Technical Ball joint snapped !

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Technical Ball joint snapped !

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Oct 8, 2013
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So my ball joint snapped yesterday ! Dont know if anyones come across this before luckily I was doing under 30mph or it could of been a lot worse heres some pics. It locked up for about 20ft then I stopped doesnt look like too much damage.
 

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Hi mate,

They normally only break like that if they have had a whack.

Have you checked for damage to the suspension turret, the shock itself, the brake pipes? They will probably have sustained some damage.

Has it done much damage to the bodywork?

The new ball joint will come as part of a whole suspension arm, easy job to change.

Looks like you were lucky it didn't happen at a higher speed or whilst you were cornering!

Alan
 
Lucky you ! Had something similar happen in an Alfa GTV funnily enough at low speed in town. We had been out on the main road at speed and were about to go back:eek:
imho this is a rare enough event and is probably down to some form of abuse in the past like a kerbing or too much spanner hammer or lever applied to it.
 
Hi yea lucky I was going slow just pulled out the junction, it is a fast road so could of being going quicker.

Anyway im going to try taking the old arm off today an have a look to see of theres much other damage, I think the wing might be bent in towards the door slightly as its catching when you open it. Ill find out more when ive got it apart. Will be replacing the other side aswell could be just as weak !
 
Hi,

I normally just undo the outer ARB mount and the inner mount and it gives you plenty of play to manoeuvre the ARB. Its best to have both sides of the vehicle raised. Its a lot easier if your doing both sides at the same time as the ARB can be moved right out of the way.

When torqueing up the front mount on the new suspension arm, it should technically be done when the arm is under load to avoid stress on the bush. (ie vehicle on the ground)

Id also recommend fitting new outer ARB bushes whilst your at it unless yours have been changed recently. Theyre only a few quid each.

Alan
 
hi jordan1293fiat its nice to see that you will replace both arms just make sure they are quality ones by someone like fai
The balljoint has sheared but nobody seams to understand why,now normally i would blame corrosion from the pinch bolt but you can see a clear break of the metal,this leads me to believe you had undue stresses placed on the lower balljoint arm, so one needs to look at wheels tyres, tyre pressures and of course whether the wheels were tracking out,all these things would cause a shearing of this balljoint over time,somebody even considered in another post to make their suspension more cambered well i hope they read this post

if it was my car i would consider if the wheels and tyres you currently have fitted are suitable and not too offset from the hub whether the tracking was partly to blame too
and take all appropriate action including fitting new pinch bolts into the new arms on the hubs
well done for posting the pictures up it might help someone else from having a possible fatal crash if wheels/tyres are deemed unsuitable

luckily you also didnt get done for a dangerous vehicle rap
 
Thanks for all the advice ! Much appreciated :) im only just replying as ive now removed the arm proably wasnt as I hard as I first thought, the bolts didn't seem like someone had torqued the hell out of them either. Ive also took the anti roll bush off aswell might aswell replace it whilst everything else is off.

Had a look at the tyre as well its got a bit of a flat spot where its been locked up for about 20ft so probs need replacing aswell, heres some pics :D
 

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Hi mate,

Nice one with the pics (y)

Yeah its definitely worth replacing the bushes, you can see the cracks in the rubber in your pics.

Shame about the tyre, looks like it had a fair bit of tread left, but if its got a flat spot on it, its best to replace.

Alan
 
Hi mate,

Nice one with the pics (y)

Yeah its definitely worth replacing the bushes, you can see the cracks in the rubber in your pics.

Shame about the tyre, looks like it had a fair bit of tread left, but if its got a flat spot on it, its best to replace.

Alan

Yeah the tyre has only done 2k miles max :( but will need replacing ill try put a pic up later looks quite shredded an yea definitely worth doing the bushes :thumbup:
 
The ball joint gaiter is split in several places, looking like it may have been split for some time. My bet is the joint is seized and the rotation of the steering has been twisting the joint pin, until metal fatigue has snapped it. We all need to check these gaiters regularly and replace once split.

Surprisingly, the steering effort will easily twist this pin, I've seen it before on Morris Minor, Marina and Ital where the bottom swivel seizes. A friend's car steered normally, but when the suspension leg was removed, we could not turn it with a 4 foot bar on it. Your steering puts a lot of effort here.

Good that you are getting a pair, make sure they are from the same manufacturer, then dimensionally they should be identical, even if not quite the same as OE.

As above, I'd recommend changing the brake hose, its had a bit of stress. As have you.

Check the strut has not distorted, especially the top of the rod, may have bent. Check the top mounting has not distorted. If it has, no amount of wheel alignment will ever compensate.

Despite National Tyres offer, I'd recommend a full 4-wheel alignment check. That will show if any other damage has been sustained.

Good luck.
 
Last time i checked the ball joint gaitor was fine, an its not even seized had alot of movement in it, not too much that it actually cause freeplay but just goes to show you can never tell sometimes.

An I will definitely be checking tracking and inspect that brake hose as was quite strectched :(
 
The ball joint gaiter is split in several places, looking like it may have been split for some time. My bet is the joint is seized and the rotation of the steering has been twisting the joint pin, until metal fatigue has snapped it. We all need to check these gaiters regularly and replace once split.
.

That's a great spot, makes sense.

Gaiters split should be on previous mot advisories. If it was noticed.
 
careful examination of the cover shows no visible splits its dry and therefore no oozing grease so it would appear as said by original poster that the balljoint was not seized in its cup and anyway the guy sounds sensible so he would have heard balljoint banging and investigated i believe:)
 
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