Disclaimer: As always, this is a guide only and I accept no responsibility for any damage or injury that maybe sustained through following these guidelines.

While I was doing an overhaul on the caliper slide pins yesterday, I found that the ball joint on the top wishbone on the near side had a fair bit of play in it. Luckily I have a spare pair of wishbones in the garage so thought I might as well change it over.

Tools required (excluding wheel removal):

1. 17mm socket
2. 14mm ring spanner
3. 10mm spanner or socket
4. Balljoint splitter
5. Hammer (last resort )
6. Pliers

OK, now down to the nitty gritty. Jack up vehicle and support on axle stands, please see this topic for wheel removal etc --> clicky

1. First step, give a good spray of penetrating oil on the ball joint and abs sensor clip bolt. Go and have a coffee while you let it work for a while.

2. Using the pliers, remove the locking pin from the ball joint castle nut.



3. Using the 17mm socket, undo the castle nut. If you need to re-use it, completely remove it and screw it back on upside down. This will stop the little "turrets" getting bent out of shape during the ball joint splitting process.





4. If the ball joint is not going to be used again (i.e. if replacing the wishbone) then a scissor type seperator can be used as I have done. I wouldn't use a scissor type if you need to put it back on as it does do some damage to the rubber boot on the ball joint. It takes some effort to get the ball joint to split. I had to do the splitter up damn tight and then resorted to hitting the bottom of the splitter with a lump hammer to finally crack the joint open.



5. Undo and move to the abs sensor wiring clamp/guide out of the way





6. Now the abs sensor is safely out of the way, remove the castle nut and pull the wishbone up to free the ball joint.



7. Next are the inner bush bolts. Using the 14mm spanner, undo the bolts. Ratchet spanners come in handy here, which luckily I have.





8. If you are lucky, as I was here, the bolts will slide out and go between the spring coils. If the bolts don't and they hit the spring coils, use the cars scissor jack placed under the bottom ball joint and jack the suspension up slightly until the spring coils are no longer in the way.

9. Once the bolts are out, the wishbone can be removed.



10. Re-assembly is the reverse of the removal. Ensure you put the locking pin back in once the castle nut has be tightened up.



Torque settings are 87 Nm (64 ft lbs) for the castle nut. Inner arm bolts 53 Nm (39 ft lbs)

Any questions, please shout.

thanks tigerfish

brilliant as usual !

Great write-up as usual Tigerfish