Well, the first night I basically got everything apart and installed the new ball joint in the spindle and called it a night. I didn't get to work on it as early as I had planned tonight, so I only was able to get the spindle back into the car (mounted to the strut and the control arm). It took a good deal of prying to get the control arm low enough to clear the bottom of the stud. It doesn't seem like you should have to do that, but oh well. It took a little time to even get the seal to sit right on the joint once the arm was in place. All in all, I've got about 6 hours into this project. If I would have pryed real hard on the control arm during the disassembly, or if I had just decided quicker to cut the bottom of the stud off, I would have probably saved an hour or so of head scratching. The bearing cartridge didn't come out real easy, either. More or less, though, it seems to be going well. I should be able to finish it up tomorrow night. It's all down hill from here, I hope. Just out of curiosity, how long has this take other people? Maybe I don't want to know.:laugh: Nick
For us, it took two people about 8-10 hours (16-20 man hours) but that included trips to the parts store, trying to smash out the ball joints, and replacing the wheel bearings. Actually we started out with the intention of replacing both front wheel bearings, and discovered the wasted ball joints along the way. Once we had the new ball joints installed and we were putting it back together, it was only a couple of hours. This seemed to be one of those unusual jobs where disassembly was much harder than reassembly. -BC
Well, I got it done tonight. No more clunking. The whole thing took about 9 hours. I figure that's pretty close to the time Derek and Bob took, as you can really only get one guy in a wheelwell, anyway. It would have been helpful to have somebody else pry while I was getting the stud back into the control arm, that was a bit of work. I'll have to keep an eye on the other ball joint, now, as the seal looked pretty bad on that one, too, but it wasn't loose...yet. I'll bet I can do that one in 6 hours now that I kind of know what I'm doing. The bearing doesn't really have to come out to change the ball joint, does it? I wondered about that after I had already removed it. You'd have to be careful heating up the area of the spindle around the ball joint if you used that method, I suppose, so you don't burn the seals and grease out of the bearing. Thanks to everyone for their help. Nick
No, the bearing doesn't have to come out. In fact it was a bit of a pain to get out, but ours was grinding. Congrats on getting the job done (finally)! -BC
wow, not to brag but I can R&R the "taurus rebuild" in an hour per side, not including the alignment. The rebuild would be: outers tie rods lower ball joints and wheel bearings. Of course, I've done it hundreds of times, I Know all the correct sizes, and work on a lift. being on the lift, its not neccesary to pull the spindle off either, unless the springs are broken, which is 50/50. just so you guys know, the spindle and strut can only go back together one way, all the alignment adjustments are at the strut towers. thats a whole 'nother thread though.
I would charge 1 hour's labor ($65) to replace 1 Taurus ball joint. I never could understand how someone would rather waste 1 whole day of their life in a frustrating attempt to repair their car when a cut-n-dry estimate could be attained. To each his own, I guess. Their is a more likely chance that the toe will need to be adjusted than the caster or camber.
I enjoy working on cars, so I don't mind spending time on them, even if it is the wagon and not the Riv. I do everything the hard way rather than paying somebody else to do something I could do. I'm kind of bullheaded that way. One hour!! That's pretty darned good. I'm sure I couldn't do the other one anywhere near that fast, although I think I could still shave a significant amount of time off the first one. It definately seems like something is out on the front end now. Probably the toe like you said. Nick
