Help, how to change old wishbones of front suspension

deQuincey

deQuincey

Quousque tandem...?
Site Donor
Messages
8,877
Reaction score
2,777
Location
BIO - 43°15'46.5"N 2°56'03.7"W
hi, i have discovered a big gap and metallic noise while moving my wheel (car on stands) up and down in vertical, no noise when moving left to right in horizontal

so, the wishbone ball joint is broken

it is my first time

any tricks, tips, ideas ?

my concern is the huge hexagonal bolt on the engine subframe, and the diagonal rod, and of course the ball joint itself

do i need to remove the spring stand ? the caliper ? i hope not ...

regards
 
this is the area


the wishbone is the piece that holds the antisway bar in its middle


this pictures are from the time i change the shocks, but i do not intend to go so far this time to change the wishbones if it is not absolutely necessary


this castle nut is not exactly clean, we will see,...
 
this is a wishbone

image1.jpeg
 
i recently did it on the blue coupe both sides .... no need to demount the strut/spring . The castle nut can be reached with a 19 mm angled wrench , not a socket. Just a bit difficult. Getting it loose is ofcourse the main task.... The new one goes alot better :)

The big bolts chassis and tie rod are no problem, just have a big wrench ! my impact wrench was also to weak...

i removed the ball joints with a V shaped rod and big hammer.... you may damage them , they are for the trash bin....
 
Belgiumbarry said:
i recently did it on the blue coupe both sides .... no need to demount the strut/spring . The castle nut can be reached with a 19 mm angled wrench , not a socket. Just a bit difficult. Getting it loose is ofcourse the main task.... The new one goes alot better :)

The big bolts chassis and tie rod are no problem, just have a big wrench ! my impact wrench was also to weak...

i removed the ball joints with a V shaped rod and big hammer.... you may damage them , they are for the trash bin....
Click to expand...

thank you barry
good tips on all the points
i plan to leave some spray oil on the nut taking advantage of the cup-shape of the adjacent element, good to know i do not have to dismount the strut, i hope the copper grease that i left over them when i did the springs/and so on would have been a positive influence
big wrench or a large bar maybe, or maybe both, yes
worried about the removal of the ball joints, yes, not a fan of using big hammers, i think i will try to apply some heat on that ball joint too :)

now i am trying to buy the wishbones, and thinking this all out while i am abroad,...
 
I had a hard time removing that ball joint as well. We tried several separator tools. I really wanted to avoid the fork and hammer. If you look for Ball Joint Separator on Amazon or any tool suppliers there are several options. None of these worked either because there was not enough room with the front strut installed or because the ones we had were cheap and started to bend. If I remember correctly one side ended up being freed after we removed the strut and the other had to be done with the fork and hammer.

No easy street either way. Maybe with the higher quality C clamp type of separator... But the access to the top of the ball joint is difficult.
 
hey , what's wrong with the fork&hammer ? it is a balljoint for the bin ... not to be reused . Yes, you break the dust boot , but who cares ?

deQuincey , look carefully you're angled wrench seats fully the caste nut due the cup shape it is in.... i had my wrench some grinding outside so it sure got low enough around the nut !

i bought the wishbones at W&N
SAM_2461.JPG
 
Last edited:
My question is how did you do this and do you think this is your fault of an equipment failure and if the latter, where did you get your control arm from or who is the manufacturer?
 
I was trained old school. Use a hammer to shock the fitting apart. Nooooo- not the threaded part.
 
Yep...big hammer, a few whacks and it pops loose....it's feeling comfortable doing it that makes it take longer..lol. I've done a bunch of these bmw front ends and other cars... not difficult, just fiddly. I usually take everything off/apart, just so I can clean and repaint and replace anything, while I'm in there.....
 
DeQ: hard for me to believe you have met your match. I was hoping YOU would have some neat trick we all didn't know about. Good luck....and have a beer or two to help get this done.
 
I too used the fork and hammer approach. I own a tool like the one Markos recommends, but that didn't work for me.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top