Help - Fitting an upper ball joint

[damol]

I need a new drivers side upper ball joint and was wondering how hard it would be to fit this myself as I see the part are relatively inexpensive

I am a reasonable DIY er and would be keen to have a go myself it was not too hard and required no geometry setting up. Does anyone have a summary of how to do this?

Thanks

[spend]

Upper bj is clamped in slotted holes of the wishbone to adjust camber. You can carefully mark & match parts so that you can reassemble in pretty much the same position. As with most suspension components dont torque up until you have some load on the joints.

Dave

[steve-v8s]

Fairly easy to fit however I encountered two problems:-

First make sure you get the correct joint. There are some about where the ball part is too bulbous, it fits fine until you try to set the camber and find the top won’t go in far enough. This is not a problem if you get the correct part. Even if it is a TVR specialist supplier ask the question. Second thing I had was the bolts were well and truly rusted into joint. In the end despite lot’s of squirt, heat and huffing and puffing I had cut them off

[tvr keith]

Even if you mark it up before dismantling you should get the camber checked without delay afterwards. There may be a slight difference in the centres between the bolt holes and the pivot bolt. I didn't have mine checked for quite a long time resulting in one tyre wearing out the inside edge.
As the tyres were Bridgestone SO3's it turned out that that was a good thing but that's another story...........

[damol]

Can anyone suggest the best way of splitting the ball joint. I have tried the fork and given it a good belt but it is not budging?

[steve-V8s]

Did mine with a “Fork thing” You do need to give it a good whack with a lump hammer.

[GreenV8S]

damol said:

Can anyone suggest the best way of splitting the ball joint. I have tried the fork and given it a good belt but it is not budging?

I push them out from underneath.

[s7paul]

GreenV8S said:

damol said:

Can anyone suggest the best way of splitting the ball joint. I have tried the fork and given it a good belt but it is not budging?

I push them out from underneath.

When I did mine recently I had the hubs off the car anyway, with the ball joints still attached. I used a fork-type splitter as the other type wouldn't fit (as the threaded end of the ball joint is recessed too far). It did take quite a few very hard blows to get it apart, and I would probably have been less keen to hit it that hard if it had still been attached to the car. I think it's just a case of gritting your teeth and giving it a good wallop.

Incidentally, I got the new ball joints from a local motor factor; very cheap but, as mentioned above, slightly too bulbous to fit properly. However, a few minutes with the angle grinder fixed that problem (you just bevel the inner edge of the wishbone flange and skim a little off the ball joint casting; it's still plenty thick enough).

As also mentioned above, you must get the camber properly checked ASAP afterwards.

[damol]

Thanks for your replies.

I have decided to whimp out and have the car booked into a local garage to get them to do it for me (£20) as I am struggling for time.

I managed to get mine from a specialist Saab parts dealer for £13 and it look exactly the same as the original (1999) part. I will probably now get the other side done as well as I am sure that will go soon.

[spend]

Could you please say which actual makes of BJ's have been good & bad, I'm sure this has nothing to do with name/shame. I got generic Delphi-AP ones which were OK. TVR did change their suppliers and had different spacers as a result I seem to remember. So not sure if that is cause of confusions? (My wishbones are different so I cant even compare :-( )

Dave

[s7paul]

I thought that there were only two different spacer arrangements. The later cars have one spacer (looks about 5mm thick) which fits between the ball joint & the wishbone, and must be fitted to the side nearest the front of the car. The earlier cars had a different arrangement, which someone else will have to explain.

Although at first glance most of the replacement ball joints look the same, the genuine article has a circular ball joint housing which is the same diameter as the overall width of the bit that clamps between the wishbones (if that makes sense). Some aftermarket items have a larger diameter ball joint housing which prevents the ball joint sliding inwards on it's slotted holes, and may mean that you're unable to achieve the correct camber setting. Mine weren't too bad, and I solved the problem with a bit of grinding.

[damol]

managed to get it fitted today and it has transformed the car for a £13 part !!! I am now going to do the other side as well.

Damian

[That Daddy]

damol said:

Thanks for your replies.

I have decided to whimp out and have the car booked into a local garage to get them to do it for me (£20) as I am struggling for time.

I managed to get mine from a specialist Saab parts dealer for £13 and it look exactly the same as the original (1999) part. I will probably now get the other side done as well as I am sure that will go soon.

Does that £20 include setting the camber,because for that money i would not get my hands dirty even to just change the joint,food for thought,dont get me wrong i am not trying to rain on your fire

[damol]

You are right, the £20 (estimate) turned to £50 when I collected it as it was difficult to do, or so they said (maybe it was the fact that it was a TVR!!).

I have managed to do the other side myself and it was easy to refit in exactly the same spot as the original although will probably go and get the alignment checked on both front wheel anyway. It has made a real difference now that both have been done, it has much sharper steering and the clunking noises have disappeared.

[spend]

Before you do the alignment / camber I would take the bolts out and copper slip them ~ so that next time you can DIY. [cynicmode]Most garages see seized components as a self-filling cash dispenser[/cynicmode]

Dave

[That Daddy]

spend said:

Before you do the alignment / camber I would take the bolts out and copper slip them ~ so that next time you can DIY. [cynicmode]Most garages see seized components as a self-filling cash dispenser[/cynicmode]

Dave

Why, would you un-seize bolts for free then Spend?

[spend]

If I was the tw@t that didn't copper slip them then yes!

Dave

[That Daddy]

spend said:

If I was the tw@t that didn't copper slip them then yes!

Dave

Fair comment

[damol]

Yes, I did copperslip them just in case (although the originals came off fine in the first place it was the ball joint I couldn't split as it turned out my splitter was to wide so not enough pressure to part them)

The part was from a supplier called GSF website (http://gsfcarparts.com/) and the part number was S43805 at £9.60 (plus VAT)

It looks exactly like the original part and the one on the TVR websites but at a fraction of the cost (thats why i changed both!)

Not sure who the supplier is for it though as it isn't branded, just comes in bag with the part number.

[paul (93 chim)]

It's ok to buy elsewhere on a upper ball joint, but the lower ones have different hole centres to ones sold from a local motor factors!

Paul