I'm remaking the lower wishbones of a reliant kitten. The lower ball joints are pretty much unobtainable - so I'm looking for an alternative.
A herald (spit/elan) top ball joint could be made to fit but I'm concerned that it is probably not designed to hang the car's weight off. Having said which the actual construction looks just like say a maxi one with the ball passed through from the back & wee tin cover on the other side - so questions....
1) how can I get this sort of application information from quinten hazel (or whoever).
2) anybody got bright ideas about an alternative bottom balljoint - I'm prepared to go metric if necessary....
Rest of the suspension is totally sorted, thankfully!
cheers
Bob

Hi, not sure if this is any use but have a chat witha bloke called Peter Davies of Liege Kit Cars, his cars were Kitten based so he might well know of any different ball joints to suit your application.

There might be another way,I have seen it done on escorts steering arms.
They lower the escort to extremes where the standard ball joint taper is at an impossible angle. So the solution they use are rose joints.
Drill out the taper of the cast iron hub and insert a brass bush (press fit).Then find a suitable bolt and locking nut (try and use the "plain part" through the bush and rose joint) then washers atop the rose joint to get the correct spacing.
It will also mean that you will have to modify the bottom support arms...but, u2u me the model year and variant, I will try and look for some here in malta, it is surprising the amount of old stock the keep sometimes.

The kitten ball joint in question was apparently a custom design for the application - hence now hard to get & nothing quite like it. I'm going to use a ball joint, not a rod end, so it can be fit & forget :^)
What about lada & the old skodas - did they have wishbones & springs to the bottom ones? What about the old chevette, or viva?
cheers
Bob