Upper arms (front suspension)

[White Lightning]

Unfortunately, I managed to damage the rubber on my joint on my NSF upper arm today whilst removing it so that I could underseal the wheelarch.

That's the last time I use my ball joint seperator as the last time I used it I split a rubber on the Ka ...!

So, I wonder if anyone knows the answers to these questions:

(1). Does anyone know how much a new upper arm costs from Mitsi? (Or Camskill - but they don't list them on their website)

(2). Can you get the rubber seperately? And if so, what's involved with replacing it?

I decided to leave the OSF upper arm in place after damaging the first one ...

[peter thomson]

I did exactly the same thing when I rustproofed my arch. You can buy the boot on it's own but it took 10 days to come from japan. I have a second one I can send to you if you are in a hurry. they cost £22.54 for 2 .Part number is mb808084. The boot is removed with a couple of small levers and I used a large socket to fit the new one

info here http://www.clubvr4.com/forum/showthr...balljoint+seal

[White Lightning]

they cost £22.54 for 2 .Part number is mb808084. The boot is removed with a couple of small levers and I used a large socket to fit the new one

info here http://www.clubvr4.com/forum/showthr...balljoint+seal

Excellent news ...

You may as well hang on to your spare one (thanks for offer). I'll put it back together "as is" for now and get a new boot (or two) ordered from Mitsi next week. I can't quite picture at the moment how you actually replace it but it sounds like it can be done ...

What grease goes in the ball joint?

[peter thomson]

I used the amsoil grease i bought from Don. The steel collar goes over the outside of the balljoint. it is a very tight fit so the use of a couple of small prybars is used to pull up the collar. I then took a socket the same size as the collar and pushed the rubber boot inside the socket which protected the rubber. It was just a case of using a soft hammer then to tap it on

[White Lightning]

Does the balljoint have to come out of the upper arm or is the rubber replacing in situ?

[peter thomson]

No it's changed in situ. The balljoint can't be removed

[White Lightning]

Well ... I've gone and bolloxed that idea as well ...

Due to the lack of manuals (and therefore torque settings) I managed to overtighten the ball joint when refitting the arm and shafting the thread and now it won't tighten ...

Just called Mitsi and a new upper arm is £172.73 inc VAT

Have also put a request into Camskill to see how much they can do one for but it would be a 2 week lead item so the car may off the road for a bit now ...

[peter thomson]

Is it not just the thread on the nut rather than the balljoint as it's usually the nut that strips rather than the joint. They can be a pain to get off though

[White Lightning]

Is it not just the thread on the nut rather than the balljoint as it's usually the nut that strips rather than the joint. They can be a pain to get off though

I will have to double check. Having now located the manual I see that the nut should have been tightened to only 28Nm (that's low for a 17mm nut isn't it ? ) And I tried to tighten it to 90Nm ....

[peter thomson]

That is very low .I'm sure I tightened mine to about 45

[Kieran]

Yeah, the balljoints are quite low in torque - I guess this is to help them move about correctly?

[White Lightning]

Didn't get chance to look at this last night ... I was too busy playing snooker

But decided to go the whole hog at lunchtime today and buy another torque wrench. My current one only does 40Nm-200Nm so I have got another one that does 8Nm-60Nm (both Halfords Professional jobbies). Should be perfect for this particular nut. The plan tonight is to get that wheel off again, remove the nut, inspect the threads and hopefully if all looks ok refit to the correct torque.

Standby ...

[Spirit]

..........and ????

[Paul Beazer]

Hark! Is that the distant sound of swearing??

[Kieran]

Why have I got a mental image of Wayne sat in casualty with a sooted face, angry expression and a suspension arm wrapped around his neck?!

[White Lightning]

Why have I got a mental image of Wayne sat in casualty with a sooted face, angry expression and a suspension arm wrapped around his neck?!

No, I'm OK. Although I did not come in from fettling with the car last night until 10.30pm. The good news is that I don't need a new upper arm ... but I am still going to have to replace the rubber boot which was damaged during removal (just been on CAPS to get the P/N).

Basically, I had just mullered the thread on the nut by overtightening. The thread on the ball joint was very slightly damaged but was fine. I managed to find a nyloc nut the same size and I have used that as a temporary solution - I will get a genuine replacement when I order the rubber boot.

While I was out there I decided to slacken off all the fixings on the front suspension and retighten them to the correct torque now that I've got the workshop manual suspension bits printed out ...

So, all's well that ends well (famous last words) ... just need to replace the rubber boot and change the rears and the suspension should be done and dusted.

One thing, how the hell are you supposed to re-align that upper arm correctly? There's mention in the manual about 300.1mm from here to here and the like and it's in places that you can't even measure! I think I will need to go to have a proper geometry check / alignment done when I am all finished ...