B-3311 steering ball. Taper too big.

[Mart]

I bought some of these steering ball studs from Macs a while ago and I couldn't use them because the tapered part is too big. I put them on one side and recently ordered some more from C&G. I telephoned C&G (from England, a transatlantic call,) and specifically asked if the ball studs fit the steering arms, and could they do a physical check before sending them (as I had a problem before). I was assured they do not get them from macs and they look right.

Guess what? While obviously different from the Macs ones, they are wrong in exactly the same way. The taper is too big a diameter.

Being across the pond, it isn't easy to send stuff back, so I did what I should have done the first time around, modified them myself to fit correctly.

But why is it that 2 suppliers have it wrong? How come it takes me, 3000+ miles away to have to point it out to them?

It's a good job I have a nice Myford lathe and an engineering apprenticeship history.

Here are a few pics:

1, An early ford steering ball stud in a 37-41 pitman arm (same taper).


2, A Macs steering ball in the same piece.


3, A C&G ball stud in the same piece. Note the similar fit.


4, Here's my makeshift setup in the Myford Lathe.


5, To turn a taper you have to set the topslide at an angle. half of 7 degrees is 3-1/2 degrees.


6, Here we have, (L-R), an original Ford stud, a modified Mac's stud, an unmodified Macs stud, an unmodified C&G stud, a modified C&G stud, and another early ford one.


You can see why I wanted some new ones.

Anyone else had this problem?

Mart.