What does the panel think of using a rod end in the manner shown in this photo to connect the upright to the bottom wishbone?

Strong enough wishbone design?
Rescued attachment DSC0004.JPG

Having busted a rose joint on the outboard end of a top wishbone, and now understanding why, thanks to the gents on this site, i wouldnt use it on a road car.

David

For a road car, bling bling comes to mind.

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Originally posted by flak monkey
Having busted a rose joint on the outboard end of a top wishbone, and now understanding why, thanks to the gents on this site, i wouldnt use it on a road car.

David

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Originally posted by Fatgadget
For a road car, bling bling comes to mind.

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Originally posted by andyd
David, can you enlighten me as to the understanding or at least maybe the thread that helped you to your conclusion?

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Thanks David for the pointer to all the good info. Probably best to stick to the usual ball joints is my conclusion.

Spherical bearings are the way to go as far as i am concerned. Needs a bit more careful design, but it is what we now use for our FSAE cars.

Durability is the main issue, and this will come down to quality of the joints. Unfortunately rod ends are expensive if you want good quality, if you are only paying say £10 per joint I wouldn't expect them toi last more than a month on the road. On the other hand if you are buying Goldline quality joints at say £60 per joint then they might well last for a couple of years on the road.
Nick Skidmore is the man to ask about the specs. of the joints to use, and also to ask him if he has any Goldline quality joints at bargain prices!

Hi one other thing to consider is the extra amout of movment required by a joint for use on the upright wich usually means a high angular version is needed.

cheers matt

yep, transit joint is much better for road use.

I sue the transit joints top and bottom on my grasser, and will on the new one too, a £6 or so a pop for a joint that is dirt proof and very tough it can't be beaten!

A spherical bearing in a proper housing is the sensible thing to do.

Cheers,
Syd.

As Syd says the sensible way is to use a spherical bearing in a housing.

Ideally spherical rod ends should only be loaded in tension and compression, in the picture of the upright the SRE`s top and bottom are not loaded this way and in that respect I would not use them for top and bottom ball joints.

I also dislike the way they are mounted so far away from the alloy housing on towers in single shear.

For a road car I prefer to use road car ball joints and design the upright and wishbone to suit.

John

wat is the difference?

Rose joint or spherical bearing?

I want to use at rear 3 of them;
two on the lower wishbone and 1 at the top

low 2 of m12 and top 1 of m16

Do a google image search for spherical bearing... you'll get plenty of hits.

Basically they are similar to just the eye part of a rod end i.e. without the rod part

As previous posts have said they need to be held by something to be of use as opposed to being able to be screwed into or onto something. Find some images and my description will make more sense... well, maybe!

[Edited on 16/11/2006 by andyd]

So the rose-joint is a spherical ball in a joint which has tread.

A spherical bearing is only the spherical ball in a bearing which without a possiblity to attache?

basically yes, it allows you to design a stronger housing.

To bad, i've designed every thing using rose joints

ive been following your threads recently involving your hubs with interest recently.

ill post up some pics next week for you of mine.

basically the top joint is the same as shown- using a 1/2" bore 5/8 thread. the bottom joint is a spherical joint but used in the same plain as you suggest.
i have concerns as to the strength of this bottom joint as it will have the cars weight applied to it.

However i have seen it done many times on single seaters. guess ill find out soon.

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Originally posted by dougal
ive been following your threads recently involving your hubs with interest recently.

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I have designed and made my own wishbones using ball joints at the upright and high angle spherical bearings at the chassis. I have 130mm of wheel movement.

It was a lot of work............

The sphericals are held in with circlips and 638 Loctite. First I machined all the housings slightly under size (bore too small) but the circlip grooves the correct depth for the finished bore.

Then I welded the housings into my wishbones and finished them to size. I used reamers to do this. The reamers were slightly tapered so they would locate in the housing then the last bit was parallel so it would take them to size.

The lower ball joint was a easy in comparision. Again made under size then bored to suit after welding. The ball joint is a press fit.

The upper ball joint is bolt in Jaguar.

It is very difficult to design a suspension system that is structurally good (ie SRE`s loaded in tension and compression and NOT bending) and retain easy adjustment of the suspension.










Note finger plates around the housings.

More details and pictures HERE


John