I need to change the wishbone on the girlfriends mk7 zetec due to a failed ball joint causing a knocking sound when driving,  does anybody know what the torque settings are for the three bolts for the wishbone on a mk7 ? the front horizontal bolt, the rear vertical bolt and the ball joint pinch bolt ? cheers

I just did mine ft the horizontal and vertical ones i pulled them in with a buzz gun then checked with breaker bar and the pinch bolt just did that up with a 3/8 ratchet 

If you want torque settings get me the tensile strength  of the bolt and the thread size and I can get a torque setting for you 

I will get the three bolts from ford,  no idea what the strength of them is though ?   Did you lower the car to the ground before fully tightening the bolts ? keep reading online your supposed to tighten them with the weight of the car on the wishbone but not sure if it makes a difference   

No I left it on the jack when tightening and I have had no problems 

ok cheers,   anyone know the correct torque that ford recommend for these bolts ? thanks

bolts should all be replaced, pinch bolt 52nm, rear bolt 65nm then 180° front bolt 103nm then 180°

The front bolt should be tightened with the wheels in the floor.  Means the bush is at the angle that it will be for most of it's time.  If you tighten it while in the air the bush will be under more strain afterwards and (in theory) decrease it's lifespan.

34 minutes ago, iantt said:

bolts should all be replaced, pinch bolt 52nm, rear bolt 65nm then 180° front bolt 103nm then 180°

Thanks Ian thats great !!

33 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

The front bolt should be tightened with the wheels in the floor.  Means the bush is at the angle that it will be for most of it's time.  If you tighten it while in the air the bush will be under more strain afterwards and (in theory) decrease it's lifespan.

Id read that online wasnt sure it was necessary but I will do it with the car on the floor before fully tightening the bolt.  Is it just the front bolt that needs to be done like this ? or should I just do all three like this ? thanks for the help though 

just the front bolt, if you have it jacked , up place a block of wood or 2 under bottom balljoint, and let vehicle down, that will put lower arm in correct position to tighten without wheel in the way.

I'm struggling to release the ballpoint from the knuckle.  Tried hitting it with a hammer  a few times which usually breaks the taper, are the splitter forks any good or should u try a bigger hammer on the knuckle ?

I assume that's balljoint unless you've got a Bic stuck on there...

Splitter forks are great, I've only recently bought one and wish I had sooner, takes 30 seconds to pop the BJ out!  They can rip the rubber boots though so only use if you're not wanting to keep the balljoint would be my advice.

Sorry stupid autocorrect !  It is the ball joint 😊   I will go buy a splitter fork tomorrow morning an give it a go then I gave up this evening and left the car on axle stands before I started breaking things trying to get it off !

Finally managed to get the ball joint free after alot of bashing with a splitter fork ,new one went on easily although I could not torque down the front bolt with the wheel on, so I jacked up on the wishbone with a block of wood to roughly where it sits with the car on the ground and then torqued it down.   I went for a drive after and noticed when you get upto 60 ish there is a rumbling noise that seem to be coming from that end, sounds similar to a wheel bearing thats gone however staying at a constant speed the noise gets louder and quieter then louder and so it is not a constant noise at the same speed which is odd.  Could this likely be just that the wheel alignment is really out and the tyres causing this noise ?  or could all the hammering of now damaged the wheel bearing ?    the car has also recently had the rear tyres replaced could it also be a balancing issue although there is not much vibration of wobble that can be felt.     

 

Any ideas ? cheers

It's probably just the alignment out as you say.  Unless you were hitting the rotating hub where the wheel mounts I don't see how you'd damage the bearing.

Cheers will get the wheel alignment checked next week hopefully will solve the problem.

On 11/06/2016 at 9:18 PM, iantt said:

bolts should all be replaced, pinch bolt 52nm, rear bolt 65nm then 180° front bolt 103nm then 180°

All these torque figures correct for a 2011 fiesta ?  As i have just gone out a rechecked and the bolts are all torqued to these but dont seem as tight as I would imagine they should be ?

On 17 June 2016 at 8:21 AM, kemp596 said:

Finally managed to get the ball joint free after alot of bashing with a splitter fork ,new one went on easily although I could not torque down the front bolt with the wheel on, so I jacked up on the wishbone with a block of wood to roughly where it sits with the car on the ground and then torqued it down.   I went for a drive after and noticed when you get upto 60 ish there is a rumbling noise that seem to be coming from that end, sounds similar to a wheel bearing thats gone however staying at a constant speed the noise gets louder and quieter then louder and so it is not a constant noise at the same speed which is odd.  Could this likely be just that the wheel alignment is really out and the tyres causing this noise ?  or could all the hammering of now damaged the wheel bearing ?    the car has also recently had the rear tyres replaced could it also be a balancing issue although there is not much vibration of wobble that can be felt.     

 

Any ideas ? cheers

Rejack that wheel up and rotate it by hand, if it sounds 'rough' you'll know the bearing has gone, easy and quick check.

6 minutes ago, Russ said:

Rejack that wheel up and rotate it by hand, if it sounds 'rough' you'll know the bearing has gone, easy and quick check.

Tried this it sounds ok, just the noise of the pads on the disc. an there is no movement when trying to shake the wheel up/down and side to side.  Im wondering if i have possibly pulled the drive shaft to far even though it hardly seem to move, which has damaged something in the inner cv joint ? 

Those torques and degrees are correct, I just re checked.

1 minute ago, iantt said:

Those torques and degrees are correct, I just re checked.

Thanks for double checking, just with the problem noise im checking everything again :) 

On ‎6‎/‎17‎/‎2016 at 8:21 AM, kemp596 said:

Finally managed to get the ball joint free after alot of bashing with a splitter fork ,new one went on easily although I could not torque down the front bolt with the wheel on, so I jacked up on the wishbone with a block of wood to roughly where it sits with the car on the ground and then torqued it down.   I went for a drive after and noticed when you get upto 60 ish there is a rumbling noise that seem to be coming from that end, sounds similar to a wheel bearing thats gone however staying at a constant speed the noise gets louder and quieter then louder and so it is not a constant noise at the same speed which is odd.  Could this likely be just that the wheel alignment is really out and the tyres causing this noise ?  or could all the hammering of now damaged the wheel bearing ?    the car has also recently had the rear tyres replaced could it also be a balancing issue although there is not much vibration of wobble that can be felt.     

 

Any ideas ? cheers

Probably best sticking to a decent local independent garage for a job like that, a good one will usually complete the job in a short time with no hassle.