I had an A-frame in my 164 that got bent and straightened and resulted in
the hole for the balljoint being less than optimally tight. Did that trick
on a pothole in Costa Rica while looking at an orchid in a tree at 50mph.
It was only a serious problem when I tried to jack that wheel up with the
jack under the A-frame. I was sorely tempted to tack weld it in but ended up
getting another A-frame instead. I suspect that a couple of SMALL tack welds
in that location might not have had serious consequences. I think a better
solution might have been to either swage the socket down by pressing a ring
over the lip or do some artistic hammer/punch work to deform the lip inward
at a number of spots. In fact in a less severe case, the extra-heavy loctite
(TM) might also have worked on good clean parts.
--
George Downs, Bartlesville, Oklahoma, Central US