i have broken five ball joints on my laeger a-arms since i purchased them in 1999. i run a honda 250r with extended a-arms (+2), pep zps shocks set up for my weight. the lower passnger side ball joint is the one that keeps breaking. (broke two yesterday. everything looks straight and the ball joints had 4 rides on them). the ball joint is breaking on the part that screws into the a-arm. i'm thinking about drilling the hole out and going with the larger lonestar ball joint but i do not know if there is enough metal there to enlarge the hole in the a-arm. any sugestions or comments welcome. airtime

 

airtimehocutt- I had the same problem with my ball joints. VW makes a ball joint that goes on one of their cars. They are around $25 and have a lifetime guarantee. I bought around 6 the first time and when they break I go and get new ones free. I cant remember the part number, but I will get it. I was in a race one time and hit a triple and when I landed one of the ball joints snapped and I busted my butt. Then when my quad went flipping it broke 3 more and bent a tie rod. Hope that does not happen to you. Good Luck.

 

thanks for the reply. i have already done what you have (bent one tie rod and almost crashed). i replaced every one with vw bug tie rod ends too, but i will tell you which one works best for me and save you some money. i just bought four new ball joints from n a p a (lifetime warranty). broke the bottom right ball joint after about 7 laps. here's what i can say, i bought a vw tie rod end from advanced auto (i think they have more travel side to side than the other ones, i know they have a grease fitting in the bottom and a removable rubber boot. the napa brand has a sealed boot and no grease fitting).it has held up pretty good so far (about 4 good rides on it and not a failure yet). if your interested i will give you the part number (i'm going tomorrow to buy four new ones from them, if there open). laeger said some of the ball joints don't have as much travel as others and this is why some ball joints are holding up better. (he was referring to the up and down travel which makes the ball joint lean in or out) this is just a bandade fix though. i spoke with laeger today. he said he has developed a new ball joint made just for four wheelers and not an automotive product. he said it has a 7/8 shank (the part that goes through the a-arm)that is not threaded until it clears the a-arm. this should be a very strong ball joint indeed! he said he would install the new ball joints (upper and lower)in his older style a-arms (with the smaller ball joints) and re-powder coat them for $250. it seems he is changing a few angles on the a-arms and both the top and bottom need to be replaced together ( i think he said he was making the top a-arm ball joint straighter which will yelled more caster). anyway, he said he should be ready to take orders by the end of january, 2002. he has some new ones already made with the new syle ball joints also but he wants $699 for them. so if you know somebody fixing to buy some a-arms they may want to wait on these new ones. the reason i'm telling you this is because those lifetime warranty ball joints caused you alot of money and pain (almost cost me some pain toooooo). i will run the advanced auto brand (i think advanced auto anyway, i will tell you for sure tomorrow if their open) until laegers is taking orders for the new ball joint. i'm a pretty good rider and i do not want to take a chance on getting hurt and trashing my bike on a worthless ball joint. good luck and hope this helps other people from making the same mistakes i have made. airtime

 

hey mrp, i did not notice you were from jackson until i had replied. i rode the mx track in pearl a few years ago. great track. i heard they closed it down. let me know if their are any good tracks around. i know several in alabama that are great, mill creek, chandler mountain, courner mx. you can find them at almotocross.com and just type in alabama for track locations. i'll try to paste the numbers from my computer for you. thanks airtime

Mill creek (pell city , al) I-20 west from Birmingham to Atlanta. Take pell city exit.. go right, first road on right past gas stations. Contact number 1-205-699-8851. practice sat & sun. 11 till 5 p.m. www.millcreekmotocross.com


Steele city ,al (chandler mountain) west from Birmingham on i- 59 take steele city exit. Go left and across train tracks. Take left at stop sign. Take right on chandler mountain road. Take left on loop road. ¼ mile track on right. Contact 1-205-681-8317 practice on Sundays.

Kilpatchrick track contact 1-256-561-3495

Corner track contact 1-205-647-6949 I-65 to corner/haydon exit. Turn left on skyline dr. east on skyline. Corner school is 8 miles from red light. Turn right go 2 miles to trammel rd. turn right on trammel rd and go ¼ mile. Track on left.

Rocket city contact 1-256-776-3418 & 1-256-772-3057
or millcreekmotocross.com

 

Hey Airtime- Have you ever been to Monster Mountain? I heard this track was awesome. Yes the track in Pearl was closed down. I ride and race at Fernwood(McComb, MS), Rock Hill(Purvis, MS), The Landing(Purvis, MS), and a track in Yazoo. I also ride at some practice tracks a few friends own. Are you going to any of the Nationals this year? Im going to Macon, London, Belwood, NC, Lorreta Lynns, and Casey, IL. Im also going to race a 10 race series at a track in Tyler, TX. If I am not mistaken I think I read where you said you bought your no-link at Loretta Lynns. What class do you race? I race 250B and I am going to race 16-24 this year also. We need to ride together one weekend. A bunch of quads are goin to Fernwood this Saturday if it does not rain, but that is a LONG drive for you so maybe we can meet somewhere else oneday. Also have you ever been to a track when Keith or Greg Little was there? I think you only live around 150 miles away from them. MrP.

 

I rode several seasons on my laeger arms before going with their pro trax design, but I never had a failure. I turned the lower ball joint all the way in, and slightly modified the top to get my camber at -2 degrees, but had no problem. That was awhile back though, maybe laeger has gone the way of lonestar and started making CRAP. I think the same joints are on my raptor's burgard arms and I raced all summer without a hitch. Are you maybe turning out the bottom ones to try and get an extra inch of width? That would cause more stress, but other that that I don't know.

 

ok, i finally found the ball joint. it is a car quest tie rod end for a voltswagon beelte 1975 year model. part number es419r. i would recommend grinding out the inside retainer ring to allow the ball joint to move farther in toward the frame without hitting the ball joint housing. raptor i run my ball joints all the way in. according to laeger's, the breakage is caused when the ball joint is required to travel more than it was designed too. (ex. 3 to 4 inches on a car, compared to 10 to 11 inches on my quad.)i have used these car quest tie rod ends and have not broken one yet. i have broken several n.a.p.a. brand, auto zone brand, advanced auto brand. the purpose of this post was to try and keep people from buying tie rod ends from these other manufactors and wasting there money. i'm sure the car quest brand can be broken but it has served me better than the other brands. also. i will be sending mine back to laeger to have the new style ball joints (7/8 non threaded ball joint) installed when he gets them in stock. you can tell the older weaker style ball joints from the new larger style by looking at the end that screws in to your a-arm. the new ones (lone star, burguard) are 16 mm and old style leagers are 14 mm. mr p i'll send you a private message later. airtime

 

mrp if you do not recieve my private message. email me at geraldhocutt@hotmail.com airtime

 

check out the timmyboy designs website www.timmyboydesigns.com ... they use a ricky stator ball joint on there a arms... tehy show a pic of it and i think you can buy just the ball joint from him... these are the same arms that one the baja 2000