Lower ball joint bulletin out this week 20oct08: got mine on

[devil]

my dealer ordered me in some of the new ones on warranty today.

if they fail as easily as the stock ones, i'm going to make something heavy duty work, i can probably do it for 1/4 the cost of the yamaha ones, $96 PER balljoint they were listed at!

 

[nytro23]

ball joints

I find it hard to believe that Yamaha can revolutionize the snowmachine industry with sleds like the Phazer and Nytro but can't build a BALL JOINT!!!
It looks like the replacement ball joints are the same as last year except for the three dimples pressed in to the race......come on Yamaha, your willing to loose customers over 25 dollar part???
We'll see how they hold up, but I'm not to optimistic....just being realistic from experience.

 

[Crewchief47]

OK, obviously there is some info missing here.

Nytro23, are you saying your new joints are shot as well???

 

[AKrider]

That would suck because the pricey greasable ones from ER Yamaha weren't much better. By the end of the year they had a ton of slop.

That's interesting because mine have over 1800 miles on them and they are still tight and solid.

Like I said, we'll have to wait a few months to see how the new factory ball joints hold up.

 

[AKrider]

Nikolai,
You know I got to thinking about it and remembered you changed the design and installed shouldered bolts rather than the through bolts they came with. The shouldered bolt wouldn't have allowed you to tighten them up all the way so I'm not surprised they failed.

 

[ryetarded]

last year ball joints were not true and round it was a supplier error from what i can remember us talking about last year

 

[ruffryder]

Nikolai,
You know I got to thinking about it and remembered you changed the design and installed shouldered bolts rather than the through bolts they came with. The shouldered bolt wouldn't have allowed you to tighten them up all the way so I'm not surprised they failed.

The ER stuff wasn't that good for me either.. With doing the 2.5mm mod, the custom spacers that where chamfered or angled whatever would hit on the a-arm, causing them to turn and kept the ball joint from turning also..

The spacers then wore out and the turning of the spacers wore out the spindle.. The joints were also pretty loose fit...

It got me going again for the end of the season, but it was a waste beyond that. Plus it leaves warranty work out too...

 

[AKrider]

The ER stuff wasn't that good for me either.. With doing the 2.5mm mod, the custom spacers that where chamfered or angled whatever would hit on the a-arm, causing them to turn and kept the ball joint from turning also..

The spacers then wore out and the turning of the spacers wore out the spindle.. The joints were also pretty loose fit...

It got me going again for the end of the season, but it was a waste beyond that. Plus it leaves warranty work out too...

I'll have to look at mine to see where things could get bound up if the camber is changed from stock. My front end has the brass bushings, stock upper ball joints and the greasible lowers and I'm very pleased with them. My LH stock lower ball joint starting spitting out liner material at 500 miles and was so loose at 800 miles you could jingle it like a bell.

 

[Lococoin]

So did anybody get a bulletin number yet? It should be on your invoice if you had warranty work done.

Please post it up.

Thanks.

 

[arteeex]

I posted this a while back. It shows my fix for the wobbly ball joint problem.

I made two bronze rings for each side with an internal radius to match the ball of the stock assembly. I cut the race off the stock ball joint assembly with a Dremel tool. So far this fix has held up to more than 1000-miles without going wobbly again.

I'm pretty awesome.

 

[NyTrOMaNIaC]

I posted this a while back. It shows my fix for the wobbly ball joint problem.

I made two bronze rings for each side with an internal radius to match the ball of the stock assembly. I cut the race off the stock ball joint assembly with a Dremel tool. So far this fix has held up to more than 1000-miles without going wobbly again.

I'm pretty awesome.

Very nice, but you have to make up your mind, are you pretty, or are you awesome ? Can't be both

I'm calling my dealer tomorrow to ask about this ball joint bulletin, but I doubt he'll know anything about it, as usual

 

[BLUEBALLER]

would've been even more awesome if you made em greasable.



so.......... if the 09 ones don't hold up, you're gonna make me a set right? add a little hole in the side & a channel for the grease to flow - I'll drill & tap my a-arms & add a zerk.

thanks in advance.

 

[towerrigger]

Hey Mr. awesome, I'll take a set of those too. Nicely done.

 

[arteeex]

I chose not to add a grease zerk. I just put a light coat of Krytox on them when I did the install. The bronze doesn't really need grease to run on the steel ball and I didn't want to be collecting too much crud in a grease paddy. A couple drops of light oil now and then will be enough to get decent life out of the pieces.

 

[Crewchief47]

last year ball joints were not true and round it was a supplier error from what i can remember us talking about last year

That's what I remember about it, burr or out of round causing the teflon liner to fail. Or some such thing. Either way, mine are in on a warrenty claim right now, should know by halloween. I'll worry about the new ones if any problems arise.