Ford KA, KA2, KA3 (1996 - 2008) - 02 1.3 Advice on changing wishbone please

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Wed 12 Aug 2009 02:14
02 1.3 Advice on changing wishbone please - Wurzel83
Hi

My Girlfriends car is comming up for MOT and I would not be suprised if it need another wishbone replacing due to worn bushes.

It needed one last year but I ckickened out half way through the job thinking I might not be able to put it back tgether again! Basically, I found that because the bushes were forcing the arm upwards, I could not lower the balljoint enough to remove it from the wheel hub clamp.

I considered completely removing the nuts holding the bushes to the subframe in order to change the angle of the arm and free up the ball joint. I decided against ths because I know the bushes are quite stiff and didnt know if I could get them back in line with the bolt holes upon fitting the new arm.

Is it a case of levelling off the arms in line with the rest of the car ie. create flat tyre on ne side and jack up the other - this way the arm will be at less of an angle relative to the subframe and the bushes may be able to slot into place easier?

Or is there some technique or tool for pushing down on the arm using a bar to releae the ball joint?

Im assuming I just need the folloing tools:

24" breaker bar
Good quality socket set with deep sockets
Set of spanners
Jack / Axl stand

Any advice would be great as its MODt on Saturday.

Thanks

Edited by Pugugly on 12/08/2009 at 03:05

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Wed 12 Aug 2009 10:45
02 1.3 Advice on changing wishbone please - bell boy
i use a long straight thin ish metal bar that i put between the bottom arm and driveshaft,it then slides along to the floor pan strengthener bit and then with a large hammer i hit 5 bells out of the pole as near to the balljoint as i can,beware if you miss you get a lump on your finger that stays forever ( :-( ) also watch you dont hit the cv boot either
you must must use a new pinch bolt through the balljoint when everything replaced they are a quid with nut included from agent or factor
reversal as they say is easy as on the ka the arms easily fall into the cradles ,its escorts that were difficult
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Wed 12 Aug 2009 19:51
02 1.3 Advice on changing wishbone please - Wurzel83
Hi

I think I know where I was going wrong.

I have just done one on my Focus this afternoon for tyre wear reasons. I had the same problem as with the KA - I undid al the nuts and n matter how hard I tried I could not get the ball joint out of the hub. I tried a crow bar pick axe etc and no joy. I the realised that you have to remove the pinch bolt completely from the hub as I had just loosened it - duhhh! After doing this is was a case of prising the gap open with a large screwdriver whilst levering with a bar on the arm - out it came with very little resistance created by the bushes!

Presume I just follow the same procedure with the KA on the weekend yeah? I wouod have thought with the bushes being horizontal though that there will be a little more spring in it?

Cheers
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Wed 12 Aug 2009 21:44
02 1.3 Advice on changing wishbone please - zookeeper
i seem to remember similar doing a fiesta wishbone, i think i used 2 jacks to level things out with a bit of jiggling and the ball joint et all slid in nicely thankyou

Edited by zookeeper on 12/08/2009 at 21:45

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