The ball joint and strut anchor on the passenger side separated while driving. My family and I are safe and that is the most important thing. It sounded like a flat tire so we pulled over. I used my cell phone light to see what was the matter and could not believe that the ball joint and strut anchor were separated.

Before this incident back in the fall, the steering was sloppy and there was an occasional clunk and thunk while making a hard turn either way. I bought some ipd bushings for the stabilizer bar and replaced them the bushings. (I installed turbo sway bars years and years ago.) The handling was still sloppy even with new swap bar bushings. I looked closer and saw that the ball joints were shot, so I replaced them too. And yes, I did replace the top ball joint nut and tightened it down so it is not the obvious mistake of not tightening down the top nut. Struts were replaced three years ago using Boge. Any ideas how this happened and what to do next?

Thanks,
George

Interesting that this happened to you. same exact thing happened to me about 2 wks ago. It also was on the right side. I felt the tire bouncing on a curve during the rain, i thought i was going thru some puddles. That night on a curve on the hwy it bounced out. My ball joint shaft was stripped. It had made clunks also. I had changed the ball joints 6 months prior to my ball joint comming out. I also did not use a impact wrench. It was darn tight, but must not of been tight enough.

sandy
'83 244

To tighten the ball joint to the mounting plate without the shaft spinning, place a washer or two under the nut and then tighten.
--
1980 245 Canadian B21A with SU carb but electronic ignition and M46 trans in Brampton, Ont.

What two pieces separated? Did the four M8 bolts pull out of the strut tube, or did the ball joint itself pull free from its mounting plate?

Sounds like it happened suddenly, without any useful warning.


--
Art Benstein near Baltimore

Merry Christmas!

Art,

Seems you were helping me out last year at this time with my speedometer, which is still working.

Back to my original post. Just crawled under the car. It was the ball joint that pulled free of its mounting plate and not the four M8 bolts. If it was me not tightening the bolt enough on the top of the ball joint then do I feel stupid. I was wondering if the crack and pop noise during turning had anything to do with the ball joint being stressed and coming loose.

George

" It was the ball joint that pulled free of its mounting plate and not the four M8 bolts. If it was me not tightening the bolt enough on the top of the ball joint then do I feel stupid."

The Ball joint has a stud that goes into that mounting plate. Normally a locking nut threads onto that stud but how to keep the stud from turning? The most common method is an impact wrench but many of us have come up with more creative solutions. Which one did you use? All you have to do is engaged the friction fit of the ball joint with its corresponding piece on the mounting plate.

Now if the ball of the ball joint pulled out of its seat, that is most likely a manufacturing flaw. Do you see the threaded stud?

Mike

Mike,

I can see the threads. So this means that the nut came loose, right?

I did not use an impact wrench but was able to tighten down the nut on the ball joint stud (going through the mounting plate) to my satisfaction. Now I am second guessing how much I really tightened it down.

George

"I can see the threads. So this means that the nut came loose, right?"

Unless the nut broke, yes.

Thanks for all the help. It means that the mounting plate comes off so that I can retighten the ball joint and put everything back together again. I will get on this once the weather warms up tomorrow.