Lincoln introduced ball joints in 1952. They successfully ran the Mexican Road Race with that chassis gaining great publicity for the Ford Motor Company for two or three years.
Ford and Mercury cars went to ball joints in '54. GM cars Chevy, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Buick and Cadillac in "55. Plymouth, Dodge, DeSoto and Chrysler cars in "55 and most others trickled along after. Corvette not until '63 as it continued to use a basically '53 Chevy king pin front suspension.
Studebaker never changed over to ball joints, but from '51 up had a very nice upper and lower A-arm system with kingpins, IMHO.
Ball joints were a big selling point in for Ford in '54. Ball joints are lighter, less friction, cheaper to manufacture and allow an extra degree of freedom to the suspension designer.
The big geometry advantage of ball joints in the ability to tilt the upper A-arm back 7 or 8 degrees so as to design in "Anti-dive" on hard braking; can't be done in a simple manner with king pins. The upper and lower A-Arms have to have parallel axes of rotation with king pins. If not, the king pins bind the system.
Neglected long enough, ball joints will break and the wheel flops over and turns, yielding immediate loss of control of the vehicle. Not so with king pins; they just wear out to the point where the whole wheel assembly shakes, and worn enough, will cause "axle tramp".
Don J
Ford and Mercury cars went to ball joints in '54. GM cars Chevy, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Buick and Cadillac in "55. Plymouth, Dodge, DeSoto and Chrysler cars in "55 and most others trickled along after. Corvette not until '63 as it continued to use a basically '53 Chevy king pin front suspension.
Studebaker never changed over to ball joints, but from '51 up had a very nice upper and lower A-arm system with kingpins, IMHO.
Ball joints were a big selling point in for Ford in '54. Ball joints are lighter, less friction, cheaper to manufacture and allow an extra degree of freedom to the suspension designer.
The big geometry advantage of ball joints in the ability to tilt the upper A-arm back 7 or 8 degrees so as to design in "Anti-dive" on hard braking; can't be done in a simple manner with king pins. The upper and lower A-Arms have to have parallel axes of rotation with king pins. If not, the king pins bind the system.
Neglected long enough, ball joints will break and the wheel flops over and turns, yielding immediate loss of control of the vehicle. Not so with king pins; they just wear out to the point where the whole wheel assembly shakes, and worn enough, will cause "axle tramp".
Don J
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