Ball joint pain !

disting

Member
No it's not an illness:) !
...our A2 recently had an MOT while we were away . Taken to garage by someone else to have it done .Unusually it failed. - due to lower suspension arm corrosion, and was replaced again with a pressed steel arm. It therefore has the bolt on ball joint.
car is a 2004 1.4 Tdi sport with Open Sky Roof. annoyingly though the garage also noted a 'repair as soon as possible'- offside front suspension arm ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated .- I take it this must be the ball joint dust cover??
Is the same side as where they replaced the suspension arm!!. I cannot for the life in me understand why they didn't replace the dust cover when they had everything apart at the time. For the sake now of a £2 dust cover , I no doubt will have oodles of labour charges. To access the same area again.
so, I propose to fit it myself.
anybody done this?, Easy job? , any tips , tricks, special tools?, And if possible the torque settings for the 3 bolts that attach the ball joint to the control arm and the nut on the top of the ball joint . Will the ball joint just spin when undoing the nut above it? Once removed is the suspension lowered then the 3 ball joint connecting bolts removed?
i take it all nuts are easily accessible. ?
( interestingly i had a quick look at the ball joint where it connects to the control arm, and on both sides only 2 of the 3 threads have nuts on !?? The central one being nutless is this normal??)
if i can get a couple of ball joints cheap enough i may just replace both sides with 2 new ball joints if it's an easy job .
thanks in advance for any help
andy
 
Never done the presses wishbones but the same principle applies
Undo the single nut on the ball joint with the weight of the car on the joint (prevents it spinning the tapper)
Then jack up the car and use a lever to pull the joint apart. It likely will not come apart so hit the SIDE of the housing with a sharp blow from a 4lb hammer this will shock the taper and it will pop apart. Sometimes a few blows is needed but the important thing is the applied load to pull the taper apart whilst hitting the side of the housing with the hammer
Once apart replace the dust cover cleaning out old gears and fitting new grease if ANY contamination is present
The eBay dust seals work really well at £2ea and have o rings to keep the seal in place at both large and small ends
Then push the taper back in the housing and nut the nut on
You will then need to jack up the wish bone to mate the taper so you can tighten it up else it will spin

Job done start to finish in about an hour for me
Worth wd40 on the nut for a few days

Paul


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Thankyou Paul that’s great.
Did you fund any info on the torque setting for the ball joint top nut at all?
 
Just as tight as you can pull on a 19mm ring spanner
Ideally fit a new nylok nut as they are single use for safety

Paul


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Lemforder or TRW little else is good enough!
Ball joint splitters are great if the joint is kaput overwise it will be if forced to use one!
Heat on the nyloc nut works great to loosen it as once cracked off it will spin freely but only good if the have heat and as mentioned a new nut!
From memory it bolts pretty much in only one place without elongation
 
I've never had a problem damaging the balljoint. Just slacken the nut till the nylock is clear of the thread but leave the nut on. Install the tool and tighten the draw bolt then give it a whack (the jaw which is against the balljoint bolt end) with a club hammer. If it does not work first time, nip up the draw bolt again and repeat the process.

On re-assembly I always thoroughly degrease both the balljoint bolt and hole tapers which really helps with initial 'bite' and prevents it spinning.

Cheers Spike
 
Thanks Paul Joga Spike and Howey also.
Talk of pullers now had me worried:-(

But anyway think i’ll Go for new ball joints and replacing both sides for good measure

Many thanks again
 
I simply use the hammer shock method on the odd occasion seriously stuck tapers then get the spitter but found that destroys the ball joint dust covers
 
Have lemforder ball joints ready to go on.
I note the main nut and others they come with are not nyloc nuts. I presume these are torqued up with blue ‘nutlock’ for safety instead ?
 
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