Ball and socket joint

According to the invention, a stud has a spherical ball with upper and lower hemispheres and is seated within a socket housing. The socket housing includes a bore defining an access through which the stud may be inserted into the housing and a hemispherical cavity surface for seating the upper hemisphere of the spherical ball. A housing plug closes off the bore of the socket housing and has a hemispherical cavity surface for receiving the lower hemisphere of the spherical ball. A molded plastic spherical bearing liner is interposed between the spherical ball and the hemispherical cavities of the socket housing and the housing plug. The bearing liner has an unsegmented upper hemisphere which acts between the hemisphere of the spherical ball and the hemispherical cavity of the socket housing. The bearing liner also has a lower hemisphere integral with the upper hemisphere and segmented by longitudinal extending slots therethrough to provide an even numbered plurality of resilient spring fingers. These spring fingers are molded to alternately curve inwardly and outwardly. The inward curving fingers grip the spherical ball while the outwardly curving fingers apply spring force against the hemispherical cavity of the housing plug, thereby providing reliable low friction relative movement while simultaneously eliminating lash in the ball and socket joint.