Heim Joint knock

Why do Heim Joints start knocking and how to deal with it?

Heim joints are very useful in suspension systems needing good articulation and full tire contact patch on the road.

That is why they are used in track days, speed races, and Offroad races.

They are also great for on road use, but unfortunatwithely day to day use, they develop and annoying knocking sound and looseness that is hard to live with on a daily basis.

Why is that?

The Heim joint is made up, primarily, of a spherical bearing, presses into a rod end housing. Both are made of strong steel alloys to withstand loads, but have no shock absorbing material between the metal surfaces, like what you typically find in a rubber bushing.

Impacts get transmitted in full force between the bearing and the housing, and overtime the tight tolerances start loosening up causing the knocking sound.

We looked into that, and decided to come up with few approaches to absorb the impact forces. If we succeeded in doing that, then we expect the joints to last longer, and allow the higher performance application in day to day use.

For larger size applications, we invented the Hybrid Spherical Bearing and use it primarily in larger bushings.

For applications that use small size joints we wanted to also minimize the knocking sounds but have no room to use that same technique, so we came up with a new innovative way. Rubber banding.