Front Uprights/Bottom Ball Joint

[hawksa]

My car is in a local garage today to have its geometry setup prior to IVA.

The mechanic has noticed a problem with the front uprights. The nearside upright has a lot of play on the bottom ball joint although the top nut it torqued up correctly. Comparing it to the offside upright/ball joint connection, there appeared to be an insert missing is this possible? Pictures to follow.

Cheers,

Simon.

[Kingster]

It's possible. if you look at this diagram, you can see the inserts - if one is missing, there will be a lot of play!

[hawksa]

Thanks Chris. Any idea where I can get the missing insert from?

[hawksa]

Here are pictures of the two front lower ball joints,

 

[BenD]

The uprights are made by hispec 

See here 

http://www.hispecbrake.co.uk/uprightscortina.html

[JamesT]

You appear to have the latest third generation wide track kit, which uses different sized inserts for the new type of balljoint. Therefore the link above will be the wrong size using the original two bolt balljoint.

When I swapped from an original wide track to the third gen, I had to press out the original inserts top and bottom and replace with the westfield supplied new sized versions.

[hawksa]

Okay. I spoke to Westfield and they think that the upright probably has the wrong insert fitted. They offered to refit the insert if I sent the upright back to them or to just send me the correct insert. I opted for the latter to hopefully speed up the process.

So now I need some pointers on how to go about pressing the old insert out and pressing the new one in. Any guidance from the wise and experienced?

[CraigHew]

Your local garage should heve either a hydraulic press or a tool that can press stuff in and out of fitments.

I recently had new front (cortina) bearings pressed into my uprights and he just asked for £10 for 15 or so minutes work.