BIG PROBLEM!! with lower a-arm ball joint

[Brad Oakley]

I'm new to this - I think I just posted to the wrong forum. Boy, won't Overeaters Anonymous be suprised trying to figure out what I'm talking about... Anyway, I'm looking into the problem. I'm also in contact with the manufacturer on this one. I'll let you know what I find. Meanwhile, could ya'll try and describe what the bad ball joints looked like. I see two kinds of joints here at the factory. If I can figure out which of the ones might be bad, I'll get rid of them. I'll also see what I can round up in the "New and Improved" catagory. That's what Frank pays me the big bucks to do. Besides, I now own two of these mean machines myself. I've reached the age where talking about things falling off can get a bit personal, and I don't want to add a-arms to the list!

[Ryanstones]

You stick around now! :rotf

[bknight]

o good to see you Brad Oakley
just put a ordor in on the weekend holp there good
on my glamis it has maybe 20hr on it and the bottem left one was so bad that one wheelie it look like it would popout.
right bottem you could move out about halfway im to new
to till what ones where bad on what cannandale
on my ball joints i have the clip on them on the rubber boot

[cannondale27]

Well there goes my theory.Brad it looks like they all are bad.I had all four styles cannondale offered and only ones that lasted had clip on rubberboot which I greased with a needle.By lasting I mean that they werent loose within a month of riding.The ones I greased have a year with no slop.

[bknight]

o good thats good to see now that i got sume new ball joints
comeing that might last 15hr

[dawzie]

OK - now that about 50% or more of the Dales out here with stock front ends need new ball joints, what do we do ??????

[DMAC10]

On the 2 lower ball joints that I had to pop out, neither had the clip on the boot. My dale is the early 2002 cannibal that still has the cable clutch. When they failed there was a little play but nothing that I felt drastic. I ran quite a bit of MX, Local and National races and a few cross country before they failed. What was weird is that one failed one weekend and then the other failed the next weekend that I rode. So it seems that the life spans is pretty consistant. I had not greased either of these ball joints. I've now got new ones from ATK and they have the clip on them. Oh yea, I have greased the p*ss out of these. Just some more info for those who are trying to find a better way.



40+ and still ridin:usa

[RetroZ]

I've had my ball joints go bad aswell. More so the bottom than the top. I'm currently working on getting a replacement. If I have new ones built, I'm going to have to do a pretty good size batch order. Another way I'm looking into, is switching the entire ball joint type out. The only bad thing would be is that you would have to send me your a-arms to do the machining on. One last option is new a-arms all together. I know it's currently easier to spend $100 on 4 new ball joints (lifetime unknown) than $500 to $1000 for new a-arms. But, what if you could get a quality a-arm for $300-$350? A little more investement in the beginning but cheaper in the long run! Hopefully by the end of next week I'll know something.

[NRath]

After looking at my bad one's- my claim to what the problem is is this: there's a plastic bushing inside that the ball rides in. That's what wears out. Mine were wasted. If we had better/harder materials here, I believe the balljoints would last much longer. This is obviously something that would have to be done by the balljoint manufacturer, but that's the root cause of our balljoint failure problems.

[DangerRanger]

Brad..please contact me asap regarding the ball joints... I have all the tech data, original design drawings, neither ATK or Dinli got these from my knowledge, and copies of the bad joints and good. Alot of the bikes got them changed, but many missed out, and dealers and c-dale sold alot of them not knowing or sometimes not caring just to get there money.
There was a huge recall, but got missed by alot of dealers.

1000pcs new are held in my name with an additional 750 to follow. I just needed to see what the need is, and also need to see how many of you guys still have the old version.

Jay, can you make this a sticky. Get ahold of me please, and I can help you guys out, and Brad...I keep trying to get ahold of Dinli and ATK to help them with 3 key areas...that are not, and have not been noted on the new units....and must be taken care of or both companies stand to be in the same dealer reputation as cannondale was.

Frank White, if you are reading this too, I left a message at your work.
Haydug got some stuff for you too.


Ben Wrightsman
317-331-1197