BALL JOINT REPAIR
By Ulf Remper
After years of use and abuse
even the robust Consul/Zephyr/Zodiac range of cars often suffers from ball
joint wear. The design was helped by grease nipples, but as years and owners go
by, the interest for maintenance often decrease, as I’m sure a lot of you has
discovered one way or another.
This is how I restored my own
ball joints with the aid of a repair kit found on E-bay. These kits vary in
detail, but are essentially the same in function and costs maybe 1/4 of new
track control arms.
Removing the arms from the car
is straightforward and is covered by most repair manuals I’ve seen. It does
help if you do both sides at the same time and remove the anti-roll bar from
its front mounts.
With the arm out of the car, pry out the lower cover or cap
The staking in the edge around the cover might have to be
chiselled a bit or cut down with a small high speed disc. Take care to leave
the surface inside the edge as even as possible as the lower cover should be
grease tight, thus preventing grease from leaking out here. The grease should
instead be forced to the top of the joint.
A couple of sharp screwdrivers can be used to pry out the
retaining ring from it´s groove. This makes it possible to dismantle all parts
from the joint
From left to right; Rubber cover with spring clip, Upper seat, Ball and stud, Lower seat, Spring, Spring seat, Retaining ring, Lower grease cap. Also, in the new kit is included some shims for adjusting the ball joint to correct play. This was done with retaining rings of different thickness at the factory
As can be seen, the spring in this joint is rather tired. The new spring will provide the preload necessary for keeping everything together much better I think... A sad looking ball also.
Take care to check that the track control arm is the
right side. They are handed, at least on the mk.III cars. Note the FRONT
marking cast on the arm.
The same arm from above showing the slightly angled aperture in which the stud can move.
Now examine the grooves inside the arm. They must be free
from distortion and have sharp edges to prevent the retaining ring from
slipping out. The screwdriver in Pic9 shows the retaining ring groove.
Clean out the inside and then
start putting things back in having the arm clamped upside down.
First the upper seat, then
ball/stud, lower seat, spring, spring seat and finally the retaining ring.
Most likely you can’t put the
retaining ring back without compressing the spring. I did it by putting it all
in a vice, a pipe or socket over the ball joint stud and another on the center
of the spring seat as in the pic below
It can involve a bit of fiddling, but has the advantage that you
don´t have to put a lot of force in it. An extra hand might be useful keeping
everything in place.
The Ford repair manual states
you should feel the play between spring seat and retaining ring with a feeler
blade, but I honestly had no idea how to get one of my blades in there.
Instead, I closely watched movement of the spring seat as pressure was taken
off with the vice. After a couple of turns compressing and slacking it off
again I decided I could measure the movement and determine the play that way.
Be sure to find a good spot to measure. As this is not a very scientific
method, try to get the play as close to "center" as possible. The Big
Book states play should be between 0.076 - 0.254 mm. This translates to 0.003 -
0.01" roughly. I measured the play to 0.3 mm and then selected a couple of
shims to take it down to somewhere around 0.15 mm. I ended up at slightly more,
but I was satisfied and left it like that. I first tried to use the old
retaining ring, but that proved to be too thick and there was no way to get it
into the groove, so to speak!
Different shims.
I have encountered the wider type shown top right and these have
to go between the spring seat and the retaining ring. The smaller type, lower
left, has the same diameter as the lower spring seat and goes between lower and
upper seat. These different types give different preload on the spring, but if
this has any real relevance I don’t know.
See to it that the retaining
ring "springs out" properly into it’s groove as I have seen rings
that just deformed being bended into place. This is really important as
the ring is what holds the internals in their place.
This is what it should look like, the ring properly
seated in its groove.
Now you can try and see if the
"feel" is right; The stud should be possible to move by hand, but on
no account feel loose. It should be able to sustain the weight of the control
arm. Also, new grease nipples were needed on both my TCA´s,
With play within limits it’s
now time to tap the lower grease cap back on. A couple of blows/taps with a
hammer pressing the edges out, but too hard blows will deform the cap. They’re
supposed to be grease tight, but for that everything needs to be really
perfect.... Then stake the edge again to secure the cap.
So,
there it is, the home mechanic strikes again! :) Hope this is of any help to
anyone.
Critics,
tips, questions, (stupid or intelligent), are more than welcome.
Disclaimer: The advice and guidelines given in these articles are given in
good faith. The owners and managers of the Galeforce Zephyr site will take
no responsibility for any injuries or loss sustained while carrying out
the described tasks and procedures or any consequences arising. Please
read the Safety First Article