I’d taken Olivia for a set of new boots, and the lovely chaps at Wheatley Tyres showed real care and customer service by checking the suspension setup as part of putting the newly shod wheels back onto the car, when they noticed that the left hand steering arm had some significant “play” in the top ball joint.
Then top ball joint is actually the tie rod end, the union of the tie rod, which comes straight from the steering rack, to the hub carrier, and thus not only travels left to right as part of normal steering, but has vertical movement in the form of suspension travel – and thus must be a ball joint..
Thankfully, replacement is (should be) a relatively trivial affair, undo a bolt to separate the end from the hub carrier, give it a nudge to loosen any purchase the hub carrier has to the bolt, and then unwind off the steering arm – and then reverse it all – however, Olivia, being Olivia, that wasn’t to be – oh no…
It started easy enough on the left side, turn the wheels all the way to the right to give space, jack car up, and support properly (for me – and everyone else, that reads axle stands people – a jack isn’t a proper support – ever!) – remove the wheel, and put somewhere safe outta the way.
Next, slide in an Allen key to the hex hole in the bottom of the bolt through the hub carrier, and use a spanner to undo the nut.
Right: I’ve almost undone the bottom nut to the point where I can start thinking about separating things.
Take the nut off, and using a ball splitter, and in my case, a little persuader in the form of a 4lb club hammer (right) pry the bolt out of the hub carrier.
A quick mark on the steering rod, to mark the place where the tie-rod end holding nut is in place – undo this locking nut, and then un-screw the rod-end itself, counting the number of full revolutions until it comes off the end.
So far – so good. (below)
Re-fittting is of course, the reverse, make sure the threads on the steering arm are clean, and put a tiny bit of grease to help prevent them ever seizing to the steering rod, and do up the tie rod end all the way to your mark, double checking with the number of rotations as you go.
Once you’ve screwed the rod-end into your mark, then you need to tighten it on with the captive nut on the steering arm.
Dead easy – up to the point it locks against the rod end – and then nip it up tight.
Right – we have a nice shot showing the replaced tie-rod end prior to me doing up the end lock nut, and attaching the rod-end to the hub carrier.
Nice and shiny ain’t it ? 😀
Next thread the bolt part through the hub-carrier, and fit the supplied new nut on the end, and tighten to the correct torque (look it up – I’ve forgotten!)
Stick wheel back on, lower car, and rinse and repeat the other side, and then go and get the tracking checked.
You’d think side two is really just that – rinse and repeat right ?
Hahahaha…
No.
Some ignorant ape that had worked on the car prior to my purchase of it, had done a wonderful job in rounding off, and destroying any hex socket for any size Allen key to fit into the underside of the ball joint – so when I tried to undo the nut – the whole nut, and ball swiveled inside itself, and refused to come undone any further.
BUGGER.
Above right kinda shows the problem – there is no hex hole to put an Allen key in!
Oh well – hacksaw to the rescue.
A good few minutes, and a fair bit of cussing later, we have a bolt cut off..
Right: See how much of a mess that Allen key hex is ?
That ain’t gonna work no matter how hard you try.
Well – this “minor” problem out of the way, and it’s follow the earlier principles, of undoing the lock-nut, marking the position, and unscrewing the tie-rod end, and removing the now very dead unit, and replacing the whole lot.
And finally – here on the right – we have it replaced, looking as new and perfect as it should do.
(yes – that tilt is perfectly fine – it’s gonna get a helluva lot more wiggly when it’s in use and the car is popping up and over bumps!)
Chalk off another challenge Olivia has given me, and one I’ve slapped aside as a “next please!”
Happy travels again 😀
