It's been a while but I'm revisiting the Estate's front end to sort out the issues I now have after replacing the tie-rod ball joints (did them when renewing power steering gaiters). The new ball joints have obviously transferred the wear that had been masked by the old ones with quite a bit of wobble and knocking mostly only felt at about 80-85kmh when going up hill or carrying a lot of weight in the back. I re-did the sway bar and link bushes on the weekend with new poly versions all round and of course this has actually accentuated the issue even more.
I've got my hands on two new replacement lower ball joints that will hopefully get the issue nailed, the old ones still have grease nipples and are possibly original to the car i.e. have never been replaced so must be fairly knackered by now. My question is just how easy is this job lying on your back on a gravel drive in Southern Tas in wintertime? I've had a bit of a scout about on-line for info as my Haynes has gone missing, Mike Brace does a front strut replacement on the UK forums as a how-to and covers removing the ball joint plate from the control arm but not the strut. Has anyone got any tips/pointers/cautions?
Pretty easy. You can do it without removing the strut. There's four bolts on the bottom, three bolts holding the ball joint. Once it's out you likely need a rattle gun to disconnect the joint from the plate (ie the bit that bolts to the strut). Working slowly budget 45 minutes /side?
Easy job.
Unless you have an early 240...the first year or two the balljoint doesn't unbolt from the bottom of the strut, they bolt from inside the strut so you need to pull the strut out and remove the shock insert and use a long extension on a socket.....
carnut1100;52609 wroteEasy job.
Unless you have an early 240...the first year or two the balljoint doesn't unbolt from the bottom of the strut, they bolt from inside the strut so you need to pull the strut out and remove the shock insert and use a long extension on a socket.....
Sweet Jesus! How did they ever think that was a good idea!
jamesinc;52608 wrote Once it's out you likely need a rattle gun to disconnect the joint from the plate (ie the bit that bolts to the strut). Working slowly budget 45 minutes /side?
Thanks James, I guess that is the bit that concerns me! Luckily I've got the later model which doesn't involve the strut removal but I've been scratching my head (in anticipation) as far as undoing the nut that holds the ball joint to the bottom of it. I don't have a rattle-gun (or access to one) and I'm just a bit concerned that I won't be able to anchor things to undo the nut-any other suggestions??

I've done it in the vice plenty of times with a long handled ratchet.
Just unsure how to stop ball joint turning without damaging it in the vice, obviously I don't care if the old one gets trashed but don't want to make a mess of the new ones...
I've just done the passenger side and all went smoothly, had to turn the steering wheel to gain access to the inner two bolts that hold the ball joint to the strut but otherwise fine. Getting the old ball joint out of the housing was dead easy-back off the nylon nut, give it a tap and out it came. Fitting the new one was pretty easy too, I guess it's the self-tightening aspect of the tapered stud in the housing that allows the nut to be torqued up. Just been off to Repco for the some Loctite to re-do the four small bolts and all's good!
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