Has anyone ever changed a swing arm in an HA4? my lower ball joint on the right side is gone and very loose. One cannot buy just the joint, you have to get the whole swing arm. Looks like it all has to come apart. Any help would be appreciated!
Well it looks like the lower control/swing arm is a fairly expensive and hard to source piece without an import company or supplier. I just picked up a 92 acty and it needs both lowers so I'm looking to build my own or mill out the factory ball joints and weld in a spherical ball or hiem. May take a little time to do this but with an of road racing background and a few machines at my disposal I will come up with something...
I ended up ordering one from a supplier and it had to come from Japan, I got it on without much trouble. $200 +. Good luck!
Yeah I priced them at a few places and 200 is more than I will spend on one piece for this truck. Already have two spherical balls with misalignment bushing on the way from a sponsor so we will see how this works out.
Nice info. Free beats $$ every day of the week and I'm looking at being rebuildable so parts are on the way and I'll post pics when done.
That thread mentions a shimmy while driving, because of the center bushing... Could that be why my truck shakes on the highway? Sometimes I feel like the wheels aren't round... but I've noticed certain roads are actually lumpy oddly enough. I noticed after I drove past the same area at low speeds and felt the out of round feeling. I'd love if the truck stopped shaking Haha, drives me insane some days.
More than likely it is the cause.. this is also an issue I will have to test out as hiems and johnny joints tend to wear over time and that is one drawback to this but at less than half the cost of one C/A I will live with it. Spanner.. the link you posted was for a DD51 right? Looks like the new ball joints had to be removed from the C/A before they could be used..not real big on welding ball joints or TRE's do to the guts are generally pressed in after assembly and heat is not a friend to plastics.
Sure, You prefer the bolt-in type; three bolt mountings in the beef of the arm, not the lip, http://www.ebay.com/itm/Beck-Arnley-101-4338-Suspension-Ball-Joint-Suzuki-Sidekick-/190963967146 Ignore the price, the reason for the link, is for the 5-page compatibility list. The same part, from the same factory, is of course sold at different prices, depending on the application. I've seen them for as low as $18 a side at the local carquest. Is it going to fit? Bring the arm, the part number, and a micometer. How easy is that...
Here's a "kit" 2- for $47 http://www.autopartswarehouse.com/shop_parts/ball_joint/suzuki/sidekick.html Rock auto has them as low as $13 bucks http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/x,carcode,1271393,parttype,10070 If you took the time to search, you could probly find them for free...
Yea, for sure. I think that after a few beers, my rapid-fire replies come across like I'm an A-hole, Sorry bout that, I look forward to reading about a "4th" free-type solution (or almost free anyway), to what all participants in the minitruck sickness currently consider "an irritation". There are a few, but the A-arm/ball joint combination repair/replace question recurs frequently. I guess that what most should take away from this recurring consideration is, preventative maintenance. Replace bad boots, as grease often. Same goes for the tie rod ends.
No worries, just way easier for me to build things anymore... been reading on the charger thread you have and it has me thinking about the Rotrex 60r laying in a box somewhere in back....
Update, parts are all here and ready to start cutting. I went with 5/8 hiems at both ends and high misalignment spacers at the knuckle with misalignment bushings at the chassis. to fit the hiems to the tubing, tube adapters in the 1"x .120 with 5/8-18 threads were ordered. After sorting through multiple tubing selections I decided on 1" simply because I had a few short pieces already laying around and this will be plenty strong for the task at hand. I have pics on my phone and once I can get them on here I will post them up. Only drilling I will have to do is at the tabs on the chassis as the factory bolt is a metric 10mm so it will need to be 1/2" to work with the bushing and spacers. Haven't decided how I want to tie in the stabilizer bar but that's a nonissue and will be dealt with when it gets to that point. Now the knuckle took a little thought to find a suitable way to attach the hiem to it, after a little thought I came out of the back room with a 5/8x 5" bolt and cut the threads off leaving a three inch shoulder that fits like a glove. The lathe will be taking care of clearancing the bolt head and adding the grove for the retaining bolt in the am and I will be ready to start bending some tube and installing parts.. more to come
Quite the piece of equipment to have laying around in a box somewhere... Quite the pile of green to be slapping onto a mini but, hell yea, I'd like to hear that unit spool-up. Should work out quite nicely with a "sandwich box" for flow through and intercooling. A few custom components and a 2"+ exhaust...then I'd have someone to race...
spanner, lol that would be a long way off and some other toys will need to be out of the way. The charger was a byproduct of buying a surplus auction and was mounted on an Italian diesel motor in a polaris frame and six wheels with an after cooler and piping... freebie.. Two friends and I have a small shop that we play with our toys in and allows us to have tools to build with and about every grown mans dream shop( though it needs to be twice the size lol). For now we will just leave this truck as a hunting rig for my father and me. As for now the weather has been uncooperative and has things on hold for a day or two and finding a set of front springs while the front end is apart for a little lift to clear the ATV tires as I know we have to have a few somewhere.
