Drop arm ball joint??

As above, anyone fitted one the repair kits? or is it better to replace the complete arm??

No play in the steering just the rubber boots split??

Problem is, if the boot's split, and it's been split for any length of time on the road, the crap that's got in will probably number the days of the balljoint anyway.

Matt TDi said:

Problem is, if the boot's split, and it's been split for any length of time on the road, the crap that's got in will probably number the days of the balljoint anyway.

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Are they easy to change the complete arm? been looking there is the large nut at the top which looks like it could be a complete b'stad to get off....


Noticed it was splitting last week but looks like its got worse....

The whole arm isn't too much of a sod to do. I'd just go and use some penetrating fluid on the bolts for a good few days before you do the job.

Have a look at busters how too.
Had to do mine for the mot, the big nut on the box came off easy as did the ball joint. Then the brown stuff hit the fan. no matter how much releasing gooooo i just........ended up with the grinder and the arm in bits. Was awkward with the angles but got there eventually. When the new one went on i used a ton of copper grease to help next time.
Good luck and make sure you leave plenty of time to do the job.

you can do ball joint in situ ,requires 12mm flange bolt long enough to go through ball joint socket and with plate with hole or strong washer etc and wind out with nut ,you will have to grind outside of head away slightly to fit on seat and in arm not alot to sit on but its how i do it,the arm will allways come off if hit hard enough

Mine had gone on the ball joint end so I changed the whole arm. The nuts were a piece of **** but freeing the arm was an absolute bastard of a job. I did post a thread on it a couple of weeks back. I used a grinder but got wary of damaging the splines and so carried on with the sledgehammer until it just fell off. I did hammer a bolster into the cut I'd made with the grinder and hit that a few times too. New one then took 15 mins including greasing and torquing up.
Good luck

Thanks guys... wish me luck and i'll keep you posted how i get on....

The Cowshed said:

Thanks guys... wish me luck and i'll keep you posted how i get on....

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Good luck Mr Shed

I tried to do it before and found it to be an absolute sod. My drop arm took 4 days of penetrating fluid, an impact gun to get the nut off then a 15ton hydraulic puller and oxy acetylene to remove the arm from the box

I've done a few drop arm ball joints for friends before but always hated them as they are such a faff, i now run a later 300tdi discovery drop arm with a TRE on each end instead.

Jamesmartin has the right idea.

Removing the arm in one piece is pretty much a box out job so you can hit it properly.

The way he lists without removing the arm is the way its generally done.

i used plenty of penetrateing fluid and a puller tapping the head of the puller with a copper mallet to get mine off after ****ing about for ages trying to do it in situ but reading here how people are cutting the arms off i must have been lucky with mine.

Ha ha dont know what all the fuss was about!! only took about 3 hours and some skin off my knuckles... thanks for the pointers guys really helped job done!! :smokin: