Thanks for posting the size of the upper ball. One of mine is rusted away to dust, the other is not far behind. So no way to measure them.

I was checking thru the parts stock at work today & found one ball stud on the shelf, but figured it was too small. But, it may be 8MM, if I am lucky. If not I'll buy the 8MM ones off ebay. Should be easy enough to mount them on the bracket & fix them on the cheap.

 

Well, I finally had time to repair the ball stud today.

The factory style 8MM studs are just to wimpy for my taste, they are turned down to probably 2MM between the ball & the threads. A poor design in my opinion.

To repair it, I removed the bracket the ball stud mounts on & ground off the remnants of the stud. A couple of hits with a punch & hammer drove the back of the stud out of the bracket. The hole left is just large enough to be tapped for a 1/4 20 thread, so that is what I did. I then took a grade 8 1/4 X 3/4" long bolt & ground the head down to a ball shape of about 8MM. This was a tight fit in the end of the gas shock. A nut on each side of the bracket the stud mounts to hold it in place. Bolted it all back on the HHR & hooked up the gas shock. It all seems to work fine. The other side is rusty as well so I will get to repairing that one soon.

 

We do require photos!! We love photos!!

 

Yeah, after I was done I realized I should have taken pictures.... When I do the other side I'll take some.

 

I would guess that the homemade ball stud should be extra smooth, so as to not wear out(abrade) the inside surface of the strut.