just a quick to all those running from supra tt calipers to the bigger more powerful brakes out there


yesterday while driving coming to stop from about 80 and hitting brakes alittle on the hard side trying to bed my new 4pots in the rear i hear pow.. my drivers side 4month old balljoint pops and breaks right there in the street. i stop get out and drivers side tire is about -3degrees camber .. lucky this was on the way to work yesterday and was arounfdthe corner from my house so i limped home extreacted the balljoint in about 10 minutes , it was destroyed so bad that the boot and a hug gash in it from the joint popping out so far..


let me back up about 2 weeks and explain where the warning comes in .. guys be very careful doing and hard or sudden severe braking with big brakes on .. these ball joint will break easily.. about 2 weeks ago i was enjoying my new found braking power coming from a speed of about 100 hitting the brakes hard while just about making a left turn , at that point i heard a noise up front that sounded like something shifted . well it did more then shift it broke the joint but not bad enough to hamper driving , second tell tale sign was during my fresh alignment last week we could not get camber any better then -1.2 while pass side could go as low as -.06 well within spec and castor was giving loads of trouble.. i knew somethin g was wrong for i just changed lower control arms and new that should have given me at least at spec or within .01 to -.03 outside of spec



well after putting back the the new ball joint and getting realigned this morning camber is at approx.09 and castor is at perfect 0.0 so the ball joints do play a major roll in getting back some camber


again guys just be careful while braking hard into a turn , i was lucky the entire joint did not break right there for it would have destroyed my fender and abs sensor

 

were these the ones you installed yourself ?or from the factory ??

 

these were the ones i replaced.. the joints were not designed to take the forces of the 4pot and 6pots clamping power while making a turn under hard braking so watch out

 

cant speak for the rears

but i havent had a problems with my 6 pot under severe heavy braking

did the ABs kick in ?

 

well your lucky that you were ok and not driving 100 and the ball joint broke... Could it have been a faulty ball joint? Maybe it was bad to begin with Ed? Glad your back on the road

 

also pics of where these snapped ..id like to see what happened

 

jonny rears have nothing to do with the equation , look at it this way your doing about 80 and hit the brakes hard and at the same time trying to make a sudden left or right , the clamping force of the front is so hard that the body still wants to continue forward placing tremdous loads on the joint and then pow it snaps out of position



tony , you could be right but i am now going to pay closer attention to how and when i brake hard

since upping the rears to the rotora 4pots now my god the power is unbelieveable


i will post up pics maybe tomm

 

You had a bad balljoint, it would have poped eventually regardless of what brakes you are using.

 

Ed, Glad it back to normal.... Your driving skills belong on the Nascar circuit... LOL

 

Vertical forces on the ball joint pin are far greater than those in shear (sideways). The vertical forces are caused by road impacts, while shearing forces cannot exceed that of the tire contact patch friction. There must have been something wrong with the ball joint, from manufacturing or installation.

 

understood Ed

but to say these joints are weak and prone to breaking is a little much

I think this is the first that ive heard about it happening from braking hard

Maybe you had a faulty one and with the excessive braking this caused it to snap

i think you used an oem part correct

im just trying to get to the bottom of why yours snapped

 

this is actually the second time it happened the first with the original ball joints

the forces placed on it during a hard brake and corner can and now proven to me can cause the joint to snap so take the caution for what its worth to you

 

so true now after todays alignment i have avery slight drift and pull to the right i should had the guy equalize the camber instead og -1.0 drivers and -.07 pax but i was preoccupied with the wife anyways taking it back to redo on wed hell i might do it myself and let him watch ( i have done it many times before)

 

Well ed i hope there not going to charge you Hope they get it right this time.... I hate to do things twice or make double trips and things... Good Luck and keep us posted

T

 

glad no one got hurt and thanks for the heads up on this.