Ball joints.

[DANNY8]

Just wondering if anyone can give me a qwik quide on how to change the ball joints.

I thought they'd just come out with a few hits of the hammer like tie rod ends, but apparently hitting the ball joints out can stuff up the wishbone.......sooooo I bought a set of ball joint remover things off ebay, which u basically tap in between the ball joint and wat its pressed against, then hit it to split them apart.....I should have it within the next few days, and the ball joints I bought 2day, so just wondering if there's anything I should know b4 trying to change them myself....are they easy?

In the service manual it didn't really say much except to take it to the professionals coz a special tool is needed to do it right without damaging it.....but I wanna do it myself, so I bought the tool

Cheers,
Danny.

[vkberlina]

Its simply just remove the old one and insert the new one. Soak the ball joint in inox or other good lube the day before to try and help loosen the sucker its prob been in there since new.
Before you insert the new one clean up the hole for it and make sure there are no burred edges. When you tighten up the new one, take the car for a short SLOW drive then check and retighten your work.

Then put a few KM on it and recheck them making sure they are tight.

cheers
Scott

[DANNY8]

Thx heaps mate......only prob is the car don't run at the moment coz it's the one I'm doin all the work to haha....that's one thing that's gonna suck when I can finally drive it once it's finished, I'll have to go over everything that I've replaced haha.

I actually haven't even sussed out the old ball joint, so I dunno how it's in there, wat it does up to or anything. The only time I've touched it is when I've pulled struts or kframes out...never actually done ball joints. Will have to have a looksy 2morrow. Just gonna pull some wishbones out of another car, then clean, paint and put the new ball joints in......then when I have everything ready I can put all the new gear on the wagon at the same time

[BLSTIC]

As in disconnecting the balljoint from the arm it goes in to? Put a nut with the same thread as the balljoint on it MOST (not ALL) of the way and hammer on the nut. The nut will then be un-useable, as it will tend to do the self locking thing when you do it up further, it will be fine unding it though. This shouldnt damage the balljoint itself though.

As for getting it out of the control arm, I thought it was just the three or four bolts? Or am I thinking of the HQ-Z style ones?

cya
Ben

[craigvk]

Just a question here regarding ball joints, last time I checked mine on my VK, there was no grease nipple. Is this normal?

[Dan355]

The whole assembly of the ball joint and socket is recommended to service at once hence change both ball joint and seat. You get the ball joint and seat together anyway, so why not change both? They need to be pressed out out. Im in the midle of doing my front end atm. Its alot easier and cheaper getting it done properly.

[DANNY8]

I bought new ball joints, but didn't get no seats or anything. Just got the ball joint itself in a packet in a box. Wats the seat look like, and can they be bought seperately?

I'd take it to the pro's, but I wanna do as much as I can here at home. I should be able to get access to a press if I need one.

Here's the ball joints I got.