DDK - Die Deutschen Klassiker

that is a lot of adjustable parts!
Will be interesting to see how you get the chassis in shape.

Nobody has asked what I want for my birthday yet and it's soon...

Galko Diver watch would be nice.

Check you out!

DustyM wrote:Nice Birthday presents! Have a good one.

Thanks Jon - inspired by your spindle-raising activities

I'm liking the present list! Happy birthday

Does the man never rest!

Great going Mr Ranieri

OK so this weekend I finally started working on the birthday presents.

There was a slight change in the actual presents as you apparently cannot use the quick change camber plate with coil overs (even though the site says you can). Having a large credit with them I opted for the 935 style triangulated quick release cross-brace



So this week-end I made a start. Firstly removed the front suspension - rather than fancying around trying to remove the anti roll bar I dropped the whole thing




Then started splitting everything apart. The aim is to raise the spindles and get everything cleaned up and some stuff powder coated before putting the new stuff on.

Going OK so far (having broken a10mm Allen headed socket - which Halfords replaced with no quibbles) - Removed the old ARB bracket







However I now need help:-

I've actually removed the bottom ball joint OK (it's not been in there for long) but I can't get that out of the strut itself.



I've tried cobbling something up



But not surprisingly this didn't work.

Anyone got any ideas on getting it off? I can easily re-attach the A-Arm if necessary

Cheers

Mark


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Are you hoping to reuse the ball joint or fitting new?

If you are replacing it then use a bit of heat and a joint splitting fork. If you are hoping to remove it without damage to the rubber boot then thats a little tricky!

I was hoping to re-use it as it's only a couple of years old. However I can't see a way around destroying it without making some super-fancy tool. May justl face facts and buy another pair of them.

In hindsight I suppose it would have been better to separate the two while it was all on the car

What if you place the strut upside down in the vice with the flange of the ball joint supported on the top of the jaws (might need a couple of support bars across) and then use a hammer and drift on the bottom of the strut?

Good idea - might try that

I removed my old ones with the fork type splitter and gave it some proper welly with a lump hammer. I wasn't planning on reusing the old ball joints though. Can you buy the boots separately? I did manage to split the new ones when I changed the actual struts. I made a shield from thin ali to cover the boot so it didn't split.

I think that'll be my option if Jons suggestion doesn't work. Shame to waste a good pair of balljoints but not the end of the world

Mark - I have this (lightly used) ball joint you're welcome to if it's of any use:

Mark, what I tried to explain was this, 2 pieces of ali or think steel with a slot cut out which you sandwich between the boot and bottom of the strut. Then get your fork splitter in there and hammer away.

The ali protects the boot from being pinch/split by the fork. It has to be pretty thin though to fit in the gap.

Thanks Andy and thanks Nige

I've got some ally lying around so I might try that as option 2