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Automotive ball joint reamer

I am looking for ideas!

I wanted to make a ball joint taper reamer. I believe the taper angle is

7.15 degrees. 1:8.

I need to go up to around 19 or 20 mm diameter from about 11 mm.

I have wondered about trying to get a reamer ground for the job or trying to do it myself.

I do not have a taper turning device but could offset the tail stock to turn a bar down to match the taper.

I have thought about grinding down a pin reamer or other standard reamer to the size, but unfortunately would also loose and have to grind back the cutting rakes and I do not have a tool grinder.

Searching on Google, (ball joint taper reamer automotive -hip) I get lots of answers, but many point to basic taper reamers to sort out miss-matched holes and repairs to sheet metal but many never specify the taper used. One that do say 8 degrees.

I have managed to find one company that actually sells what I want but thought postage from Portsmouth, New Hampshire may be a bit excessive.

Can anyone fabricate me a taper reamer or suggest how I may grind back the rakes without the tool grinder set-up, just normal and basic lathe and milling machine set up.

Perhaps if anyone knows of a supplier in the UK I would be grateful of the information.

Adrian

Reply to
Adrian
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Try Drill Service in Horley. Mark.

Reply to
mark

Ouch!

If I have to pay that price, I will have too.

Perhaps I send my bits away to be done!

Adrian

Reply to
Adrian

Having recently watched 'A racing car is born' on Discovery channel, they used exactly the tool you want to bore a reversed taper in the steering arms (ball joint moved from top to bottom or vis versa); the kit was a Westfield, so it might be worth giving them a call. Martin

Reply to
Martin Whybrow

It is for the same thing, I missed the programme unfortunately.

It is to modify some Sierra front uprights to take a different lower ball joint.

Think my first post is wrong and that the angle should be 7.125 degrees.

I am trying to measure the tapers now on a couple of ball joints and thing I will just give up. The accuracy I can obtain is not good enough.

I will go off to do a search on the discovery channel, On another forum they have used the general hand tapers as I have mentioned above, but just seem wrong.

Cheers

Adrian

Reply to
Adrian

If you have sacrificial parts it might be feasible to rough ream with an available reamer and then use the old shafts and lapping compound to correct the taper. Might even be possible to hand-grind some usable cutting edges on an old taper shaft if they are hardened. Probably a lot of time required.

Don Young (USA)

Reply to
Don Young

Adrian Hi, you might have already seen the discussion here:

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but if not you will see that there are several ways that they have solved the problem including making a cutter.

Don't know which chassis you have but many of the suppliers, MK etc will do this for you on an exchange basis. Even if you have built your own it is worth asking as they will normally do it for a little beer money.

Regards

Keith

Reply to
jontom_1uk

I have read many of the threads on the site about this and many have used the hand reamers. My concern is that if the hand reamer is a shallower taper then yes it will fit but only to bind on the larger diameter and not fit the taper.

I may end up sending off the front uprights to have them done, but it would be nice to have control over the job myself, but at £67 for the reamer plus VAT and delivery, it does make me wonder on my merits.

I am making the Haynes Roadster book by Chris Gibbs and building my own chassis.

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for slow progress

Adrian

Reply to
Adrian

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