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Fitting front upper ball joint - How to.

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47K views 54 replies 21 participants last post by  CJJ  
C
#1 ·
The front upper ball joint is part of the suspension and steering setup and is quite an important part in the general handling of the car.

The ball joint is screwed into the top of the hub and connected to the lower suspension arm. It allows the hub to move up and down and steer left and right.

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Symptoms of a failed ball joint are the cars handling feels strange, such as wandering etc, a knocking noise when going over bumps etc, or in my case a loud squealing/squeaking when steering and going over bumps.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfBPpxT3JUk

One of the best ways to diagnose it is to put the car up on axle stands, remove the wheel and try and check for play and see if you can see where the clunk/squeak is coming from.

To change the ball joint you need to raise the car

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and place on axle stands

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remove the wheel (It is best to loosen the wheel nuts before raising the wheel off the floor.)

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Clean the top threads with a wire brush or bush attachment on a drill. Try and get as much rust and dirt off as possible.

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and add some release oil to the ball joint threads. Try not to get it on the brake components.

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Use a jack to take the weight of the hub and compress it slightly.

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Hammer on a 19mm spanner

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And hammer a Torx key into the recess at the top of the bolt. It may also be an Allen key, or there may be no recess in which case you may need to cut the nut off or use a nut splitter.

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Remove the top nut

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Using a hammer and chisel, unfold the locking washer.

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Now separate the suspension arm from the ball joint using a ball joint splitter. You might get away with a sharp tap of the hammer, but usually they are well seized on.

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Now lower the hub and slide the threaded portion out of the hole in the suspension arm. You may need a bit of levering.

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Tie the hub off with a strop or similar as the hub will swing away and pull on the flexible brake pipe.

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Now hammer a 1 - 13/16” socket onto the ball joint. I found it easier to use my 12V impact driver to loosen the ball joint.

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And then finish off with a ratchet driver.

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Remove the ball joint.

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Check that the new ball joint is the same physical size as the old one.

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Unusually the new ball joint doesn’t have any type of key recess in the top of the bolt, unlike the old one which has a Torx recess. This will make it difficult to remove in the future and will probably need the nut to be cut off.

Clean the threads of the new ball joint

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And add some thread lock.

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Fit the lock washer and new joint and finger tighten.

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Now torque the ball joint to 105Nm.

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And hammer over the edges of the lock tab, one edge up and one edge down so that the joint cannot come free.

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Now feed the bolt up through the hole in the suspension arm

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Fit the nyloc nut and tighten to 54Nm

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The job is now completed. Refit the road wheel, remove the axle stands and lower the car.

Check the car steers correctly and then take the car for a test drive to ensure everything is working properly.
 
C
#7 ·
Alternatively, the side that is out of view could be hammered down. :dunno:

The reason that there are 2 up is that I started one but couldn't get the angle to finish it properly (the untidy one), so I folded one that was more accessible. :p

The folded down one

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P
#8 ·
Excellent how-to Clive thank you.

I'm in the process of removing my mgf engine from its subframe but have hit a snag with the upper ball joint. When I try to undo the nut, the thread also turns. There is no recess and I don't want to grind the nut off unless I have to so I was going to drill and tap into the ball joint 'stud' and fit a bolt so I have something to undo the nut against. Any thoughts on this?

Paul
 
P
#12 ·
CJJ said:
Symptoms of a failed ball joint are the cars handling feels strange, such as wandering etc, a knocking noise when going over bumps etc, or in my case a loud squealing/squeaking when steering and going over bumps.
Click to expand...
My car steering feels strange at high speed and it knocks at the front when going over speed humps.
Took the car in for an MOT last week, which it passed no problem ,which came as a surprise knowing there was a knocking at the front and expected a ball joint or something to be the cause. The MOT tester said he had noticed the knocking and had checked and double checked everything but couldn't see any movement at all where there shouldn't be any.
My question is Clive was the ball joint obviously knackered i.e lots of free play etc and has changing these ball joints cured the knocking problem.
 
C
#13 ·
No free play mate, just the squeal.

I had knocking at the front too and it was down to the rubber bush at the bottom of the shock absorber.

Put the car on axle stands, remove the wheel and try and sharply lift the hub.
 
M
#17 ·
Glad this was here looks like its a job I'll now need to do, managed to get the nut off the old one when I was taking the hub out to change the lower ball joint, but now the damned thing won't go back on and it doesn't have the recess.

Although looking at it the thread on the nut maybe goosed, either way I'm thinking it could be easier to just replace the thing, but 46mm isn't one of the sizes I keep :lol: Need to find one of those as well now!
 
M
#20 ·
Very successful morning Clive, thank you very much for calling down with the gear to do the job, and yep that ball joint didn't stand a chance against the 12V Impact!

Car is all back together now and the new cat is on, retest booked for 3pm tomorrow, so here's hoping it was the cat and not the lambda, but I guess I'll find out tomorrow ;)

Old ball joint destroyed and new one ready to go on...
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I
#22 ·
Did mine today, thanks clive good how to :broon:

I even tightened to the correct torque which is unusual for me :D

getting the old one off was a struggle even using my dads air impact gun, i think someone had been a bit over happy with the thread lock :)
 
R
#24 ·
I'm replacing my ball joints but it looks like I need to buy an impact wrench, before I do is there enough room to get a cordless into the rear arches to use on the ball joint? I don't want to buy the new 610Nm 'Toy' only to find its too big.....
 
C
#26 ·
Sorry mate, just seen this, been working on mine today.

Clearance shouldn't be an issue, just be careful when using it. If it is difficult to undo and you don't have a good grip on the impact driver it can spin out of your hand and could possibly dent the bodywork from the inside. I only know this because it nearly happened to me.
 
R
#27 ·
Thanks for the heads up, although I'd hope the one I ordered has a clutch to stop me spinning around with it.... Got me thinking now!

http://www.onlinepowertools.co.uk/prod/milwaukee-hd18hiw-402-18-volt-impact-wrench-4-0ah-batteries

I have a 3' breaker bar to try tomorrow, but failing that It will have to wait for the new toy. I had to cut down the ball joints thread with a grinder because they were too tall for the deep socket, so I have to do it now! Although there are enough threads to get it onto a trailer if needs be...!

Another great how too btw :broon: might have to create a book, not a Haynes manual but a CJJ... Far more useful!
 
R
#31 ·
Speaking to some garages it seem that they 'customise' the one that we have by wielding a small cut down knuckle bar or socket to it.

I did find a 6" deep 46mm socket.... however its for oil rigs.... and they didn't state the price.
 
T
#38 ·
That's strange. I think I have the same socket as everyone else and mine fits over the ball pin. Surely the top joints are the same front and back TF or F. I've even machined the front off mine to get rid of the internal chamfer and get a fuller engagement with the rather thin nut on the ball joint. Its important to get the pin upright so that it just enters into the 1/2" square.

EDIT
Ah, just noticed, mine has 'Laser' written on it.
 

Attachments

B
#43 ·
I managed to do both front and rear with this

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/191007015610

I didn't know the rears were deeper until I went to remove them, plus I'd bought 4 front ball joints as ECP didn't specify either when I ordered them.

Having got the correct ones I had to hover the socket in the impact wrench and ratchet but as said it worked, probably about 2 or 3mm to play with lol


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