The lower arm or wishbone has three attachment points: outboard there is the front lower ball joint, whilst inboard there is a front pivot bolt and a rear suspension joint -both secured through rubber bushes, the front is cylindrical in form and the rear a doughnut. All three are obtainable separating from a variety of manufacturers. I bought the ball-joints from Sureline and all the other bushes from Febi. This means refurbishing the arm is a cost-competitive solution and could be considered alongside complete arm replacement- certainly if only one bush has failed (usually the ball joint). However, there isn't much guidance out there for anyone wishing to go down that route so I decided to recondition my old arms. This is a summary of my experience. The process wasn't too difficult as long as you have the right tools (see below)
Ball Joint
I ordered new ball joints from Sureline, each joint comes with a splined press-in section and a wire clip to secure it once fitted.
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| New Ball joint |
The only strong point on the joint is a thick ring at the bottom, it will obviously have to be pressed in from the bottom up as this ring is wider than the hole into which it fits!
The old joint was fairly nasty and although it needs to be pressed out downwards (or as shown here upwards), there is no obvious pressure structure which could be used to press in that direction.
After wire brushing it was still not clear whether a wire clip was actually present, pointer indicates the groove position.
This meant that I had to remove the boot in order to find an edge to press on, this doesn't matter as the joint is scrap anyway. Removing the boot showed that the original joints had used a single wire clip to serve as both boot retainer and ball joint clip.
The ball joints pressed out easily using a socket and receiver cup in the press.
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| Socket and cup chosen to remove ball joint. |
Pressing the ball joint down
... and into the receiver.
The new joint was pressed in using appropriate sized supports and press
New joint pressed in and...
... wire clip installed.
Inboard front bush (cylindrical)
The cylindrical bush completely covers the metal edge of the socket in which the bush is fitted. This would make removal difficult as the rubber would be trapped under whatever press or cup was used to remove it.
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| Bush rim covers metal case of socket |
Consequently I sawed through the rubber and removed the rim from both sides.
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| Bush rim trimmed away to reveal the metal edge of its socket. |
The bush could then be wound out using the Draper press and pull kit although the shape of the wishbone does mean that there isn't enough room to fit a long enough socket to press the bush out completely in one step. I started using a large nut and introduced the socket once the bush had started to move
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| Using a nut as spacer to start the bush moving. |
I tried to refit the new bush in the press but failed completely. I'm not sure why, but trying to press the bush in didn't work. The front half of the bush entered easily but the rear section simply "ballooned" against the socket and jammed. I found that drawing the bush in the the press and pull system worked immediately
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| Winding in the new bush |
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| New bush fitted. |
Inboard Rear bush
Original doughnut bush installed. It has two projections which I think indicate the strongest parts of the bush and which are oriented across the arm.
I made some marks to orient the new bush against these rubber moulded lugs and also scribed along the arm to indicate the depth to which the old bush was pressed.
It was relatively simple to press the bush downwards. I pressed from the underside of the wishbone in case the moulding was tapered but I didn't see any sign of this and it may not matter which way this one is pressed.
The doughnut bush popped out easily into the receiver.
The new bush was installed by reversing the process- pressing from the top into the receiver moulding in case it was tapered. The depth of press was determined as 7mm and this was checked as the pressing progressed.
In the end both arms were reconditioned with new bushes, the process was relatively straight-forward providing you have the tools and the press and pull system is pretty much essential.
After wire brushing it was still not clear whether a wire clip was actually present, pointer indicates the groove position.
This meant that I had to remove the boot in order to find an edge to press on, this doesn't matter as the joint is scrap anyway. Removing the boot showed that the original joints had used a single wire clip to serve as both boot retainer and ball joint clip.
New joint pressed in and...
... wire clip installed.
I made some marks to orient the new bush against these rubber moulded lugs and also scribed along the arm to indicate the depth to which the old bush was pressed.
It was relatively simple to press the bush downwards. I pressed from the underside of the wishbone in case the moulding was tapered but I didn't see any sign of this and it may not matter which way this one is pressed.
The doughnut bush popped out easily into the receiver.
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