rod end (on the LSR rod) busted towards the end of last season. Overall, I like them. Only thing is the stud bolt is a little long, but doesn't hit anything, altough really close to the wheel on the spindle side. Once I got them set, I just cut the bolt off, no biggie.

 

Here's another view of them. This is exactly what I have. I've looked and can't really find a decent picture of them on. Only this one.... click the link.

 

Stupid Link!

 

[fixitrod]

I am also a fan of ball joints on stock length suspension. Buttttttttt, RNBRAD posted pics of these new protective boots for the heim joints that make maintenece less of a worry for heim now. Do a search, you'll come across them.

[squish]

I see the bolt is not tapered. How does that work? I thought the stock ball joint is tapered for tie rods