Do I need spring compressors to change ball joints?

[J.B.]

I've some compressors coming in the post, but I'm looking at it now and wondering if they're needed as the spring seems to be at full extension. Just a quick yes/no, cheers.

 

[Daniel]

No.

 

[Budgie]

No need for spring compressors for anything on a 1*2

 

[J.B.]

Thanks, you are right (of course). Getting the ball joint off is harder than I thought. Ran out of light yesterday so going to have another crack today with copious amounts of WD40.

No need for spring compressors for anything on a 1*2

Spring compressor order cancelled then!

 

[Daniel]

They're a pain in the ass!!

 

[J.B.]

It's actually not the ball joint, but the bolt that holds the cup closed. We just can't get it out by banging on it or with mole grips so we are going to drill it out. Seems to be no option.

 

[Budgie]

Get a breaker bar on the pinch bolt and spin it a few times. Should still be able to bash it out..

Drilling it out- f**k that!

 

[J.B.]

The nut is off the back, but the bolt is so stuck that the head has rounded a little on the corners where I tried to get it out. So now you can't put the torque through without it popping off. I've been smashing a socket extender into it with a hammer and it ain't budging!

Drilling should be okay as long as it's a smooth hole and not threaded, it better not be threaded or this thing is going to a garage to get done. Lost my weekend to this one

 

[Dan519]

Hit it harder

 

[Dr HMS Derv Destroyer]

put the nut on a few threads, smash the living day lights out of it, once it starts moving, take the nut off and continue to hammer it through with a center punch or something that fits in that hole.

 

[J.B.]

Well it came finally came out. Somehow I managed to get enough purchase on the nut to spin it a bit, then more whacking got it to punch into the hole and then I pulled it out by hand! Ridiculously over toleranced part again from Renault, much like the intake manifold locator pin...

The ball joint came out relatively easily then. I then discovered that I got the M10 size instead of the M12 - feck. I had no idea there were two sizes. So now my car is out of action until Tuesday. Which cars use the M10 thread size? I find it absolutely s**t that even though I put my reg number in on the site, that I can end up with the wrong parts.

On the upside I have found excess play in the ball joint I've taken off which I'm hoping is the source of the knocking from the front right.

 

[J.B.]

Spring compressors would definitely help with this. With compressors you can bolt the ball joint to the wishbone, compress the spring, line up the hub to the ball joint, and then lower it on to the joint. Putting the ball joint in first and then bolting to the wishbone is almost impossible as the suspension drops so low. It causes the ball joint to sit at an angle so the bolts won't go through the hole as they aren't perpendicular to the holes in the plate. In the end we used a trolley jack to raise the ball joint up to the wishbone, and greased the hell out of the bolts until they slipped over. Total PITA.

Unless I'm missing something about how to get these together?

 

[Chri5]

The anti roll bar can make it worse as if you've just jacked up the one side, its fighting against it the whole time as its trying to push the wishbone you're working on, up! Undoing the link on the wishbone and/or lifting the other side seems to help I find

 

[J.B.]

The anti roll bar can make it worse as if you've just jacked up the one side, its fighting against it the whole time as its trying to push the wishbone you're working on, up! Undoing the link on the wishbone and/or lifting the other side seems to help I find

Essential tip that! Lifting up the other side was the trick. I got the bolts located is less than 5 minutes this time.

 

[JackJack]

Unless I'm missing something about how to get these together?

As Chris said the anti roll bar causes problems.

 

[Psychobitch]

Great thread as we are just attempting to change ours so this is really useful.
Thanks guys