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Ball Joints


DMS

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Trying to do the front suspension and, in particular, secure the uprights to the top ball joints.  Problem is, I tighten the nut securing the joints to the upright a bit and then the shaft of the joint simply rotates with the nut causing me not to be able to tighten any further.

How do I get round this?

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Put a jack under the lower wishbone to raise the wheel of the ground slightly and force the top wishbone down with your body weight whilst tightening.

John

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Thanks, John.  I'll try something along those lines.  The only problem, though, is that the uprights are different from what appears in the manual.  For the ones I have you seem to have to remove top and bottom brass coloured blocks from the uprights, secure them to the ball joints and then replace them into the uprights and secure.  So trying to get some weight exerted may prove a little complex.

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DMS

what type of upright do you have?, it sound like they are not the standard Cortina upright. So are they the alloy or the fabricated steel type?

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Rob

Unfortunately I'm so mechanically ignorant that I can't tell/don't know the difference.  All I can say is that they're not the standard (Cortina?) type as per the manual but were supplied by Westfield.  They look like the below if that helps at all

Daniel

30_tm.jpg

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We've got something similar.

Whether this was right or wrong, we held the brass coloured blocks in place in the upright with the bolts just slotted through.

Then, scientifically, we bashed the balljoint with a hammer, pulled the bolts out, then tightened the balljoint.

We had to do this a couple of times, but it works.

And I don't think we broke anything :)

Will be easier if theres 2 of you I reckon - if it doesn't work at least you can bash your mate with the hammer ;)

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Another way to do it without bashing anything is to pack the nut out with washers. I presume the balljoint thread is turning when the locking part of the nut reaches the thread? By using washers, the taper can be locked in position into the blocks by using the nut before it makes contact with the nylock/crimp (or alternatively use a plain nut if you can find one to fit-and then you dont need the washers), the nut is then undone and washers removed, and then reassemble. once the taper is tight in the block, the nut can be tightened easily and no damage done to car or fingers by a mis-aimed hammer.   :0  :D  :D  :p

Stu.

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