Heim joints, when to replace?

Five.five-six said:
Do you worry about fakes on amazon?  I want to give my business to kartek but it's a lot more money
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Not really.  I looked them over when I got them.  After I swapped them out and took it out on a few rides I looked everything over.  All good.

 
I purchase all of my bearings/rod ends through a local to me bearing supply house. Competitive pricing and I know I am getting genuine parts.

 
You don't always know for sure...  lots of places are buying through distributors and they are being less than honest.  It's how jegs and summit ended up with trucks full of fakes.  Bosch fuel pumps were a big one. 

 
When I first built my car, I used ruffstuff heims because no way was I going to spend FK money on initial put together. I duned them pretty good and even bounced out of some serious witches eyes where something should've gave and they held up quite fine. Now on my latest build, I re-used them lol 

 
Bobalos said:
You don't always know for sure...  lots of places are buying through distributors and they are being less than honest.  It's how jegs and summit ended up with trucks full of fakes.  Bosch fuel pumps were a big one. 
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Unfortunately, the world we live in today. I've never used Jegs for anything, but Summit I purchase from regularly. I've felt confident with everything they've sent me. 

I recently disassembled my car and the 4 year old FK heims are still almost too tight to rotate the balls by hand. 

 
well it was the 1" aluminum bar that broke; why not replace that with steel?  Is it a weight thing?  I know some rock crawler guys run aluminum links but they are 2+" solid.

 
1newbie said:
well it was the 1" aluminum bar that broke; why not replace that with steel?  Is it a weight thing?  I know some rock crawler guys run aluminum links but they are 2+" solid.
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The bar broke because this bolt broke and the bar got stuffed in the sand at 40MPH. 

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This pipe vice sure makes the job a lot easier.  It’s a royal PITA.  Got one corner together (waiting for my replacement arm) in more time than it took me to strip down 2 corners. 

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Soooo……

I got 2 corners done just to figure out I got the wrong rod ends.  The ones I got were 5/8” X 1/2” and have 10 degrees of articulation.  What was on there were 5/8” x 5/8” with a bushing and 16 degrees.

I’ve ordered some 0.6250” OC 0.500” ID DOM to cut into bushings (the old bushings are stuck) but I need someone with a lathe to cut the bushings 0.7400” long.  I was thinking of cutting them myself but I think it would be better to have them made correctly.  

Anyone have a lathe near me in corona?  Or someplace I can take it to that won’t cost an arm and a leg?

 
Sandkist said:
https://www.kartek.com/parts-categories/spacers-for-58-heims-or-uniballs-44657.html
kartek has what you need. Make sure to put anti seize  on them before installing.
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Yea, those won’t work on many of the rod ends because they bolt between 2 tabs, on the ones they will work, they will stick way out the side of the car.  

Turns out my DOM is about .003” OD over and the ID is about .004” under, It needs to be machined so the project is a bit more work than I had thought. I made one last night and it took me about 2 hrs, I only need 31 more.

I did figure out how to drive out the old spacers but they are crap and sinc the car originally had fully threaded bolts, they are wallered out.  

I’m considering buying a bench top lathe but then I need tools and to learn how to use it.  

 
lincster said:
I do mine every 3 years. I don’t care if they are worn or not. 
FK Type 1 is what you want. If you don’t specify Type 1, you will get Type 2. 
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I must be missing it, I don't see type 1 vs type 2 called out anywhere on fk's site. 

My car has FK JMX-T on it. Should I replace with the same or something different? 

 
kgwmu said:
I must be missing it, I don't see type 1 vs type 2 called out anywhere on fk's site. 

My car has FK JMX-T on it. Should I replace with the same or something different? 
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Stay with what you have as that is a really good rod end. Not sure about the type 1 or 2 but you can get a JMX with or without a PTFE liner. You want it with the liner.

 
Sandkist said:
Stay with what you have as that is a really good rod end. Not sure about the type 1 or 2 but you can get a JMX with or without a PTFE liner. You want it with the liner.
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Ok, that works for me. Thanks!

 
kgwmu said:
I must be missing it, I don't see type 1 vs type 2 called out anywhere on fk's site. 

My car has FK JMX-T on it. Should I replace with the same or something different? 
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It is there.  

Type 1 is a "stiffer" heim, good for our application.

You can order heims from Summit and they have Type 1 and Type 2 in the description.

 
kgwmu said:
I must be missing it, I don't see type 1 vs type 2 called out anywhere on fk's site. 

My car has FK JMX-T on it. Should I replace with the same or something different? 
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Call @Fullthrottleguy Alex from Race Ready, Pretty sure he could get you set up with the good stuff.

 
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