Awesome, those look like exact replacement for the FK ones I have. Hopefully they last longer. As Jeff noted I've already drilled the bar to allow for the larger 3/8" stud.

I recommend against the FK rod ends as listed above, they have a short useful life for a street-driven car. Maybe they'd be ok if you rigged up some kind of a boot or something.

These are beyond cleaning: there's around 1/32" of free play between each ball and it's mating socket. I knew they were slightly sloppy from the rattling noises I was getting but wiggling the bar ends when the car was on jackstands was quite an eye-opener - you could see the ball moving around freely in the socket!

Thanks for the help!

 

If you take a bicycle tire tube, cut it, then zip tie it around the rod ends - it will extend the life of the unit tremendously by keeping the dirt and grime out of the teflon linings.


You can get a tube at Wal-Mart or Target for a couple bucks.

 

When using the McMaster end links with the Gendron bar:

1) the bar must have the thinned/machined arms, or else the stud won't reach through the hole.

2) For the front-most setting, the endlinks need two SAE washers on the same side of the bar arm as the ball joint. That means no washers on the side with the nut, otherwise you won't get enough thread engagement. If you don't place the washers that way, you're likely to get binding of the endlink. I know that right after I installed a fresh set of endlinks with one washer on each side of the arm, I found dents in the upper studs where they had crashed into the edges of the ball joint shells. And that had damaged the teflon fabric linings, so that the brand new endlinks rattled like the old ones.

 

Ha! I thought of that very thing the other day! A small hole could be punched for each of the studs to stick through the side, then seal the top somehow. I was going to leave the bottom a bit long but open so that anything that makes it past the top can drain out.

I think a 700x28C or 700x25C tube should have enough room without being as baggy as a typical MTB 26x2.0 tube. (I'm a former bike geek )

 

Glue the top.

Clayton

 

FYI mcmaster carr are the FK endlinks.

 

I'm an existing bike geek


currently own two 29ers.

Redline Monocog I built from spare parts and a GF Ferrous with hydraulic brakes, carbon front fork and stainless brake lines

 

I just bought a set from McMaster. They are indeed made by FK, but FK makes a lot of rod ends. The specific ones to look for are JMX6TY and JFX6TY. What's interesting to me is that the version without the stud only has a misalignment angle rating of 12 degrees according to FK, but the studded version is rated at 50 degrees by McMaster. So it may be that pretty much any rod end with a stud fitted will have enough swivel.

Yes, it's an old thread, but it's the one that came up when I searched so it's a good place to put new info.