Kirkham ball joint question

[SSSammy]

I have been going through KMP268 for the two months I have owned it. Just finished changing all the fluids and lubing all the u-joints. My ERA had zerks on the ball joints, however this car has a lovely billet threaded cap there. Underneath is a dry joint and apparently a non metallic liner. So are these ball joints non maintainable? See photo below.

[Morris]

They are spherical bearings with pins .....which means use spray silicone on them.....frequently.

Morris

[SSSammy]

Originally Posted by Morris

They are spherical bearings with pins .....which means use spray silicone on them.....frequently.

Morris

Hi Morris, so is there particular automotive silicone spray I should use? Do I spray it on the bearing externally, or do I need to disassemble it? This is new to me, so thanks for the lesson!

Sam

[rodneym]

SSSammy,
Aside from getting help from a guru like Morris, don't give up on trying to reach David. He's been extremely busy lately but keep trying. Ask every question you can think of and share, please.

[SSSammy]

Thanks Rodney, yes I've been in contact with David about another topic already. And he has me in the database now as the owner of #268. I'm reading through ALL the Kirkham forum posts as time permits to get up to speed on the "knowledge base." At some point I may take the car up to Provo for a refresh. I see that people have done that.

So here's another question that I don't really need to create a new thread on: a whatizzit ... There is a billet can mounted in the tunnel next to the bell housing. It has a vacuum line coming from the 8 stack throttle bodies going in, and the other end goes through the firewall to the back of the panel where it is plugged off. So this thing does nothing, apparently. Was it connected to a vacuum gauge maybe? Why do I need it? See photo:

[philminotti]

Just a guess, but being an EFI guy, an educated one...
I suspect that can is a common vacuum "plenum" for your eight stack system. I assume your running EFI, yes? Your system may have relied upon a MAP sensor as a proxy for engine load in its VE calculations. With eight stack, you need a relatively clean vacuum reference, thus the billet reservoir. The capped vacuum line could have connected to a MAP sensor. As these schemes don't often work all that well, especially with big cams, perhaps the EFI was retuned to run an alpha-N scheme, which only requires RPM and throttle angle to determine fueling, thus eliminating the need for a vacuum reservoir and MAP sensor. Just a guess.

[philminotti]

Just a guess, but being an EFI guy, an educated one...
I suspect that can is a common vacuum "plenum" for your eight stack system. I assume your running EFI, yes? Your system may have relied upon a MAP sensor as a proxy for engine load in its VE calculations. With eight stack, you need a relatively clean vacuum reference, this the billet reservoir. As these schemes don't often work all that well, perhaps the EFI was retuned to run an alpha-N scheme, which only requires RPM and throttle angle to determine fueling, thus eliminating the need for a vacuum reservoir and MAP sensor. Just a guess.

[SSSammy]

Damn fine guess as far as I can tell, Phil ... I'm buying. Yes, it has an original 2004 vintage TWM 8-stack/FAST EFI on it. I just got it back from my tuner last week. He had a time with it .. I had to get a data cable and a serial/usb cable from FAST and a copy of their old software. He commented that there were some missing parameters that he had to work around.

But it's good now, and if it ain't broke ...

[SSSammy]

Here's followup to my ball joint question ... I discussed this with David Kirkham last week when I was in Provo dropping the car off for some upgrades. David says do not lubricate this bearing, the teflon insert does not require it.

I see the newer front suspension has eliminated this configuration with a conventional rod end.

Sam