Ball Joints

[Goldstar]

I’m getting close to finishing the changeover from MOD to ZF4 and was planning to put my steering rack back on the car this evening (took it off to make engine in and out easier).

I remembered that one of the ball joints looked a bit shabby when I took the rack off so I had a closer look. As I touched it the rubber fell to pieces and was obviously providing no protection. The other side had a split rubber which was also going to let water and dirt in.

luckily I had a pair of bare control arms, ball joints and bushes in my spares stash so put them all together and swapped them
over, it took about 2 hours start to finish and was a bit of a wrestle at times but not too bad.

odd thing is although the ball joints were obviously shot, I don’t remember any clunks or bad handling but it was only a matter of time.

Moral of the story is to make sure the rubber in your life is providing the protection you need

Heres what they looked like when I got them off, the rubber wasn’t damaged in the removal.

1BBBB42D-9C96-40F1-8B20-F795758DE9CE.jpg

[alan_thomas]

Sometimes it’s just the poor quality rubber that fails and you get an MOT fail when the joint is good. Sometimes you split a boot when you use a ball joint splitter. A few years back I bought an assortment pack of about 20 boots from these guys for very little money.

https://www.balljointboots.co.uk/

saved £400 on a Merc SLK steering rack (can’t buy replacement ends), replaced one side on a Ford Focus and also replaced one side on the Stag when a split appeared
Saved a fortune and still have half of them left!

Alan

[mole42]

I remembered that one of the ball joints looked a bit shabby when I took the rack off so I had a closer look. As I touched it the rubber fell to pieces and was obviously providing no protection. The other side had a split rubber which was also going to let water and dirt in.

I had an MOT fail because of a "worn ball joint" - I had the garage change it but the same problem recurred the next year. It turned out to be the hole in the track control arm that was at fault - had worn or corroded such that the ball joint housing wasn't tight - the ball joint was perfect!

[Goldstar]

Sometimes it’s just the poor quality rubber that fails and you get an MOT fail when the joint is good. Sometimes you split a boot when you use a ball joint splitter. A few years back I bought an assortment pack of about 20 boots from these guys for very little money.

https://www.balljointboots.co.uk/

saved £400 on a Merc SLK steering rack (can’t buy replacement ends), replaced one side on a Ford Focus and also replaced one side on the Stag when a split appeared
Saved a fortune and still have half of them left!

Alan

Agree with all of that Alan. The rubber was obviously perished on one and split on the other. I have tried new boots before but didn’t have that option this time round as I need to keep cracking on to be ready for 12 May.

mole42 that’s my next expectation Richard. I’ll get a couple of ball joints for these in anticipation of the next failure