Folks,

I have a bus that uses an IFS steer axle provided by one of the major drivetrain tier suppliers. I'd rather not name the company since I am trying to convince them to support the product. I thought I'd solicit the opinion of this board. The axle is 16000 lb GAWR, it uses unequal length a-arms with a 60mm upper ball stud and a 80mm lower ball stud. The ball studs are threaded into the control arms. The problem is that the original manufacturer of the ball stud, and the entire axle assembly, was a European company that has gone bankrupt. The American company rebranded the European suspension system and sold and supported in under their name. The last units were sold in 2009. The American company has since restructured it's operations and streamlined it's product line and no longer supports this IFS system. Convincing them to find a second source supplier for the ball stud is probably hopeless. Late model buses will be grounded. The ball studs appear to be forged. The upper stud uses a composite liner, the lower stud appears to be steel on steel (housing to ball). What are your engineering thoughts on remanufacturing/refurbishing/rebuilding ball studs? What are your thoughts on having parts re-produced? Any other solutions or comments are much appreciated.