A bearing set for a ball socket joint comprises an outer bearing (22) and an inner bearing (24) with a head (40) of a ball stud (42) engaging a spherical inner seat face (38) of each of the bearings. A compression pre-load is applied when the inner bearing (24) is inserted into a cavity (32) of the outer bearing (22), a cylindrical outer wedge surface (54) of the inner bearing (24) having a greater diameter than a corresponding diameter of an inner skirt (34) defining the cavity (32) of the outer bearing (22). The bearing set is subjected to additional compression pre-load when the bearing set and ball stud (42) are inserted into a socket (30) and the socket (30) is closed. The two-piece bearing set promotes easy joint assembly, results in a joint that is extremely tight with no axial or radial play, but allows necessary ball stud rotation and oscillation, and compensates for wear by a self-adjusting feature whereby some of the compression pre-load is released as wear takes place. <IMAGE>
