Hi

Do lower suspension arms make a crunching noise or a thud on pullaway. 

It's like cracking your knuckles with a thud and most say it's the arms doing the noises, i called fords and got qouted 134 pound and 176 pound plus vat, a total of 450.

Can you do these yourself and do I need the special ball joint puller if im changing both whole lower arms.

Thanks

1 hour ago, madman said:

Hi

Do lower suspension arms make a crunching noise or a thud on pullaway. 

It's like cracking your knuckles with a thud and most say it's the arms doing the noises, i called fords and got qouted 134 pound and 176 pound plus vat, a total of 450.

Can you do these yourself and do I need the special ball joint puller if im changing both whole lower arms.

Thanks

I would get them checked. The likes of halfrauds, National tyres do free suspension checks. It could even be rear upper control arms which sound like it's coming from the front when taking off or the front exhaust mount weld has gone.

It can be done on the drive with Jack stands but would be limited access. Here is video of changing them out.

 

Thanks great guide don't look to hard few bolts, the big rear Bush on front wishbone has bit of play but not excessively and flaky. Do they make crack noise or thud. 

Also the steering wheel is shaking was that also a sign.

I thought the shake would be either tracking or something with the brakes 

Could I do this on driveway that slopes downwards. 

 

I'm doing my car on my driveway but has slope downwards and I've back it on so all weight is at the rear end car on slope. 

Got the wheel off and then tie rod won't budge, used wd40,  hit knuckle with rubber mallet, put nut on at hit the nut, not thread.

Should it be like this or is slope giving me a issue.

Cheers guys

Wheels are joined side to side by the anti-roll bars.  But there's nothing connecting front and rear in that way.  As long as both front wheels are off the ground, the slope won't have any effect.

I'm sure you can remove the arms without undoing the tie rod anyway.  I hate trying to split ball joints without damaging them and can't remember removing them when I did the arms on my own Mk2.

17 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

 

I've got only the driver side jacked up on trolley jack, the passenger side is on the ground. 

I've brought the whole suspension arms rather then replace a bush. 

But the video in this thread says remove tie rod, and I was following that. 

7 minutes ago, madman said:

I've got only the driver side jacked up on trolley jack, the passenger side is on the ground. 

That's your problem!  The weight of the passenger side is being transferred through the anti roll bar to the drivers side.  You've also got a lot of weight on the opposite track rod that'll stop you having any 'in & out' play on the rod at this end.

I'd forget the video and see if there's enough room to manoeuvre the arm out without touching the tie rod.  YouTube and Haynes often make life more difficult than it needs to be.  The TRE isn't connected to the wishbone at all, so as long as that's free to move (both wheels off the ground) that shouldn't restrict the hub so much as to stop you getting the wishbone ball joint out of it.

Anti roll bar goes across the car onto a anti roll bar link to the shocks. 

I wondered why they remove tie rods when they not connected wishbone arms. Why do they remove the tie rods.

If I jacked both sides up you think I could do it. The 3 nuts on wishbone at back don't move with wd40 and the nut on wishbone ball joint does not shift. 

46 minutes ago, madman said:

Anti roll bar goes across the car onto a anti roll bar link to the shocks. 

I wondered why they remove tie rods when they not connected wishbone arms. Why do they remove the tie rods.

If I jacked both sides up you think I could do it. The 3 nuts on wishbone at back don't move with wd40 and the nut on wishbone ball joint does not shift. 

Yes, so the shock is then being pushed down into the hub...and you need to raise the hub/shock in order to get the wishbone bottom ball joint out.  The wishbone bushes are pushing upwards, the ARB/hub is pushing downwards.  You're fighting the ARB with just one wheel off the ground.  Fine if you're built like the Hulk, but I have to make physics work for me haha!

They remove the tie rods to give you more sideways movement on the hub.  But with both wheels off the ground, and the key in the ignition to stop the steering wheel locking, there's plenty of movement anyway.  

If you can't loosen the wishbone bolts, that's a separate issue.  I thought it was the ball joints themselves you were struggling with.  Best advice for the bolts is more leverage from a longer bar.  You could also use an impact gun if you've got one.

I brought the wishbone whole arm for both sides that has the big rear bush and new ball joint on the hub. 

All the nuts won't shift, nut on ball joint won't shift even after 3-4 wd40 sprays and the other 3 bolts on the arm.  I'm only using spanners and a adjustable spanner.  

Been to garage 100 pound to fit them. Mobile mechanic wanted 120. 

 

They're tighter than wheel bolts, I seriously doubt you'll get them off with spanners.

£100 garage labour is probably the way to go if you can afford it.

I purchased one of These for that type of job on the ones that can be accessed that way. it makes a hell of a difference even for tight wheel nuts and as long as you have 6 points sockets the less chance of rounding it off. As for spanners I was using one to remove the back bolt of the swaybar link as you need to have an Allen key in the hole to stop it turning and my spanner snapped in my hand 🤣 you defo can't get a socket in there there is no room here is another video for clarity.

 

On a focus mk2 not a facelift 2.5. 

I've brought 18mm wishbone arms is that correct size on 55 focus. 

What size are the nuts.

The ball joint Hub nut:

Tie rod if needed to move nut:

The 2 bolts at back wish bone:

The nut at front wishbone:

I know someone with tools ex engineer and asking what's sizes sockets, he also has longer leverage bar.

Cheers guys

 

 

Apparently 18mm was up to 03/2006. Then 21 became standard.

Nut sizes can be different if aftermarket parts have been used so best to bring a full set.

 From memory I think bottom BJ nut is 21/22mm, need a spanner for that one.  The other nuts/bolts are just standard socket sizes between 13-19mm.

Help please.

How the hell do u free the ball joint when changing wishbone arms. I've managed to loosen the nuts, ball joint nut off but how to get it off 

The proper way to do it is with something like this. I have seen it done by hitting both sides of the taper hole with two hammers to shock it free but it's never worked for me. Last resort woul be applying some heat.

Brute force is the only way.  Popping the ball joint out is always the hardest part of a wishbone change.

I've got a ball joint fork myself which just gets hammered in.  A thick chisel does a similar job though.  

As mentioned earlier in the thread, the wishbone is being levered upwards by the rubber bushes on the inside edge, so you're working against physics here.  It needs to be levered out, it'll never be 'shocked' out like a TRE could be.  You can pull the inside edge out first so the bush side is hanging down, that gives you some gravity to work with.

I've loosen the 2 rear wishbone bolts, I've loosen the single bolt facing towards front of the car, I've taken off nut on ball joint hub.  I've got myself a metal fork from euros and I'm whacking it but nothing happening.  I'm looking at the spare wishbone arms I brought and thinking it only goes in, why so tough getting out.

I'm on driveway and left tie rod on.

Please help

 

 

Have you pulled the back of the wishbone away from the subframe?  If not, the rear bush is still creating a load of upwards force through the wishbone.

The balljoint is tapered which is why it's so tight in the hub.

The rear 2 bolts and front bolt I've only loosened. From videos on YouTube I was going by tie rod on or off, then the hub nut off and ball splitter whack separate and then the 3 remaining bolts off and change like auto doc.

Or gentil garage, I've got a fork they using different splitter

To add I'm on sloped drive with the car reversed on. Back towards house on slope

i've never had much sucess with pickle forks .. normally i use the ball joint seperator but when that fails i use a 2ft long 1" round bar with the face of it on the ball joint housing (where the taper goes into the hub) then apply several hard sharp wacks with a big hammer .. long bar help you get a swing of the hammer

Where the ball joint thread goes up to the brake hub onto nut, is that part a pinch bolt and could not be separated with a chisel or Allen key. 

Does that split apart with a chisel or Allen key, to make the ball joint free. 

I've tried to pickle fork with a whack and now rubber split, mallet, a bar on wishbone arm, sprayed wd40. 

Cheers guys thanks

 

Where the ball joint goes into the hub, I see its tapered and to a screw thread to the end. Now am I missing something. Does that tapered thread only bang in hub or is there a pinch bolt or Allen key bolt I'm missing hence not be able to shift the wishbone arm.