Technical Ball Joint Collapse

[cipher]

Hello,

Last year, My drivers side ball joint collapsed on our Ulysse.

So, we replaced the wishbones (both side just to be sure) and the pinch bolts.

Yesterday, it went again, leaving the vehicle stranded with a collapsed, stuck sideways in a single track road! Not good.

We called our breakdown service, who said that they could tow us to the nearest garage (This was about 1900 last night, we live in Grimsby, and we were in Nottingham), but as they are closed, that wont be till monday, so they suggested that we leave the car where it is (obstructing the highway), until monday morning. Gotta love Green Flag! (membership is now cancelled!).

So, I had to fix it myself, to get it out of the road.

All I had was a 6" Adjustable spanner, a large hammer, the standard jack, and pair of garden shears!

But still, it was done, and a brand new pinch bolt installed.

But anyway, enough of the saga, a Question:

As this is has gone again, and this time with a brand new pinch bolt, i am going to replace the control arm again, and use a new pinch bolt on re-assembly, why does this keep happening?

Basically, the pinch bolt sits in the recess on the ball joint shaft, to help locate it, but the shaft is moving and hitting the pinch bolt in the recess, thus wearing a flat spot on the bolt shaft, allowing the ball joint to escape the bottom of the steering knuckle.

Am I missing something? As this shouldn't be allowed to go.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance

 

[T14086]

cheap parts?

 

[cipher]

The wishbone in question came from...wait for it...BuyPartsBy (otherwise known as Sutton auto Factors).

The other side came from our local Andrew Page motor factor, and is much better quality.

I was wondering if the hole on the pillar/hub assembly has become worn, and not clamping tight enough on the ball joint shaft.

Or it could just could be me not torquing the pinch bolt up enough to clamp it.

Vauxhall, I can do, I used to work for them, Fiat, not too sure about.

 

[auto_blanco]

BPB stuff is crap, bought some Fiesta wishbones from them and they were rubbish, cheap indian rubber etc etc....local factors stuff is better, 1st line stuff is pretty good im told.

 

[850kd]

Auto-Blanco:Is your comment about BPB a sweeping generalisation?
Do you know for sure that the source for both suppliers is not the same?
I am interested because I have replaced lower arms on my stilo - one from BPB about 35k ago and one from GSF about 10K ago. They seemed identical, except they were LH and RH of course.
Im pretty sure the GSF part was Firstline but came in a no-name pack.

 

[auto_blanco]

Its a sweeping generalisation in that all products ive bought from BPB with the exception of brake parts have been super cheap slightly crappy ones yes.

They may all look the same but in terms of the quality of the balljoints and bushes they vary quite alot.

 

[850kd]

I will keep a wary on the BPB arm following your experiences !
Last time the BPB price was about 50% higher than GSF so it was no contest.

 

[cipher]

The one from BPB is a Quinton hazell part, not sure what the GSF one is however.

 

[digger58]

I would have to suspect that the pinch bolt was not tight enough to start with, there had to be play to allow it to wear from new, I would make sure that the new part has a very definite unobstructed "split" between the sides, when it is tightened this should close up, another thing to check after fitting, I removed a wishbone recently and had to open the split by hammering in a very thin chisel to get the joint to drop. I remember years ago having a Citroen Visa with similar problems, I used a grinder to widen the split and then a new bolt and tightened to excess, worked for the rest of the life of the car, by the way the loose joint was very obvious on cornering and acceleration. Is the ball joint shaft OK, perhaps measure a new one and compare, hope this helps,
T

 

[cipher]

is there a specific torque setting for the pinch bolt? I seem to have 70Nm in mind, but not sure if this right or not, as it sounds very low.

 

[andrew1620]

is there a specific torque setting for the pinch bolt? I seem to have 70Nm in mind, but not sure if this right or not, as it sounds very low.

The correct torque in Russek is 50 ft lbs which converts to 67.71 Nm so you are right there, I wouldn't say it's low though for that type of joint. In comparison the drive shaft nuts are 72 ft lbs

AJ

 

[digger58]

3/4"drive socket and "tighten and be damned", only way to stop it happening again. maybe get a better quality bolt as well

 

[cipher]

i have put the new arm on, just waiting on the new bolts for the rear mount and the new arb clamp.

I have used a genuine (pug) pinch bolt, and tightened it as much as I can, so hopefully, it will be okay now, I guess time will tell, well, need to sort out the other issue first (think my turbo is stoofed).