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!)