Socket assembly and method of making a socket assembly

A ball socket assembly, comprising:

• a housing having an inner bore;
• a ball stud having a ball portion;
• a bearing assembly including a plastic portion and a plurality of metal segments, said plurality of metal segments having a plurality of projections, said plastic portion being overmolded around said plurality of projections to fixedly attached said plurality of metal segments with said plastic portion, and said metal segments collectively defining a curved bearing surface that is in slidable contact with said ball portion to allow said ball stud and housing to rotate and articulate relative to one another;
• and
• said metal segments being spaced apart from one another, broken connectors located between said metal segments, and said plastic portion allowing said metal segments to move relative to one another and individually seat against said ball portion of said ball stud.

A method of making a ball socket assembly, comprising the steps of:

• overmolding a plastic portion around a plurality of projections formed onto a plurality of metal segments to fixedly attach the metal segments with the plastic portion to form a bearing assembly, said metal segments defining a curved bearing surface, and the metal segments being initially monolithic and interconnected with one another via a plurality of connectors;
• inserting said bearing assembly as a pre-assembled unit into an inner bore of a housing;
• separate from the step of inserting the bearing assembly into the inner bore of the housing, inserting a ball portion of a ball stud into the inner bore of the housing and establishing slidable contact between the ball portion and the curved bearing surface of the bearing assembly;
• and
• in response to establishing slidable contact between the ball portion of the ball stud and the curved bearing surface of the bearing assembly, breaking the connectors and moving at least one of the metal segments relative to the other metal segments to individually seat the at least one metal segment against the ball portion of the ball stud.