The ball joint has a socket body and a ball stud pivotally mounted to the socket body. The ball stud has a shank portion that extends therefrom and is aligned along a shank axis. An elastic boot seal (42) that extends between the ball stud and socket body is also included. The seal element (50) is interposed between the boot seal, the shank portion and the input/output member (18) to enhance the boot seal interface and thereby guard the boot seal to shank portion interface against contamination during movement and articulation of the input/output member relative to the ball joint. |