Ebay ball links wrong lenght
 

I bought a pair of delrin? ball links for the intake manifold bellows a couple of years ago on ebay (advertised as for S8).
Finally one of my original plastic ball links broke, so I had the replacement ready.
However I found it is 5mm longer than the stock ball link. I wonder if this hurts performance? Perhaps the flap wont be fully closed/open due to this?
Anyway just thought I would mention it to be careful with buying the ebay ball links they may be just slightly the wrong length.

Now I am going to do as originally planned and make them myself out of aluminium ball links.

5mm longer means the flaps won't be fully opened so it may reduce low end torque.

Doesn't someone in the US make aluminium link arms already?

Gruvenparts? https://www.gruvenparts.com/audi-vw-...-linkage-arms/

Thanks Mikki +++

Definitely have to make my own ones then. Gruvenparts are a bit pricey.
Not sure about the size of the ball on the Ebay ones I was going to get.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/L11485-M8...13491e467013ad

I have an idea, I am going to saw the ones I have in half, thread them and re-size to correct size.
For reference these are the wrong ones I got, it was from this place, don't get these!
https://vanos-bmw.com/product/audi-v...98327a-4-2l-v8
Numpties!

A engine-on test reveals that the manifold arm is pulled all the way to its stop.
The bellows appear to have some extra movement built in which accommodates the wrong length of the aftermarket arm. So I'm going to leave it for now.
Other thing to note is that the new arm is also very loose, the hole is much bigger than for the 8mm ball. So all in all a poorly made product, don't buy.