Ball - Socket Joints

rdw777 wrote:We read often that for engines that run a lot may need a reset after awhile but the need for more resets becomes less as run time accrues on them…Intended by design?…. Cox had some top notch engineers….

Like most things that break in, this I think should be expected as the surface improves. I've torn apart a couple old piston and rod, and the surfaces on the ball were less perfect. I recently read about Gilbert ball sockets being reset.

A look at the timeline of various designs may show that Cox was the first to use their process successfully, but I don't know much about other makes. G-Mark appeared late in the game and appear to be made just like Cox. Swaging at elevated temperatures seems impractical from a production standpoint, because it would likely require finishing the piston OD with a rod in it. A few hundred degrees makes no difference for steel, it would have to be near red heat to soften enough to matter. Alloy could be a factor if work hardening allows it to bend a certain amount, but after that it fails.