Patent ID: 8052345

Claim:
A ball joint assembly for an axle carrier in a toy model vehicle, the assembly comprising: two generally cylindrical housings formed in the axle carrier, each housing having an inboard side with an inner substantially spherical housing surface surrounding an inboard opening, and an outboard side with an outboard aperture; two ball joint members received in the housings respectively, each ball joint member having a ball portion pivotally engaged with the substantially spherical housing surface and a threaded shank extending through the inboard opening to adjustably engage a respective suspension member, the ball portion having a socket therein for receiving a tool to facilitate adjustment of the ball joint member relative to the suspension member, the ball joint member being sized to be removeable from the housing through the outboard aperture; two generally tubular pivot ball caps received in the housings respectively, each cap having a throat portion extending between an inboard end having a substantially spherical cap surface and an outboard end having annularly arranged fingers forming a castle gear for facilitating removal of the cap from the housing, the throat portion having external threads engaged in mild interference with internal threads of the housing for securing the ball portion between the housing surface and cap surface; two elastic cap seals received within the pivot ball caps respectively, each cap seal having a neck with an inboard end with a retaining lip for retaining the seal within the cap, and an outboard end with a head portion seated in the pivot ball cap to close and seal the outboard end of the cap, the head portion having self-healing slits to allow tool access to the socket without removal of the pivot ball cap or cap seal; two elastic boots for sealing the inboard sides of the housings respectively, each boot having an inboard elastic collar sealingly receiving the shank therein and an outboard elastic lip sealingly received on an inboard shoulder of the housing; and two rings, each ring securing the elastic lip of each boot to each shoulder respectively by two clips extending from each ring to secure the ring to two clip receptacles on the housing.