Ball Joint to Boge strut housing problem

[teenchy]

A bit embarrassed to post this but in a bit of a dilemma.

After I got back from Hershey I took my car ('70T coupe) to get inspected. Mechanic (primarily a VW guy but has a 912) found ball joint failure and loose strut housing. Previous mechanic prior to my ownership attached the Bilstein strut housings to the car with overlarge bolts, requiring replacement with Boge strut housings. (At least that's how he explained it to me.) Now current mechanic can't attach the new ball joints without some odd sized bolt: 9mm x 1.5 pitch, about 25mm long. He's had no luck sourcing these, called Fastenal who said they'd mill him a pair for $100. He suggested I call dC Automotive in NC which I did and got a voice mail message.

Am I missing something here? Did someone use an oversize bolt on these used Boge housings?

Car has now been in his shop 2 weeks today and has not been on the road other than to/from his shop since Hershey. Getting very frustrated. Oh BTW the Boge housings he sourced have Koni inserts; combined with my Bilstein rears this is turning into a real mishmosh and I see forking out more $ for either Koni rears or Bilstein inserts for the Boges to get everything matched up again. Grrr...

[Scott Clarke]

The '70 struts attach to the ball joints with a simple pinch clamp. Perhaps the bolt in question is what pinches the strut housing around the ball joint stud. Starting in '71 (I think), the ball joints and strut housings were changed so that a tapered pin secures the ball joint stud (which now has a notch to engage the pin) to the strut housing. The earlier type of system has been known to fail. You can imagine how catastrophic that would be. The later type of ball joints and strut housings are a recommended upgrade. All of this is a way of saying that, if you still have the original style system, you might not want to go out of your way to make it work, and might want instead to invest in later parts.

[Macroni]

No answers but hope you find a solution!

[edmayo]

Teenchy, I'm afraid you are victim of previous owner's poor choice of parts. Up through 72 (Scott was close) the ball joint had a semicircular notch, the bottom of the strut was slit, and a 10mm partial shoulder bolt went through the strut, past the notch in the ball joint into a nut, and was then tightened clamping the ball joint tightly. In 73 the ball joint had a VEE groove cut in it, the bottom of the strut was NOT slit, and a tapered wedge was driven in and tightened with an 8mm nut to wedge it in tightly against the ball joint. None of these methods are interchangeable, the slit strut MUST be used with the proper ball joint and bolt, the later ball joint MUST be used with the wedge bolt. To the best of my knowledge Bilstein never made a strut for the early pinch style ball joint. To use that strut requires the later ball joint and wedge bolt. Hope this helps explain what you have.

[teenchy]

Up through 72 (Scott was close) the ball joint had a semicircular notch, the bottom of the strut was slit, and a 10mm partial shoulder bolt went through the strut, past the notch in the ball joint into a nut, and was then tightened clamping the ball joint tightly. In 73 the ball joint had a VEE groove cut in it, the bottom of the strut was NOT slit, and a tapered wedge was driven in and tightened with an 8mm nut to wedge it in tightly against the ball joint.

Ed, you hit it on the nose. The ball joints and struts in question are of the pre-72 variety and the botls are indeed 10mm partial shoulder bolts. Where he was getting 9mm from I don't know. Bolts have been sourced locally and the job should be done soon. This isn't the first time you've helped me pull my chestnuts out the fire; I think I might owe you something!

Scott, I know these could fail but they'll have to do for now. I haven't read widespread stories of their failure so hopefully they'll get me through this driving season.

[304065]

Why take the risk? The later struts are cheap. It's the labor that is expensive.

[teenchy]

Why take the risk? The later struts are cheap. It's the labor that is expensive.

Point taken but who would buy all these parts from me? Only the struts are used, everything else is new and in the car, too late to return them. Have there been numerous bolt/strut failures, or have they all already happened and everyone's made the change, just like 911E hydropneumatic suspensions?

[Scott Clarke]

My information about failures came from Grady Clay. You might want to email him.