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    Jaguar XJ8 Lower front ball joint rant # Archived Message

    Posted by Paul Howd on April 15, 2010, 7:00 pm

    Well, here goes.

    This is a family car (thank God!)

    The OSF wheel bearing was getting a little loose so I decided to try changing it.

    Well, after getting the stupidly expensive special tool to remove/replace the ABS ring thing I then tried to remove the hub assemby from the car.

    Well everything came appart OK until I got to the bottom ball joint. Initially I tried using a scissor type BJS, After all, the ball joint was OK and I didn't want to damage the (NSS) rubber boot.

    I soon realised that this was not going to work. so I was going to have to resort to the taper/wedge type and accept that the boot was a gonner (My idea was to try to find a cheap ball joint of the appropriate size at the factors later that I could whip the boot off of)

    Anyway, Starting with gentle controlled taps with a normal hammer I gradually worked up to working up a sweat vigorously twating it with a two handed 10Lb sledgehammer formally used for whacking in metposts!

    No way would the taper break, even with the use of Oxy to warm it up a bit! (Or even a lot! )

    All I managed to achive was to start to drag the ball joint out of its socket! (It now quite loose, so I am going to have to add a new lower arm to the bill! And it looks a tricky job too (not to say potentially hazardous, thats a big old spring!) )

    Not so much a quiry as a general rant railing against the capriciousness of fate!

    But if anybody has any suggestions where to go from here before I have an freak accident involving flammable liquids and naked flames!

    (Seriously, I have a few ideas but this is alien territory. I have been playing this game (Officially, Hobbywise for rather longer) since 1984 and I have never come accross a situation quite like this!)




    Paul



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