fitting b/ball joints & track rod ends

[lofty]

i know this would normaly be easy enough but after the grief i had fitting an anti-roll bar bush i thought i had better check in advance,

im fitting new track rood ends and bottom ball joints both side of my clio 16v, how hard is this? do i need a ball joint splitter? do i need to undo the anti-roll bar bush (absolute b@stard to compress enough to thread the nut on when re fitting!)

any help very much appreciated

 

[cliocup]

Hiya Lofty,

Ball joint are easy, get the car on the ramp/stands and undo the nut from the bottom of the hub (top of joint). Get a big lever inbetween the wishbone and the hub and prise apart. Or knock the wishbone out of the hub. Shouldnt need to undo roll bar bushes and yes, they are a bugger arent they!!! Un-bolt joint and replace with new ones.

Rod ends are the same as on most cars, hopefully wont be too rusted onto track rods, plenty or WD40 the night before if you can.

Good luck!

Robbie,

 

[lofty]

Cheers Robbie,

the track rods are OK as i have done them before but it certainly wasnt easy as they were siezed solid, im hoping that doing all these will cure my wandering steering, if not im going to have to get some one to fit a rack (which i have secondhand)

The problem is i no longer being able to work on my car during work time, it all needs to be done saturday morning come rain or shine! Im hopeing it should sharpen things up a bit though.

 

[Alex M]

Lofty

I did ball joints recently on my valver, the 16v ones arent a taper fit as on moist cars, but instead are held by a pinch bolt that locates in a recess on ball joint, through a clamp. This bolt (on both sides) sheared on trying to loosen them, and so this made it harder to punch them out. Tip, get a screwdriver of a suitable length and use that to lever clamp slightly apart, as this will allow you to retract pinch bolt easier (liberal WD40), whether it snapped on you or not. Then use a ball joint splitter to seperate hub from ball joint (have to spread clamp a little again). Once out, be carefull not to let strut move about, as the night mare scenario here is you forceably pop the inner cv joint out of the gearbox (valver boxes can be damaged this way). To get new ball joint in, loosly bolt it to wish bone and then try and get ball joint shaft up into clamp, its awkward but keep your patience and take youre time, as it is easy to bugger a new ball joint by brutalising it. Again avoid swinging strut all over place, and any other pressure on inner cv. Once its slid into clamp (again spread it with a screwdriver to ease it in), its just a matter of putting new pinch/clamp bolt in and tightning wishbone/ball joint bolts. I got my trackjing done after as upsetting ball joints can (and contrary to common opinion) put your tracking off, but since you are doing track rod ends anyway, youll have that covered. Dont know if this helps you, but let us know how you get on



Alex M

 

[lofty]

banged new ball joints and track rod ends on today, it went well, the pinch clamps are a pain to split althoguht the bolts came apart without any problem, also when refitting i just slid the ball into the clamp and tightened and then bolted to the wish bone after, seemed to work oK, i was a bit worried buy how the drive shafts rest on the outer CV boot while your wrestling with everything but i didnt split them luckily, also the steering is razor sharp now as one of the ball joints was knackered and not the rack as firdt thought,

anyone want to buy a second hand rack?

 

[Alex M]

yeah i was crapping it about damaging the cv joints, but seem ok. New ball joint tranform front end feel, end of clonking for a while. My local mechanic reckons clios on big wheels munch through ball joints quicker than any car he knows. We shall see how long they last



Alex M