Hello folks,

Today I am tackling the front axle ball joints (not that the rear axle has any).

Martyuk (was great to finally meet you last night after all the advice and encouragement you've sent in my direction over the years and good to know that there is someone relatively local with all the right knowledge, cheers.)has very kindly lent me the extraction tools and his 'well loved' ball joint splitter which is fortunate as my own one isn't big enough. He has also lent me a spare old brake disc for 'bashing' duties.

So far I have got the vehicle on axle stands with both front wheels off, cleaned the alloy corrosion from the hubs and scraped the accumulation of dirt from the axle ends. After a brief battle I have managed to get the nearside disc retaining screw out and the caliper out of the way but the disc itself will not budge no matter what I throw at it. I might have to resort to heat. Te brake discs are in a worse state than the old one Martyuk has lent me so I'll be replacing those in a couple of months.

The hub retaining bolts are all loose and I'm about to attempt to prize the ABS sensor out.

I'll keep you all updated as to progress.

Smiler

Well that's going well, the ABS sensor is stuck tight, it wont budge at all.

Any tips or don't dos? Am I safe to put a pair of swan-neck pliers on it and try to rotate it out?

Scrub that, I was trying to lever the collar out. D'oh!

I was warned that pulling the hub out of the upright would probably be the hardest part. So far it is not disappointing. I have been hammering and levering at it for 45 mins now. Stopped to make a brew and look up some new swear words...

Still no movement, any tips?

Do you have an old disc ? Bolt it on backwards, gives you a bigger area to whack,, otherwise lots of wd40, or warm up around the joint of the carrier,

Oops, just seen that you have a disc,, it will come out , just needs some persuasion, my first one took 3 hrs, other side 40 minutes,, don't know what hammer your using, I use a 32oz ball pen, more direct when you give it a slap

Have you got the disc off yet ? Hit it on the hub face and it will eventually release

Hello, thanks for the replies.

The brake discs are off after a fight. I have the old disc bolted on backwards and have been smacking that and the bolt heads (via a socket).

I have a new cunning plan, I'm going to try to position a couple of scissor jacks between the disc face and the axle and try to preload it with them. If I can I will then start applying some heat and lots of sharp smacks with my mini sledge hammer!

Wow, seems like your having fun, have you removed the splash guard to get access all around the disc, normally a quick wire brush and some wd40 is enough to get them moving

yep disc guards came off easily. Looking at the bearing housings someone has had a go before me. If they got it apart I reckon they reassembled it with loctite!

I used to go the bolt method until Marty said use an old disc, sounds like a little heat might be needed, or another set of hands with a big hammer and hit together opposite sides,

no10chris wrote:

or another set of hands with a big hammer and hit together opposite sides,

That is just the problem when using a disc. The force you apply is way off the centre of the axle, the fitting is too tight to notice if you evenly spread the force.
I left the 4 bolts on a few turns and hit them criss cross to get it out. But maybe I was Lucky that mines weren't that tight.
It is a pain though.

I think you were lucky Ferryman!

Before I started using the brake disc, I did the 4 bolt method on my own RR.. the RHF took about 30 mins to get it to shift... the LHF... over 4 hours as it was rusted that solid...

I reassembled with liberal amounts of copper grease where the hub fits into the carrier... I had to get them back out again to replace a CV boot I damaged (when hitting the bolt heads the first time) and the second time, I just tapped the bolt heads and it was out in about 30 seconds!!

Keep at it Smiler - I know it is a b*&stard of a thing, and with the amount you put in the swear jar, you'll be able to afford new brakes all round :) but it will eventually start to crack the bead of rust that's binding it, and I tell you, there is no better sight after hours of hitting, than a hairline crack in the rust/join!!

It's out! Well, the near-side anyway.

I ended up using a pair of scissor jacks to preload top and bottom of the hub which being even the bugger should feel. Then just kept belting it either side until a crack started to appear. This was repeated with large quantities of penetrating fluid. Now I need to separate the hub carrier from the ball joints. I think that ball-joint splitter might be looking even more 'well loved' by the time I've finished with it (I'll replace it if I bugger it). At this rate I'll only have one side finished by the end of the weekend...

Hub carrier off, now ready to remove and replace the ball joints. That will be tomorrows task. Hopefully by the end of tomorrow I'll have the new ball joints fitted both sides at least so that I'll know I'm done with the tooling and it's just a case of cleaning and rebuilding the bolt on bits.

At least if you started on the nearside, then the offside should be easier...

I don't know if it's because it's the side closest to the edge of the road, so get more water/salt in the winter into it, but every one I've done had been a PITA on the nearside, but a LOT easier on the offside.

One note I forgot to mention last night....
Press the TOP ball joint out first, then press the bottom out.
When refitting, press the BOTTOM joint in FIRST, before pressing the new one into the top... (FOLI for the top one... First Out, Last In!)
The screw from the press tool has to go through the hole in the knuckle on the axle to do the bottom one - so if you press top out, and then put new one in straight away, you're screwed to get the bottom one out! Sorry if you already know that/figured it out - but I've heard of people being caught out before!

Fingers crossed the offside does go easier!

Marty

Cheers Marty and yes, fingers very much crossed!

Your at the easy bit, if they go tight on removal, give the carrier a whack, pneumatic shock works well, I've had them fire out under so much pressure,, I know what Marty's saying re o/s, but the worst I've done was an o/s, took oxyacetylene and a lot of swearing lol,, hope all goes well for you

Sounds like your having fun there?

I'm just loving brakes at the moment!

Thanks for the words of encouragement.

Went out this morning and have managed to replace both nearside ball joints. The old ones really didn't want to come out!

Started the offside. Using the scissor jacks and violence with a small sledge hammer method it was out in 15 mins! Maybe dousing it in penetrating fluid overnight helped soften it?. Releasing the hub carriers grip on the ball joints however is a different matter. These weren't too bad on the nearside but I am on the verge of breaking Martyuks' ball joint splitter trying to get the bottom joint to release and that's with heat and shocking! And I thought it was going so well...