VintageWatercooleds.com Technotes

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Wednesday, February 15, 2006 12:41:33 PM - Views


VintageWatercooleds.com Technotes :: ATS Technote - Changing your Ball joints

Ball joints need to be changed from time to time, they get soft and loose and you get this wobbly effect into your steering wheel.

jack the car up and remove the bolts for the wheel. Including the 30mm Axle nut (use a huge breaker bar)
Remove the 2 bolts that hold the carrier , slip the assembly of carrier/caliper off the rotor and and move aside.
loosen and remove the bolt that holds the tie rod end
using a fork I popped the tie rod end off, and just move it aside.
Now you need to remove the strut bolts off, before you do, mark the top bolt with a notch that hits the strut , so you can line up your angle afterwards when reassembling it all back
Take the bolt that goes across the head of the ball joint. And spread gently the top split of this clamp to permit the removal later
gently swivel the back plane assembly and dislodge the CV joint axle.
pull the assembly off the ball joint (last step!)
This is what a factory installed ball joint looks like (rivets) if yours looks like this.. enough to say that it was about time to change it if it has bolts, remove the bolts and do not reuse the bolts, new ones should of came with your kit.
drill the heads of the rivets
chisel the heads off, remove ball joint.
reinstall the new ball joint in places with the bolts kit. Use locktite or another type of thread lock on these bolts - They are subjected to all the rattles of the road and can come out easily.
re-assembly is reverse of assembly... repeat for other side (recommend doing these in pairs usually for best results)

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