Top Arm Ball joint

[GTV-GR]

Can someone tell me if the top arm ball joint (the big one) is removable and how to remove it?

[Alfajay]

Do you mean the part pictured below?

You remove the inner side by taking out the bolt in the engine compartment - the one on the R side is under the carbs, the one on the L next to the exhaust manifold. The outer side is disassembled by popping the taper out of the spindle, and disconnecting the front link.

But no, the ball joint alone is not replacable - just the whole assembly pictured below.

[60sRacer]

This ball joint does not carry much load, so it wears little. I only replaced mine when I switched to adjustable upper arms. The original one was still fully usable, while th3e bottom one - which carries all the load - was REALLY worn.

Robert

[GTV-GR]

i thought it could be removed i guess they have it changed with the whole arm for safety reasons since if it suddenly goes with 100km on a highway u more or less die

[Mound Dawg]

Cherokee Jeeps (KJ Liberty) use something similar on the bottom balljoint but it presses in and out of the housing. We changed a lot of these when the cars were recalled for safety reasons (Google "Jeep Liberty suspension failure"). The problem with the way this is designed is that it makes the whole joint pretty big and there'd probably be wheel clearance issues.

The inner and castor bushes won't go into "total fail" mode, that is they won't fall apart completely, they'll just clonk around but if the balljoint fails all sorts of bad things are going to happen. Fortunately, they'll give plenty of warning of this by rattling and a sympathetic/enthusiast driver should notice this long before anything goes wrong. That said, I changed a track rod end for a neighbour whose wife's car had just failed it's annual inspection, the steering was rattly beyond belief and the joint fell apart as it came out. He hadn't noticed that and he drives a cab for a living.

It seems a shame that if the balljoint needs to be replace you need to pay for a whole arm and two bushes that you probably don't need, especially if you've got the more expensive adjustable arms. In that way, the Alfetta/75 method (balljoint on a rivetted /bolted in plate) is a better idea.