Just replaced both of mine (slight play in balljoint on OS an unable to adjust alignment), have to say it's not a job for the fainthearted (I run a small specialist garage !!), here's a list of the problems encountered and solutions .
First issue was the ride height sensor bolts , long T25 bolt into a brass insert in plastic sensor body , one side of car they unscrewed far enough to get a hacksaw blade in to cut the head off , other side insert started spinning straight away , small die grinder out and carefully grind off bolt heads . Once out of the car you can then knock the insert out of sensor and with a vice and pipe grips remove the bolts from inserts , carefully retap inserts (M5) , clean them and knock them back into the sensor with a bit of super glue , I used MTB disc rotor bolts to refit them (shorter and aluminium) with plenty of grease .
Ball joint end , 21mm spanner required for nut and 10mm to hold joint , use wall drive for both as the joint part (10mm) wil be rounded off with rust before you even get spanner on it whereas a 10mm/3/8af wall drive will hold .
Now for the real fun bit , if you are really lucky your main bolt will not be solid in the bush sleeve in which case it's an easy job , more likely it will be solid , access is pretty much non existant , on one side of mine I got the nut undone (1 flat at a time !!) but the other side the nut was solid , my solution was to drill a 5 mm hole through the nut then get the die grinder out to grind the nut till I could split it .
Once you have the nut off you are then stuck with a bolt solid in the sleeve (which will have probably delaminated from bush and spin in the rubber ) , careful use of a reciprocating saw with a 225mm long blade will allow you to cut through the bolt but it takes forever as you are having to cut through the sleeve and the bolt (approx 25mmthick ) and you have to cut it through at both sides of the bush .
Sticking it all back together is easy (new bolts n nuts).
As mentioned earlier I run a small garage so have the benefits of a 4 post ramp , compressor , die grinders, recip saw and various fancy spanners , it took me the best part of a day and a half to do and I really wouldn't like to tackle it on the drive with a jack and axle stands .
Good luck !!
|