Lower Ball Joints

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Re: Lower Ball Joints

Post by Stickyfinger »

Old hard drive in the house ? nice BIG Rare-Earth Magnets in there that will suck lost needles out of grease !
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Re: Lower Ball Joints

Post by CitroJim »

Stickyfinger wrote:Old hard drive in the house ? nice BIG Rare-Earth Magnets in there that will suck lost needles out of grease !
Gosh yes, and are those magnets strong... Just the job. I once stuck one to a metal filing cabinet and needed a long screwdriver to lever it off again!
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Re: Lower Ball Joints

Post by Hell Razor5543 »

My Mum has a decent "Sea Searcher" magnet for if anything falls off her boat. It has a grab of 65KG. She also uses it for 'lock fishing', to see what she can fish out around the canal locks. I remember one evening (we had moored up for the night) when she got three windlasses out (used for raising/lowering the paddles on the locks). She cleaned them up, re-painted them, and sold them at a boat fair.
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Re: Lower Ball Joints

Post by lazza »

Well I counted the needles in all 3 head rollers and I'm pretty sure I counted 33 in each one. So all good on that front. I slipped the roller half-way off, put a tiny wire in the gap that you can open and with a very small flat-headed screwdriver went running it over each of the needles whilst couting, until i got back to the wire.

However, having changed the ball joints (rubbish ones, should have bought Citroen's own.. they dont have a hex female at the bottom, so near impossible to stop the ball-joint turning whilst putting the nut on... used a hand-vise thingy to do the job but damaged a bit of the rubber on the new ball-joints, so probably will be having to do this job again soon #-o !)

I also changed the p bushes and the centre bushes on both wishbones- had to go to a garage to borrow the press. But at the end of the day job done.

But I now have three problems:

1. The tracking seems to have gone awry ??
2. The knocking noise on steering which this was supposed to finally cure, is if anything worse ](*,) !
3. The car seems to be riding higher at the front than before.

Arrgh, this isnt my finest hour... any help much appreciated

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Re: Lower Ball Joints

Post by Hell Razor5543 »

Well, at least you have made sure that niggle won't bite you in the bum!

I have recently replaced one ball joint, and got another to do. I got the TRW ones from GSF, at about £15 each. Malcolm (citronut) rates them, and he has an account with GSF.
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Post by addo »

Ah yes, because you didn't disconnect the dogbone immediately upon putting the car on stands, you have distorted the height correction linkage.
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Re: Lower Ball Joints

Post by citronut »

lazza wrote: However, having changed the ball joints (rubbish ones, should have bought Citroen's own.. they dont have a hex female at the bottom, so near impossible to stop the ball-joint turning whilst putting the nut on... used a hand-vise thingy to do the job but damaged a bit of the rubber on the new ball-joints, so probably will be having to do this job again soon #-o !)
the citroen ones dont have flats on either, the way to stop these turning, is put a jack under the arm close to the otter end and jack it up till the jack just takes the weight of the car,

lazza wrote: I also changed the p bushes and the centre bushes on both wishbones- had to go to a garage to borrow the press. But at the end of the day job done.
hope you refitted the P bush's at the correct orientation, otherwise these will fail prematurely,
lazza wrote:
3. The car seems to be riding higher at the front than before.
Larry
you probably disturbed the link between the height corrector and anti roll bar
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Re: Lower Ball Joints

Post by lazza »

HI Thanks Malcolm

Well, as far as the P bushes, we tried to exactly copy the angle of the originals as closely as possible, maybe the originals were out ... didnt think of that
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Re: Lower Ball Joints

Post by CitroJim »

lazza wrote: Well, as far as the P bushes, we tried to exactly copy the angle of the originals as closely as possible, maybe the originals were out ... didnt think of that
If the old ones had let a long and happy life then they couldn't have been far out Larry. If they are mis-aligned they will die very quickly...

Given the old ones lived a long time and the new ones are in the same alignment then they'll be fine...
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Re: Lower Ball Joints

Post by lazza »

Hopefully we got it right- i was relying a bit too much on the bloke in the garage.

I know we had to raise the centre O bush part about a cm for the p-bush bars to lie flat with the ball-joint hub hole thingy. (excuse my technical language)

I hope that was the right way
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Re: Lower Ball Joints

Post by CitroJim »

I think I know what you mean Larry.. Certainly it's quite a wriggle to get the wishbone back in with nice, fresh now P bushes on it. The Anti-roll bar has to be levered quite a way out of the way to give adequate clearance and the danger here is that it will ride out of it's bush and then distort the height corrector linkage as already discussed...

Also, when reassembling it is vital to ensure the Anti Roll bar bush is correctly located in its retaining clip that in turn bolts to the P bush bolts. It's not hard to mis-clip the anti roll bar bush retainer and again that could cause the high riding..
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Re: Lower Ball Joints

Post by lazza »

Well I looked underneath and checked everything, cant seem to find any clear problems, all looks to be in its rightful place.

The P-bushes seem to be under very little strain when near normal riding height so I suppose that's a good sign.

The front end riding height is still a little to high though- i did adjust this in the past once, but cant remember how to do it- any easy pointers??

Thanks
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Re: Lower Ball Joints

Post by Hell Razor5543 »

You must use either ramps or an inspection pit. The car must be bearing its weight on its wheels for the adjustments to work and be accurate. Once it is in position for you to do the adjustments drop her to service low and make sure you can work safely under the car. The reason for this is simple. When I had to adjust Gracies' front ride height (she was up on ramps) I over adjusted and she dropped all the way down. Once she stopped moving her sump was lightly touching my chest.

Once you are satisfied with the safety aspect, raise her back to the normal height. Leave the engine running (to keep the pressure up for the suspension), and get underneath. Locate the anti roll bar, and you will then see at roughly the midway point the clamp part of the height equipment. There is, if my memory is correct, a 10mm bolt securing the clamp. Loosen off the bolt a little, and then slightly rotate said clamp. Wait. It takes a few seconds for the suspension to react. DO NOT MOVE, OR ROLL OVER! If you are lying on your side when she drops she will kill you. Once she has finished moving get out and check the height. IIRC the rule of thumb is 3 fingers between the wheel and wheel arch. Once you have got the height to that point (and it can take a few goes to get it right) tighten up the clamp, get her onto level ground, and do a citrobics session. All being well, she should be at the right height.
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Re: Lower Ball Joints

Post by lazza »

Thanks for the advice, but you've managed to scare the shti out of me... there's no way i'm doing it that way!

Any easier option, maybe more time consuming but no death involved?
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Re: Lower Ball Joints

Post by Northern_Mike »

No. That's it. It's not as scary as it sounds as long as you use your brain. Do it on ramps. Don't twist the clamp more than a tiny bit at a time. It's actually pretty simple, you just need to ENSURE that there's enough space under the car for it to go to the low position with you under it without squashing you. So, ramps.. or a pit etc.
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