Field repairs

[Dean Lofthouse]

Looks like it was over tightned

 

It does look that way and that is what the manufacturer will say, but as Gardenkit pointed out, the nut should strip before snapping the ball joint.

 

With castellated nut you have to be able to turn them that extra bit if needed to line up the lock pin holes. I did consider using a nylon lock nut for the new one but the holes lined up nicely with the correct torque

[treequip]

I have a ball joint kit already, but because it was the cheapo arm I didn't want to use it, the splines don't seem as tight as the more expensive one either and kept loosening every few months.

 

When I bought the arm last year, I bought a load of other bits, so never really took any notice of the quality or price.

 

Confidence is low on nasty parts:thumbup1:

[Treewolf]

...

It was put on new last year, just goes to prove, buy cheap but twice.

...

 

 

Wasn't Britpart by any chance was it?

[monkeybusiness]

I'm amazed how common this failure appears to be on such a safety critical component - your story on its own is terrifying, but it takes on a whole new level of seriousness when others have experienced the same failure! I'm sure there is an undercurrent of poor maintenance (not in your case) and abuse leading to a number of these failures - this component is in an exposed position and is vulnerable to off road damage - but it seems unbelievable that such an important steering component can fail with any degree of regularity.

[Dean Lofthouse]

Wasn't Britpart by any chance was it?

 

Yes, but they sell both the crap £22 one and the £56 OEM equivalent

[armchairarborist]

my last disco sheared the pin that comes out of the steering box, minutes after doing motorway speeds for an hour! that was an original steering box leaving the vehicle with no steering at all. the scary bit was when the recovery guy said it wasn't the first he had seen like that!

[csservices]

When I changed it last year it was horrendous, I ended up using a cordless reciprocating saw and cutting it off, this time it was easy because I copper greased the spline when I fitted the new one last year, I worked it off by hand this time

 

Other way is to use a plasma disc on 4" grinder, bit awkward to get it in but will cut through it in no time

[mpb]

I've fitted a discovery drop arm ball joint and upgraded discovery stealing arms with a steering damper relocation kit. This gives me an easily replaceable ball joint at each end rather than the traditional defender one.

 

Martin

[pycoed]

Steering went on Landrover today, just gone over a motorway bridge at 50 mph, pulled over, turned steering and steering just went light, main drop arm ball joint snapped. Doesn't bear thinking about what would have happened if it had gone a few seconds earlier. It was put on new last year, just goes to prove, buy cheap but twice.

Anyhow, 3 minutes an a 600mm sling got me home

 

Got a book somewhere called "working in the wild- land rovers manual for africa".Full of bodges and quick fixes like yours,well done dean.

 

 

Heh! Heh! The shortest book in the world.

Page 1: Set fire to the bloody thing & buy a Landcruiser.

Page 2 The end.

[Dean Lofthouse]

Landrover passed its mot today with no faults and no advises

 

The garage I take it to is quite strict too