I bought a new impact wrench, sockets, extensions and a swivel joint. I removed the big stub axle nut to get a slightly more straight attack but I still couldn’t get it to work. The swivel was useless. and the angle was too much to be able to use the straight extensions. I bought the smallest impact I could find but it certainly can’t fit between the stub axle threads and the nut. It’s an AIRCAT 1076-XL Kevlar Composite Compact Impact Wrench
I ended up having to screw back on the old beaten up nut with a spanner just to get it back together.
If you are trying to do up or undo the nut on the lower ball joint and want to use an air tool you need to disconnect the upper ball joint from the upper control arm and lean the upright out. Probably just as much work as wrenching on the lower nut with a spanner.
Nono, the opposite. I’ve never had much difficulty wrenching on the lower sealed ball joints as they are very firm in the sockets. The upper ones however love to spin. So would doing the uppers before seating the lowers allow enough room for an air tool? I’d have to get help with that. The upright/disk/brake caliper weigh a ton.
slightly confused here, as I just use a long ring spanner to do ball joints.
If things want to spin, use jacks, or the spring to tension the joint
in the instance that I cannot apply enough force to break free a fastener, and need “impact”, (and pneumatic impact tool wont fit)…tap,tap,tap the other end of spanner with a hammer, to simulate an impact tool, also works to tighten…done so for many years
Yeh I agree they the uppers are more difficult to tighten up because the taper spins in the upright.You probably could lean it out at the bottom with the lower control arm ball joint disconnected and get at it with an air tool, but that would be a real paIn particularly if the upright had all it’s stuff attached. I don’t know that an air tool would be helpful here. My solution to this has been attach the upright at the lower control arm, then seat the upper pin by hand by pushing it as deep as I can into the upright, and then strike the top of the upper control, arm with a rubber mallet, or plastic dead blow hammer to drive the pin “deeper” into the upright, and to then carefully tighten the nut with a spanner, all the while hitting the control arm as needed. It does work. The pin and it’s receptacle needs to be clean and dry needless to say. You need to put a jack under the lower control arm at the bottom of the ball joint to firm it up so the hammer blows are not dissipated by the assembly moving.
For ball joints ( and tie rod ends) that want to spin rather than grip I first tighten them with a standard nut. That is enough to force the taper home after which it will grip well enough to remove the standard nut and replace it with the locking nut.
Once a tapered fitting seats it is very secure - just have to get that initial seating.
I did not use an impact - probably just looked at the dingus and decided it wouldn’t fit.
Yup, I did all of this, including hitting a spanner with a hammer as Tony suggested. I also tried seating the ball pin really well with a non locking nut. But as soon as I removed that and tried to use the new nut, the ball started spinning again as soon as it reached the nylon. The last thing I thought of trying is buying a big enough c clamp to span the distance between the top of the arm and the bottom of the stub axle arm nut to hold the parts tight together. Really annoying
I could still be confused, but as I recall, taking the weight of the car on jack under the lower, allows it to be tightened, then either block the upper arms with wood, (or not) and use appropriately placed jack to allow sufficient vehicle weight/spring tension to hold the upper tight enough.
am I wrong in remembering a ring spanner can be placed on the ball joint nuts with the (tyred) car on the ground?
do know I have had trouble with this on various vehicles, including Jags, but always found a way out
if you put a jack under the lower A arm it will hold the up the car, but the upper A arm will be able to move up and down with no resistance. The strap holds the two A arms together and allows the upper ball joint to be tightened with an air/electric driver.
Not sure what you mean by blocking the upper arm. I guess in theory, one could put the nut on the upper joint as far as it could go, then elevate the upper arm somehow to create friction between the bottom of the ball and the race inside the control arm. That seems like it could potentially risk damage to either the ball or the arm though. Also it would mean lifting the entire suspension while trying to tighten the nut.
I was having a real hard time stopping and it turned out that my front caliper wasn’t working correctly, so i decided to go with wilwoods. I later discovered that apparently I had installed a one of the master brake cylinders that didn’t work properly (over 35 years ago). There was a bad batch even back then. I discovered the problem with the master when i sent it out to get sleeved and they returned it twice without any pressure to the rear rotors. They finally gave up and sent me one off their shelf while they tried to fix mine. I also found out during this restoration (#4) that when I pulled the rear assembly out, that my rear rotors were in absolutely perfect condition after 35 years. Apparently, I was driving on front brakes for quite a while!
Everything is working perfectly now, after 35 years.
blocking is using wood blocks above A-arms against wheelwell stop them being pushed fully upward
recently did have these issues on a complete O/H of my 420G IFS, which I know is different to E-type, but the same principles apply. The idea is to put enough pressure on the ball by tension or compression to hold it still
One trick I applied, nearly got caught out after slightly loosening the nuts to break steering joint tapers, then leaving them for while, I found the Nylocs didnt want to wind down the slightly rusty threads, but spin easily in the sockets, the whole shebang was out of car.
Solution; wrap thread in grit-paper, grip tightly in locking pliers to stop turning, wind down far as I could go, then use multigrips behind nut, this may work, (in reverse) but you must be careful not to damage thread with tools (the grit paper must be wrapped thick enough to cushion)
is the stage you are at, joints changed but cant do up just one final ball joint nut?
Well it’s technically done up now, but I had to use a very broken in old nut. I used Loctite on it, but at some point need to undo it again to put the fresh new nylock on it.
So you left sandpaper on the taper inside the socket?
Read Geo’s suggestion above. Get a non locking nut and tighten the snot out of it. Remove the nut, replace it with the nyloc, and torque to spec. This has always worked for me.
Yup, tried that twice. I think the new nut just has really tight nylon, so it started spinning again. I’ll probably thread it on and off a bolt a couple times to beak it in a bit, then try the ratcheting tie strap suggestion. It looks a lot easier than a c-clamp.
