Originally Posted by
LonnyJ1950
I find that to be a disappointing reply. You might as well say that some play in the end links of the swaybar on your real car doesn't matter. To me, your desire for high quality and precision build up just went out the window. Ah well, life is full of disappointment.
Er... My car has a bunch of rubber bushes in the sway bar giving it all the movement it wants in almost any direction. When the car rolls, some of that movement is taken up by moving the rubber, not preventing the roll.
On the BMI, the system is pre-loaded so that the clearance in the ball joints is taken up in any direction. The side springs are not level, so they act by pushing down on the pod plate. the weight of the car acts on the ball joints as well taking up the clearances. Once that pre-load is in the system, any clearance is controlled such that as it moves, there is no 'free' play in the system as the suspension operates.
I don't know any moving system that doesn't have some free play in it in order for it to work, except pre-loaded rolling element bearings. In my road car those bearings are all pre-loaded, but in my RC car none of them are. Are you saying you don't use rolling element bearings in your RC car because they have some play in them? They all do, since it is impossible to pre-load them accurately using plastic parts.
The BMI ball joints are very good. I wish Jason would make one to fit the centre of other link cars like the 12R5 and CRC - they would be much better than those standard parts!! Just a thought...