Originally Posted by
HillRider
Very good summary. I agree that ball-ends have limited torque capacity but are very nice for starting bolts in awkward locations where a straight-in approach isn't easy or even possible. The Bonddus ball-end sets (metric and Imperial) I have only have the ball at the end of the long arm of the L so you really can't apply a lot of torque to them.
When I was first getting back into fixing bikes over a decade ago, I used a Park ball-end Y wrench for almost everything. That was a bad idea because it allowed more torque than you should really apply with a ball tip. The contact area is just too small.
I don’t remember where I got it, but I have an 8mm ball-end socket with a 3/8” drive. I can’t think of a single situation where that would be a good idea.