I'm renewing the rubber bush on the front suspension lower wishbone on my 2004 Panda, so I need to remove the wishbone arm. The two inner mounting bolts came off easily enough but I'm struggling to split the lower ball joint.
I've removed the nut from the pinch bolt passing through the casting but I can't remove the bolt. Should this just tap out or is it threaded into the casting?
__________________

Heat is best thing (if not boiling water) but otherwise plenty of wd40 and turn the bolt carefully until it turns freely then lightly tap it out.

Thanks for your reply T14086.
Am I right in thinking that the bolt is not actually threaded into the casting and that it is just the nut which secures it? In that case I can knock it out without worrying about damaging the verical link casting. I'll certainly try some heat.

not threaded, look at your new lower arm to confirm, I just use loads of wd40 and gently turn the bolt which frees itself then a gentle tap to remove it.

The thread would be in the vertical link casting if anywhere, not in the wishbone, but i agree that it would be v unlikely to be threaded.
I'm hoping to just replace the rear rubber bush in the wishbone, if I can get the old one out, but I need to take the wishbone off the car to do it.
Maybe more sensible to replace the complete wishbone, but I'm not impressed by Fiat build quality so I think I'll sell the car shortly.

mkvrnn said:

The thread would be in the vertical link casting if anywhere, not in the wishbone, but i agree that it would be v unlikely to be threaded.
I'm hoping to just replace the rear rubber bush in the wishbone, if I can get the old one out, but I need to take the wishbone off the car to do it.
Maybe more sensible to replace the complete wishbone, but I'm not impressed by Fiat build quality so I think I'll sell the car shortly.

Click to expand...

wishbones are cheap off ebay, parts like bushes fail frequently as they are exposed to the elements all the time etc....I work on all cars and nearly every merc I do (for example) needs bushes replaced so it's unfair to blame Fiat's build quality.

Fiat, cheap and easy to repair thats what makes them so appealing in todays economic climate

Hi

Interesting about Fiat Build Quality.

I have owned a Fiat Stilo for 4.5 years in Spain and apart from servicing I have spent 25 Euros on it. When last serviced the garage commented on how good the car was (exact words the car is like new).

I have now bought another Fiat here in the UK and the build quality looks good to me. The UK one has 81,000 on the clock but looks and drives perfect.

Derek

New I hear how do you post new how to remove engine fiat scudo

I can't deny that the build quality has improved since the days of the Fiats I owned back in the 70s and 80s, all of which rusted away before my very eyes. The only one which felt well made was a 124 which was a 3 year old 28,000 mile car when I bought it. But even that one suddenly deteriorated, and 6 months later large patches of rust appeared all over the body, including the middle of the bonnet and roof!
I stayed away from Fiats for a long time after those experiences, until I bought a 500 Lounge. That was reliable and didn't go rusty, but dull to drive. The Panda I bought for my son to learn on, and it's a more entertaining drive than the 500.
Actually it does the job quite well, but it suffers from poor quality components. At not much more than 50,000 miles it has needed both front shock absorbers, both rear brake cylinders. a full exhaust system, and now both front wishbones. Not a horrendous list perhaps, but I expect better standards these days.

Why has nobody recommended a balljoint splitter, either this kind, nasty and damages the rubber boot

http://www.screwfix.com/p/ball-join...tracking url&gclid=CLKopJid7LMCFXHLtAodNmYALw

or this much better kind

http://www.powertoolworld.co.uk/dra...r-63770.html?gclid=CNWXqtad7LMCFbMbtAodCCcAvA

and no, there's no thread, just pulls apart.

I could be wrong, but I think the op is trying to separate the balljoint from the arm, which is not possible.

Hi Dooctorchris and 306maxi.
Unfortunately you have both misunderstood. The ball joint is not a tapered shank type so it does not need a splitter. Instead it has a parallel shank and is held in place by a pinch bolt which runs at 90 degrees to the shank. passing through a groove in the shank. Once the bolt is withdrawn, the split housing can be opened slightly to allow the shank to be withdrawn downwards out of the housing. My problem is that the pinch bolt is stuck.

ah fair enough. We had a similar problem on our legacy and the garage had to drill out the bolt.

I managed to extract the bolt on one side of the car using heat, but then discovered that I can do the job in situ without removing the ball joint mounting.
With the two inboard wishbone mounts undone I can pull the wishbone out of the brackets, then pivot it round on the ball joint to give good access to the inboard bushes. On my car it is the rear (large) bush which has failed. I pushed out the centre part by hand, leaving the alloy outer ring in the wishbone. A single cut with a hacksaw blade then enabled me to easily tap out the alloy ring.
When the new bushes arrive tomorrow I will press them into the wishbone using a length of threaded rod with two 3" diameter washers, one under the wishbone and the other on top of the new bush.