Thread: Front Wishbone "ball" crossmember frame attachment

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The stock ball support was nothing more than a crossmember with a round depression molded into it. The ball had a rubber cover over it, just as if you took a tennis ball and cut a hole in it and slipped it over the wishbone ball. Then this wrapped ball laid up in that depression and was held in place by a similarly shaped mount that was oval and had two bolts on either end to tighten it down. The ball just sort of floated withing this pocket created by the depression in the crossmember and the one in the bracket. It was a ball and socket kind of arrangement, if you can envision that.

There was no grease fitting, the rubber provided the slipperyness, plus it didn't really travel up and down all that far, it just sort of held the ball in place. Depending on what engine you install, this setup may not work, as it tends to end up being exactly where transmission pans and exhaust pipes like to go.


Don


PS: I've sort of rethought this a little, as it has been 40 years since I've played with one of these. Now that I think about it, some of them may not have had the rubber on them. I think this happened on later fords, like in the '40's. The early ones may have been just a steel ball greased and sitting in the aforementioned socket. In any event, the concept is the same, just that one has a rubber coating for dampening, and the others did not.