My new toy went in for its first mot today and has failed.

Failures:
Brake pipe excessively corroded off-side rear (front to back)
Brake pipe excessively corroded Nearside rear
Drag link end ball joint dust cover excessively damaged - nearside front
Drag link end ball joint dust cover excessively damaged - offside front
Suspension arm ball joint excessive play - nearside front lower
Track rod end ball joint dust cover excessively damaged - nearside front
track rod end ball joint dust cover excessively damaged - offside front

Advisory:
Suspension ball joint cover deteriorated - offside front lower

I think I need a hug...

Well here's the hug with sympathy...
Above all you need some new balljoints ☺
It's not the money, just a lot of work and a press.

So many balls...
Balls :)
As Ferry says though, at least none of it's hugely expensive. Roll of Kunifer for the brake pipes and a ball joint press.

Hiya Smiler

MOT checks might seem a PITA but at heart they provide a valuable check, ultimately designed to keep you safe.

I for sure do not want myself or my wife or staff driving any vehicle with Iffy brakes / piping or ball joints and take any advisement that something needs replacing as helpful and assuring.

As has been stated, rectifying these issues and replacing worn or corroded items that might fail as you mention is neither difficult or expensive on a 10 Year or more, old vehicle.

I am very pleased with the garage, can't fault them.

I will start to trawl RAVE in a moment but off the top of your heads, is this a job I can achieve on the driveway (with a suitable size can of profanities)?

Brake pipes are going to be a right pain...

Well...

I know Sloth has been under one doing brake lines last weekend ;) I've also done them before and have the flare tool to do Kunifer pipe, which you are welcome to borrow if you like.

Track rod/Drag link - the 'long' end is crimped into the tube, and non replaceable on it's own, so it's easier (and cheaper) to just replace the whole rod. I recommend getting new lock nuts for the ends, as they can seize on the threads as they come off, and it's so much nicer reassembling it all with nice new parts!

Ball joints... can be a PITA to get bits apart, especially if they hubs have never been apart before. But the actual ball joints themselves are easy to do with the correct tools... I have the press tool to get joints in/out, and again, welcome to borrow it if you like.
When you do them, again, get new nuts - and buy genuine Lemforder ball joints. The workshop manual says that you can only change them 3 times, before the axle casing is oversize... and I wouldn't want to waste one attempt on cheap Britpart joints that will probably fail in 6 months...

Welcome to the joys of P38 ownership... the dirty side! But once they're done, it will probably feel like a new car to drive... if that's any consolation!

If you want either the brake flare tool, or ball joint press tool, then drop me a message... I could be persuaded into helping do them - have done 5 or 6 before, but the novelty has somewhat worn off a bit - especially when the last one I did was in the cold, and it was raining!! haha fun times...

EDIT:

And yes, they are both jobs that can be done on the driveway. Brake pipes aren't as bad as it sounds - threading it in can be a bit tricky, but the flare tool that I use means you can do the flares on the vehicle, with the pipe in place.

With it up on axle stands, and the wheels off/arch liners out it's not too bad to do... just have a pair of safety glasses on for all the dust that falls off whilst you're under there!

You'll need a friend with a serious press for the balljoints. The rest looks doable, even for me!
You're not actually far off - and they're all items that you'll fit now and not have to worry about for a very long time. Good luck!

You can pick up a heavy duty ball-joint press kit for between £30 (good enough, probably, to do the job once then throw away!) and £70 (should be able to do quite a few sets of ball joints).
The friend with the serious press would be needed for wheel bearings and hard to fit bushes. Fortunately none of those raised their head in the MOT.
EDIT- missed Marty's reply re loan of the kit above, so no need to buy the press then!

Morat wrote:

You'll need a friend with a serious press for the balljoints.

Mine has had advisories since before I got it for "suspension arm ball joint" but according to my MOT guy they mean the droplinks. I've got one of the new ones fitted...

Martyuk, that's an awesome offer, thanks, I'll be in touch!

Morat/Orangebean, I fortunately have access to a nice big hydraulic press in work, so long as the offending item can be taken to it. Not much use in this instance but handy if I need to do wheel bearings in the future.

gordonjcp, I have had these ones pointed out to me on a diagram so in this case it is these ball joints.

Once I get the front ball joints done I shall try to get it moved to the car-club work shop at work and up on the ramp to change the brake pipes (and gearbox fluid & filter). Might be hard pushed to make the 10 day deadline for a retest but we'll see.

Thanks for the guidance, offers and words of encouragement, I class this forum as one of the most important tools in my toolbox. :)

The brake lines aren't too bad :) I've done front-rear on the twin exhaust setup twice now, and they're not too bad. On the one this weekend some of the pipe holder clips broke, either because they were brittle or the threaded stud they were screwed onto had rusted, but that just meant finding a new way of securing the pipe where mounting a new clip wasn't possible.

Smiler wrote:

I will start to trawl RAVE in a moment but off the top of your heads, is this a job I can achieve on the driveway (with a suitable size can of profanities)?

Yes, can be done on a driveway, I often go out and change ball joints, yes you can have a fight sometimes, my quickest was 3 hrs for top and bottom both sides , give yourself a day to cover yourself just in case

Awesome, thanks guys.

Do they have to be Lemforder or are Bearmach just as good? or even Allmakes? I won't even mention Britpart)

Thanks for the support, wasn't looking forward to the brake pipes either but getting more comfortable with the idea now.

Obviously avoid s*^+ parts, make sure the new ones have nuts, a lot don't come with nuts,, I've used allmakes, bearmach and lemforder, make sure the rubbers aren't moulded on, I had a set of all makes the other week like that, the quality wasn't as good as previous ones I've had.
I've got to get under and do my brake pipes this year,, but once done it's done for a good few years,, do you have an old disc to hand ?
Put on backwards, makes getting the hub out easier ( easier to bash) also grab new axle seals, a good size bar, big hammer to shock the old joints when under load, they just pop out

I think, like Marty says above, you only get 3 hits in the axles life with the balljoints so Lemforder for those. You can afford to go slightly downmarket on the complete drag link assembly as it's infinitely replaceable, so probably Allmakes or Bearmach for that
EDIT- Chris beat me to the button!
+1 to what he suggests on hub seals. His suggestion re the old disc is a goodun. I've witnessed him deploying it at first hand- impressive :)

Orangebean wrote:

+1 to what he suggests on hub seals. His suggestion re the old disc is a goodun. I've witnessed him deploying it at first hand- impressive :)

Downside is that you get further away from the centre. I left the 4 nuts on the last piece of thread and tapped the hub out with a hammer/extension bar.
(first remove ABS sensor!)

Lemforder it is then. I don't have a spare brakes disc so I'll have to improvise.

Looks like the old Escort will be appearing on ebay this weekend.

Lemforder ball joints and axle seals ordered.

Right, brake pipe. Copper or Kunifer? How much do I need? What diameter?

Kunifer for sure... 3/16th rings a bell. Length - I think a 25'/30' roll should do it.. I can't remember the length roll I got, as it was about 5 yrs ago, but I had enough to do it all in the one roll, with a couple of little bits left over.

Sloth reminded me when we were talking about brake lines last night that you might want to check the condition of the flexi hoses on the back and be prepared to replace them too if the unions are seized, or if the lines are looking worse for wear.

Even though the pipe is 3/16th (again, from memory) the unions are M10 metric.

Did you get nuts with the ball joints? I'm not sure if they come with them as standard.

3/16th is the one with M10 fittings as Marty says, 25' roll will do at least for the twin exhaust setup - do you have the twin or single setup?