Ball joint

In a ball joint of the type that includes:

• a ball seat having an immovable closed side, an open inserting side, an outer wall portion and a ball stud having a ball portion mounted in said ball seat by insertion through said open side to provide a ball seat and ball stud subassembly;
• a housing having spaced apart opposite sides, a cylindrical bore passing therethrough from one of said sides to the other of said sides for receiving said outer wall portion and upper and lower opened edges on said housing sides, respectively, around said bore for holding said subassembly therein;
• the improvement comprising:
• said ball seat being formed out of a hard synthetic elastically deformable material;
• said ball seat including an upper annular flange in spaced surrounding relation to said immovable closed side of said ball seat having a radially outward enlarged portion of a diameter that is, prior to insertion of said subassembly into said bore, greater than the inner diameter of said housing bore, said annular flange being engageable with said upper opened edge at said one side of said housing, and an inner circumferential side opposite said radially enlarged portion;
• and
• an annular recess adjacent said inner circumferential side of said upper annular flange and spaced radially inward in opposed relation to said radially outward enlarged portion to provide a space adjacent said immovable closed side into which said upper annular flange can move to thus permit said upper annular flange enlarged portion to be elastically deformed without deforming said closed side, to a diameter at least equal to the inner diameter of said housing bore upon insertion of said subassembly therein.