What have you been up to this week

[ben]

yeh ive seen ball joints welded in. im not too keen on the idea either. if they dont fit right you must have the wrong ones.

ben

[BlackBedford]

G/day

I bought a cab/chassis that had been "tacked in". The tacks were about 2cm long with 2 on each ball joint.

On my first big trip I got stuck:

[kerry]

So started again on daves van this week it now has a hsp diff and ALMOST disc breaks whilst changing the stubs out the top left hand wishbone had a tone of grime on it so I scraped it away    some one has welded the top ball joint in - is this common? after all the bedies iv seen and worked on Iv not seen this done , has anyone else? anyway im uncomfortable leaving it like that it so its coming OUT.  here we go , the metal around the ball joint looks like its been through a washing machine. Ill post some pics of it oh yer its got mags now too!!

When I had my balljoints replaced recently the mechanic told me they'd been welded in, although the last time I had them done were by  my good friend & mechanic who swore he never welded them in, as that's just bad mechanical practice. Unfortunately the other mechanics didn't give me back my old ones, as I'd asked,  to look at so the mystery remains: were they or were they not welded in? Someone was lying!

[BlackBedford]

did the tack fail or ball joint?
looks like the ball poped out of its socket?

The ball joints were only a couple of months old and a 1000kms of travel.
When they were welded in the plastic had melted and fell out.

[Worby876]

Does anyone have a picture or video clip showing how to tell if you need to replace
The  ball joint..?

What's the proceedure ? Do you jack the wheel up and lever the tyre up for movement?
 
Sorry if it's a dumb question but I don't know how you test them. 

I must get a service manual one day ..I think they are available on cd rom too.

Cheers

Ian

[outriding]

Welded in ball joints???

I've never seen or even heard of that.... 

I guess as an emergency tactic you could do that.. but that's just not right and dangerous as you can see above.

[outriding]

Does anyone have a picture or video clip showing how to tell if you need to replace
The  ball joint..?

What's the proceedure ? Do you jack the wheel up and lever the tyre up for movement?
 
Sorry if it's a dumb question but I don't know how you test them. 

I must get a service manual one day ..I think they are available on cd rom too.

Cheers

Ian

If you search on youtube you will see several "techniques" on how to check ball joints.
For the lower ball joint I usually check like this:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqw85L_sMgE

[ben]

The ball joints were only a couple of months old and a 1000kms of travel.
When they were welded in the plastic had melted and fell out.

im not sure what your talking about chris but bedford ball joints dont have any plastic components?? unless it was the nylon nut? if the nylon was melted the nut might undo i suppose.

ben

[Marishka]

yeah what plastic Chriss?

[BlackBedford]

yeah what plastic Chriss?

Yeah I meant nylon. the ball joints in the truck were new and had a nylon ring around the ball. The heat had melted it so that after a 1000kms it wore through. When I bought it I heard the squeek and thought it was a ball joint however as they were new I thought it must be something else. When it let go I was traveling on a dirt road far away. I hitch-hiked home pulled 2 wishbones out of a front end, hitch-hiked back and put them in. And no it wasn't fun.