Winter projects anyone?

[anonymous-user]

Replacing ball joints, tie rods and track rods with Hills Engineering parts on the 612 this winter. Amazing how little play can cause a knock in the suspension. Need to be a bit careful with the 430 being underneath but figured a paint sheet would protect it Out tomorrow in the rain at Silverstone in the 430, that should be fun! Anyone else tinkering over the winter? Anyone with tips or advice? Next on the list for the 612 is a new LH seat belt buckle since some fault in the electrics is causing an airbag system error. Such fun.

[anonymous-user]

So this weekend I disconnected the ball joint from the lower suspension arm. With the car on the lift, the hub supported by a jack stand and the lower arm hanging down I have good access and I'm thinking of just completing the job with the arm in situ. The workshop manual says to remove the arm from the chassis to do the job but in truth that would be a real pain as access to the inner bolts is limited. Plus it means removing the alignment shims and possibly messing with the geometry when everything is re-torqued. I found it easy enough to remove the boots and press out the ball joint using the tool from Hills. The new Hysol glue needs to bake at low heat to set properly so I'm planning on pointing a blow heater at the joint for a couple hours once I have the new ball joint and circlips in place. Anyone see any problems with this approach? The blow heater will be at a really low setting and some distance away so as not to overheat anything.