Well,

I had a front suspension issue; The ball joint separated from the hub and dropped the car to the ground.

Well, it also pulled the os driveshaft out too.

Difficulty I am having is getting the whole thing to line up again.

Cant seem to get the driveshaft to stay in, and then get the ball joint into the bottom of the hub.

Any advice....

Thanks

Hi Cipher,
First thing to do is find out why this happened, It shouldn't, the bolt holding the ball joint goes through the housing and across the recess in the shaft of the ball joint. Is either worn too much? if so they will both have to be replaced. Wishbone is €95 from a factor here as I put one in two weeks ago, housing, try a scrap yard. To reassemble, jack up both sides and remove both wheels, I used a spring compressor to give me a bit more flexability, undo the anti roll bar on the side you are working on, just where it connects to the wishbone. is should be easy(!!!!) then to put joint back in.Use a good lever to force down wishbone, mind the rubber on CV joint boot and balljoint. If this happened while driving did it damage anything? Is shaft OK? make sure inner CV joint is OK and not pulled out of damaged, outer should be OK as it is bolted into the hub (36mm). Hope that helps,
Tony

the pinch bolt is worn flat, so I have ordered up a new one from fiat.

There is damage to the inner driveshaft gaiter, and the ball joint pin has punched a hole in the gaiter on the outer CV joint, so these will need replacing. The MoT is due Dec, so I will see what else she needs.

The gaiters will be replaced before the MoT however.

fitted a new wishbine last time this happened, as the ball joint was shafted...

Hi, I had great fun replacing CV boots......, the inner one was hard to get off as the end is swaged over on the shaft, Lots of hammering with a cold chisel and it eventually came off, I put a strong plastic bag over joint before I started, clamp shaft in vice and hammer!!!. Bag collects roller bearings if they fall off,(which they will) then you can go for the outer one. Inner joint is a very tight fit in the housing but it will come out with a little persuation. May be worth while pricing a new shaft.
T