Because I am a stuborn so and so and because by the time I got all the children stuff I had to do done all the suspension shops were shut..

I had another go at getting the bottom ball joints out. and I did it!!

The press was no use at all... 6 tons of pressure didn't budge it... however, I got some 2.5 inch 2mm pipe and made a sleeve for the ball joint.. turned it upside down and used insulation tape to tape an old 24mm socket that I had to the back of the ball joint. (so I hit the socket instead of flowering the back of the ball joint.)

Then since I didn't have a big enough hammer.. I got out my log splitter axe.. sat the knuckle on the top of my new press.. (sitting on the pipe over the ball joint.) and started slamming the socket. Each hit moved it about a millimetre, and both came out without issue.

I can't stress enough how hard you have to hit to get these things out.. it takes a LOT of force. I had a nice steel press frame on the concrete floor to use as a base and it was really solid and transfered all the force to the ball joint... I understand what they mean in the hammer instructions others gave me in this thread.. you don't understand till you've tried it how hard they are in there.



You can see the pipe I made.. the force I was applying spread the top of it in seconds... still worked though.

Don't know how I'm gonna get the new ones in.. but that's tomorrows job.

Should I put some grease on the mating parts to facilitate?

We usually buff all the corrosion off to ensure the metal is clean when pressing in... take the boot off the ball joint... And if it goes C**k eyed you will snap the outer skirt off (We destroyed two one day with the genuine Ford tool and going nice and slow with a press)...

Do not use any sort of lubricants... They're designed to be an interference fit for a reason... I strongly recommend you don't apply a shock force like hammering on that outer skirt when reseating... Presses are nice and smooth and easy on the components... A bottom ball joint failure would be catastrophic (hence the territory recall/warranty replacement because they turned the ball joint upside down and when they started to flog out they realised it'd drop the front end of the car on the ground if it completely gave way)... But entirely your choice how you get them in... I personally don't apply high impact shock like that to surface hardened steel...

Cheers,
Tim

Good tips. Thank you.

I put a wire brush attachment in the drill and cleaned both knuckles spotless, but in particular I jammed it in the ball joint holes and turned the drill on. The inside face is spotless and smooth. Maybe 6 tons will be enough to get them in.

yep that's how we get them in. wire buff in a die grinder or drill.

6t should get them in i think. they go in easier than they come out. breaking that static friction they have to get them out is the hard part.

Cheers,
Tim

Guess we will know tomorrow.

I tried pressing one in.. but my pipe wasn't a good enough fit so I took them to pedders to be pressed in... barstids charged me 80 bucks just to press them in.. feel like I did half the work for nothing...

oh well, at least I can put them in now.

Anyone know what the best type of grease for ball joints is? the top ones have nipples and I was thinking of lithium grease?

I use 5-6mm thick water pipe, and funnily enough I replaced 2 x uppers and 2 x lowers last weekend.

If you're going to press them in, do take a chamfer off the leading edge of those splines with a bench grinder, helps get them going, and keep an eye they are going in square.

I used a cutting disc to take off the old upper ball joint collar - there's not much area around it to support the arm when you're getting it out - you can then fit a pipe section easily - as Tim says, it's best to support those areas as much as possible.

I don't think grease type is a major thing - just something better than that jello looking crap they seem to use. I used HT/EP moly - give it a good purge with a bit inside the boot - not too much.

Fulcrum charge me $20 per ball joint to do the remove and fit. For that price it's not worth stuffing around with.

On the lower control arm of a Ford AU, I used a 10 tonne bottle jack to pop the bushes out, it was easy to do, just had to make up a bush pusher so it pressed on the metal part, it had to be a fractionally less than the hole you are pushing on and long enough for the pusher to go through.

A 1/4 inch base plate was welded to the pusher. pusher was made from steel pipe.

Same as per large bush.

Demolition yard was the source for my pipes.

When I purchase another camera I'll post the fabricated tubes on here. My previous digital camera is lost.

My MIG welder came in handy for this job.

To push the bushes back in, use similar pipes but heavier press, mate next door has 100 tonne press.

Cheers, Peter

Thanks Peter, I'd like to see the photos.. I was walking around Bunnings looking for suitable pipe on a Sunday... nothing useful there, and nothing else open.. thats when I got frustrated and decided to pay.

All done now though.. along with two shiny new tires and a very good wheel alignment the car feels like it's on rails.

It's funny when you replace tierod outers - I used the same brand, measured the edge to the centre stud with digital vernier (both old/new same length), so fitted in same location on the tierod and adjuster nut (marked beforehand) - turns out during alignment, toe is out 4-6 mm each side, instead of std 0.4 mm.
Go figure

yes.. that has happened to me before too..

In this case, I took the tie rod and tie rod end off as one piece, then put the new ones together and put them side by side and made them as close to the same length as I could before putting them in again as one piece.

Guy at pedders said it was pretty close.

Possible explanation for your descrepency is the size of the internal ball at the end of the shaft in the rod end.. if it's smaller or bigger than the old one, it would make the tiniest difference bigger wouldn't it? perhaps they released newer updated ones with bigger internal balls? can't think of any other possible answer. If the ball size is different, changing the angle of the shaft as you do when you put it in would change the length by a good percentage of whatever the ball size difference is. (pure speculation, but it kind of makes sense)

Frankieh

No problems, as soon as obtain another digital camera, probably by the end of next month then I'll post them here.

I noticed you have the swivel arm painted blue or someone else sprayed it. Good job, better than standard black paint.

yeah.. I spent an hour with a wire wheel getting them spotlessly clean.. then it seemed like a waste not to paint them... I don't mind the result at all.

having said that, my car is so low that you can't see any of it with the wheel on and on the ground.. but I know it's there and hopefully it will look nice and shiny for the guys over the pits when I take it in to change from auto to manual.

Here are the bush removal tools I made,

Very simple, smaller tubes are gal pipes with about 2mm wall thickness and welded onto 1/4" thick steel plate. The larger remover is made from heavy steel pipe, ex fire hydrant.

Pipes were made long to ensure they slide through the housing. These pipes are also used to press respective bushes back into their location.

To remove bushes from lower control arm, I palced arm in bench vice and used 10 tonne bottle jack between the arms with appropriate pipe for the bush to be removed and start pumping. Can be done by oneself.

Pipes were made as to sit on the outer metal edge of new bushes for exact fit.

You can use a vice press to press bush back into position, you may need another person to hold the pipe square to the tool to avoid bush crush. Never used any lubricant when pressing back in.

Did apply graphite grease on all metal to metal surface contacts after fitment, including bolts to minimise any squeal and / or squeaks when torqued as per Ford recommendations.

I painted the pipes a crappy yellow to avoid rust forming at a later stage, I'll repaint these later as currently they have s**t runs.


Hope this might help others.

 

 

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various lower control arm bush removers [800x600].jpg [ 85.17 KiB | Viewed 212 times ]

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