Hi Folks,

I know that this might sound trivial, but I was able to successfully replace the passenger side ball joint on my 1992 Volvo 245 yesterday. I've always been afraid of doing anything to the struts, steering, or front suspension. So with my Bentley manual in hand, some research here on the Brickboard, and some encouragement from my neighbor I replaced the ball joint myself. The car has 138,000 miles and I was experiencing vibration at high speeds when steering left. I also had a clunking noise up front when going over small bumps at slow speeds. It turns out that the ball joint was the cause of both problems. The ball joint had some slop in it and the boot was torn. The repair actually went pretty fast and there was no unexpected difficulties. The ball joints on the vehicle are original because all the bolts and nuts had a layer of undercoating on them. I soaked the nuts and bolts in PB-Blaster and scraped away the undercoating with a screwdriver. I was amazed at how simple the job is. 4 bolts on the strut plate. 3 nuts on the ball joint. I love working on this car.

The driver side ball joint has a little play in it and the boot is torn too. So hopefully I'll get this one changed out in the next few weeks. The repair should go very fast now that I know what I'm doing up front.

Thanks for listening!

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