So my version of a force screw type front radius arm bush tool worked well enough getting the new bushes in although the standard M12, 1.75 mm pitch, screw in the import universal bush removal kit made rather hard work of the job. If it ever gets another run out it will get modified for a 12 mm fine or extra fine pitch screw. 1.25 mm or 1 mm pitch means more twirling but gets much more push per unit torque. Can do PDF drawings of the kit if anyone wants them. Maybe even make another if you ask real nice!

RAVE says you need to remove the road wheel and disconnect the track rod from the swivel hub before removing the radius arms. Looking under the car it appears that there may be room to ferret the radius arm out with wheel and track rod end still affixed. Is this so?

Whats the best way of going about this when working off axle stands? Unless they give up pretty easy I shall cut the bolts. Life is too short to mess about.

Clive

I know that quite a few people who changed there bushes put new bolts, I know mine undo as the P.O. had put nice crap part poly bushes for me to change.
I agree with it looking like everything can be left connected, I’m doing mine pretty soon, after that might even do the rear ones, not much left I can do on the car now,
Only other thing is new bump stops that I’ve had for at least a year now, lol

PDF drawings would be useful, always handy building a library of knowledge.

Aragon

OK I'll re-work the drawings to incorporate experience, although the set worked MK 2 is always better than MK 1, and make them so anyone can understand them. I'll put some application notes in too.
I'll PM you when its done.

Clive

Well that job is not going well at all. Major league issues in releasing stuff. One radius arm bolt actually came out!

Mr MoT Man insisted that the air tank was too rusty last year so that had to come out for refurb one to be fitted. One bolt wasn't going to shift. Fortunately it was the lower rear one not upper rear one. Probably a body off job to cut that one out! Tried a number of things with similar results to Mr Jerome K Jeromes trio of riverine explorers at tea time taking the obligatory think and simmer down breaks. Three days too late I tumbled on the right answer. Got a cheap electric band-filer from LiDL a while back which ground off the remains of the head nicely. Hammering undersize socket on, drilling out, chiselling et al all failed dismally. Impressed with that band-filer. Ones I'd used before were less than inspiring.

Final drop out tomorrow and hopefully all back in by tea time. Ha! Getting too old for under car on axle stands work.

Getting close up'n personal its clear that swivel joints, track rod and drag link need doing too. Two rubbers split, others not good. Island have Lemforder assemblies in stock at reasonable prices so that should all be with me by Tuesday. Not optimistic about the tension collets on the swivel hubs staying in re-useable condition either as they are heavily rusted. On 3 day order from Island too so fingers crossed the old ones don't get damaged in the swivel removal process. Its all horribly rusty down there. Whats the DIY method for setting them in the right place if I do have to fit new ones?

MoT booked for May 26 th so gotta get skates on.

Clive

Mine was all very rusty too, but the collets stayed put

On the swivel joints - Be aware that the Lemforder ones do not come with the nuts. Advice on here (from Chris I think which helped greatly) was to use the Bearmach ones as these do come with the nuts. Collets didn't move on mine either (Disco 2, but its the same part either way) despite having to fight to get them off.

The joint assembly is only good for 3 balljoint replacements according to Rave.

The collects rarely moved, if you need any info on removing ball joints drop me a pm and I’ll give you my number

Lmao, at raves, only good for 3 changes, 99% of p38s on the road are still running with the originals 20 yrs down the line

no10chris wrote:

Lmao, at raves, only good for 3 changes, 99% of p38s on the road are still running with the originals 20 yrs down the line

Did seem a bit overkill to me when I read it! Out of interest what sort of mileage would you expect to get out of a set of balljoints?

I changed mine at 140k, I’ve done some that had 170 s, the last ones were on a off roader, top one had sheared off the ball joint itself, bottom had sheared on straight threaded part of ball joint,was still being driven to and from off road sites,
Rusty as hell, but they came out easy enough, I don’t think mileage is an issue, it’s down to how the cars been treated and the last one shows how solid they are..
We’re changed cos advisory on mot last year.

Mine had no discernable slack at 250k + when I swapped the front axle but the ones on the SE had enough slack for an MoT fail at 130k.

Now't wrong with any of the swivels and ball joints on mine, 2000 model year 4.0 HSE with around 90,000 miles up, but rubber covers are all ageing out. Bottom drivers side swivel is totally shagged. Top drivers side and drivers side track rod end very unhappy. As are some of the suspension bushes. So they are all getting done.

All protesting mightily about removal too! Shoulda known better than to buy a car that had lived close, but not that close, to the seaside even though all looked wonderful back then.

Definitely a Masochistic May so far.

Clive

mine was on 178k.

Boots were all split and the innards of the joints were rusty.

Given the absolute pig of a job they are to change, i would only be fitting lemforder or genuine. Lemforder manufactured the joints for landrover, so they're the only aftermarket manufacturer i'd trust.

Aragorn wrote:

mine was on 178k.

Boots were all split and the innards of the joints were rusty.

Given the absolute pig of a job they are to change, i would only be fitting lemforder or genuine. Lemforder manufactured the joints for landrover, so they're the only aftermarket manufacturer i'd trust.

I'd agree with you there, though quality parts should come with the matching nuts in the box all the same which is the only thing i had against the Lemforder ones.

yeh its odd, i've bought numerous lemforder bits for my Audi and BMW, and they always come in a Lemforder box with all associated fasteners.

Whereas the various lemforder bits i've ordered for the Rangey (track rods and balljoints) have come unboxed with no nuts or anything.

The problem is, that OEM manufacture has most probably been sold to new owners, many companies are bought just for there name, jeez, look at LR, how did it end up being owned by TATA, not exactly quality car manufacturers,

Lemforder have been part of ZF since the 80's (and still are).

Its not like Lucas (and many others!) where someones bought out the brand and churn out shite with their name on it. Its a bonafide high quality OEM producing parts for many major car manufacturers.

Were Lucas ever any good?

Probably not, but despite their reputation, most of the 23 year old electricals in the P38 do still work, where as the "Lucas" crank sensor i fitted a year ago died after barely 5 thousand miles...