Help Needed with changing the ball joint on the williams?

[Mark E-J]

Can anyone give me some info on changing the ball joint on my clio williams 3 I have the new parts but its prooving to be a bit of a hassle already!

Whats the best way to tackle it and what tools do u recomend to make it easy?

Cheers in advance guys & girls. :D

[Coops]

3 bolts, need 16/17mm socket and wrench and 16/17mm ring spanner, jack, axle stand,wd40,coppergrease,big flathead screwdriver,leverage bar and lump hammer

jack up both sides of car at front, makes it easier to work as tension in the arb wont affect the geometry on front end and make it work against you.

wheel off

coat the two nuts and bolts that hold the ball joint to the wishbone and the one pinch bolt in the bottom of the hub in wd40 and leave for a while. overnight if you can.

undo the pinch bolt with socket and counterhold nut with spanner. knock the bolt out the hub with the lump hammer taking care not to flare the end of the bolt when u hit it (leave nut on a few threads and hit that instead)

use your leverage bar of some form to attempt to pull the ball joint lug out the bottom of the hub, if it wont shift then stick the big screwdriver in the crack of the bit pinching the ball joint in the hub and whack it with hammer to drive it open. hopefully ball joint should pop out.

now thats loose undo the 2 nuts and bolts holding the ball joint to wishbone that you wd'd earlier.

ball joint should drop off

refitting is reversal of removal, but with new ball joint ;-) oh and copper grease up everything, end of new ball joint, all the bolts etc

done

[Mark E-J]

You sir are a legend!

[PC-PLOD]

Ball joint seperator £5 form motor factors for a basic one you lump with a hammer or £16 for a screw type makes the job so much easier

[katbloke]

screw type wont work unless you put something small enough between splitter and top of ball joint as the it doesnt protrude far enough through, fork type works best

[Coops]

as said, screw driver in back of the hub, prise it open, never failed me yet :P

[Lunner]

I agree with Coops. I use a cold chisel.

The separator is fine if you aren't re-using the ball joint, if you are then it ****s the rubber on the ball joint, good and proper, and as above needs to be a drive in one

[Wobba]

Not sure if anyone mentioned this but there should be a little flat tab of plastic, like those old clips you used to get for re-sealing bread bags.

Make sure you don't lose it, pop it over the new balljoint rubber :)

[Mark E-J]

Ball joint will be changed tomorrow along with the track rods,other bits that are being replaced this week include thermostat, coolant temp sensor,cv boot kit driver side, ignition leads,dizzy cap plugs,dog bone mount overhaul of rear brakes,cleaning of idle control valve cleaning of labda sensor replacement number plates and 2 x rear tyres replacment of washer jets

quite a full list but gonna be worth it in the end

[Wobba]

Ball joint will be changed tomorrow along with the track rods,other bits that are being replaced this week include thermostat, coolant temp sensor,cv boot kit driver side, ignition leads,dizzy cap plugs,dog bone mount overhaul of rear brakes,cleaning of idle control valve cleaning of labda sensor replacement number plates and 2 x rear tyres replacment of washer jets

quite a full list but gonna be worth it in the end

That's a nice list of things to get done. Make sure you pack the CV boot full of grease and I hope you have a handy cv boot fitting kit or it's a tad fiddly :D

Make sure you count the turns of the track rod ends when unwinding them!!!

You can do thermo ahd CTS without coolant draining, but do try not to get any gunk or silicone in there and remember to bleed the system as well.

[Mark E-J]

yea cheers wobba.

My mate joe whos a mechanic is doing the work for me