Ball joint assembly

Claim 1

In a ball joint assembly having a socket with an opening leading to an inner surface on the socket, the inner surface having a predetermined contour of varying dimension, a bearing disposed within the opening, the bearing including a substantially spherical cavity leading to an aperture, and a ball stud disposed within the cavity and extending outwardly from the bearing via the aperture, the ball stud being attached to the bearing prior to the attachment of the bearing and ball stud to the socket, the ball stud defining an outer spherical surface substantially identical to the spherical cavity prior to fitting the ball stud in the cavity, and the bearing outer surface having a first portion and a second portion engageably cooperating with complementary portions of said predetermined contour for said socket inner surface, said bearing portions defining dimensions substantially equal to dimensions for said socket inner surface, characterized by said bearing outer surface defining an intermediate portion between said first and second portions and shorter in length than said first and second portions, said intermediate portin engageably cooperating with a complementary section of said socket inner surface and having a dimension greater than the dimension defined by the complementary section of said socket inner surface, said intermediate portion cooperating with said ball stud and said socket when the bearing and ball stud are fitted into said socket to preload said bearing, and said intermediate portion defining an interference fit with said socket inner surface to provide the majority of preload imparted to said bearing, whereby said bearing is defomed only by said intermediate portion to preload the entire bearing into tight engagement with said socket inner surface and said ball stud.