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MG MGF Technical - ball joints

Starting to get a bit play in the ball joints on the bars coming out ot the steering rack that attatch onto the uprights at the front. has anyone replaced these? the bits on the end of the bar are on a thread , and the ball joints themselves are threaded through the uprights so it looks as though they would come off and could be replaced.Anyone done this job? what parts do i need, do they come as a complete set ? any costs etc?

Sorry for the lame explanation, dont know the technical terms, but anyone who has done this job will know what im talking about,

Thanks in advance.

oh and yes, 4got to mention, got my 16 inhc TSW Fusions on yesterday, with 215/40/16 yokohama rubber on, they look really good.Cars a real head turner now!!!
G.C

Track rod ends.

Fairly easy job, but you need to get the car tracked afterwards.

Before you begin, mark the nut position on the thread with some Tippex or similar, then you can transfer the mark and set your new trackrod ends to the same position during the install. This will set the tracking 'roughly' and will enable the car to be driven to the tyre centre for it to be fine tuned.

SF
Scarlet Fever

sounds about right Andy, what comes with the track rod end if i buy them new? do i get the ball joint that goes onto the upright and the actual end of the track rod which goes over the ball as one piece? any idea of a price?


GC
G.C

Hmmm, might be some stuff on Rob's site (although i have just done a search and nothing popped up).

I have some stuff on the SOS site, but it's not very comprehensive. Basically i had to unbolt one of my track rod ends during the strip down, but didn't actually replace it, so some of the information is there, but not all of it, i'll dig out the URL...

>> http://www.sfforever.co.uk/mainpage_29/viewgallerypicture.asp?id=1-18-1074-884-885-886-887-889-888-1104-645-646-688-852-855-854-853-1102-1103-1097&queryon=82&pageid=102&sid=93721041978619538317220040226134720769 <<

and

>> http://www.sfforever.co.uk/mainpage_29/viewgallerypicture.asp?id=16-30-1015-851-848-850-903-905-902-904-901-1109-816-817-1110-1098-644-1073-1105-686-687-682-683-681-684-685-960-959-1114-1113-840-842&queryon=89&pageid=102&sid=93721041978619538317220040226134720769 <<

So, i haven't seen a track rod end on it's own, so i don't know what comes in the kit, but i suspect it's the ball joint with pin (and nut probably), the arm it sits on and maybe the locking nut too.

Method:

Mark the locking nut position on the steering rack

Undo the top nut and remove.

Spin the track rod end until it comes off the threaded end of the steering rack.

Spin the new track rod end onto the steering rack up to the lock nut.

Check lock nut hasn't moved, if it has undo the TRE a little and adjust the lock nut, tighten the TRE against the lock nut.

Insert pin into hub arm, tighten top nut.

If you want to be really spot on, have a look in the workshop manual for torque settings.

SF
Scarlet Fever

Undo the top nut and remove 8-) ! what an understatement that could be. Try "tapping gently on the side of the control arm eye through which the centre bush is located" as the this is a tapered fit, which after time seems to get tighter. a 2lb lump hammer is normally enough.
mind the knuckles (on your hand) as they can get scrapped.
Mike :-)
Mike (@home)

cheers andy,just what i was looking for. could it be a case of the ball joint part going through the track rod end just needs tightening, reason i say this is because when i move the hub the play appears to be caused by the whole ball joint unit moving slightly and not necaserily where it goes into the track rod end.

GC
G.C

This thread was discussed on 26/02/2004

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