11 replies to this topic

[stef]

reet, im bored so im gonna look at my balljoints, as i know one is real tight. if theres any play in i'll replace them yes? and as for the tight one, will it be worn from use now or can i just shim it up and it will be ok?

my vice is broken, can i do it with the hub on the car?

and can i get shims from halfrauds or the like?

cheers,
Stef

[Dan]

I'm sure Jammy will move this to technical at some point....

You can only get shims with ball joint kits, I doubt you'll get them at Halfords. For that reason it is essential to always keep any left over or removed shims you have from ball joints.

If you find one with slack that has no shims then it is scrap as you suggest, if it has slack and has some shims in it then it may be possible to remove some or replace some with thinner ones and get the required pre-load. Ball joints aren't always scrap just because they are worn, only when they are worn out. If they are still shim-able and show no damage then they will actually last longer and work better than new ones if re-shimmed correctly. There's no real difference between a nicely worn in, well looked after ball joint and one that's been lapped in with compound.

Doubltess someone will tell you to pack it with grease and that'll do. It might get you through an MOT but you'll be the one sitting in a ditch by the motorway after the pin snaps and hopefully not having taken anyone with you. And on that note, only buy genuine ball joints. Non genuine ones have a real habit of snapping. They do it in mid summer for some reason. Every summer there's three or four threads on here about snapped ball joints.

[stef]

yeh i know jammy will move it, im still chatting about minis but meh.

soo basically, i need to buy a whole new ball joint because the garage didnt shim the tight one correctly, just so i can get some shims?

im sure the others will be ok, if any are slack then i guess i can take a shim out and put that in the tight one?

that sucks as the joint looks new, its just far too tight for me to leave alone. well it wont actually accept grease!

so i need to sort it. can i make shims out of anything?

cheers dan for answering as you always seem to!

[taffy1967]

Oh god I've had a tight ball-joint on one side for years and I have a hell of a job getting grease into it. My late father was the last person to fit new ball-joints to get my Mini through the MOT and I helped him shim them all and it took ages to get it right. But that one side has always been very tight.

I guess I'll need to have that looked at sooner than later, but I don't know who to trust and I don't think it's a job I could handle on my own.

[Jammy]

Maybe I'll move it to the Ebay section just to be unpredictable.....












Moved to Technical!

[Simon@minispares.com]

http://www.minispare...s...;ty=fi&rt=1

[Simon@minispares.com]

Shims!

http://www.minispare...s...;ty=fi&rt=1

[dklawson]

Boy howdy! I always assumed like Dan that we have to save the old shims "just in case". Simon, do you know if Don stocks those over here on our left-coast?

Edited by dklawson, 18 May 2007 - 01:17 PM.

[Simon@minispares.com]

Boy howdy! I always assumed like Dan that we have to save the old shims "just in case". Simon, do you know if Don stocks those over here on our left-coast?

Sorry, I don't know whether they stock them, not shipped them any recently

[Dan]

OMG how long have you had those? I could never get any anywhere! Well done.

[stef]

cheers simon!

except i was hoping something like that wouldnt happen, theres no point in me buying a few quids worth of shims so looks like i'll be ordering the £100 saved basket ive had on there for a while.....

ah well!

cheers again

[stef]

flood control my butthole, it posted it twice anyway

Edited by stef, 19 May 2007 - 02:52 AM.