need info on control arms/ball joints!
 

ok so my 04 x-type hits the smallest crack in the road or a little bump and all i can hear coming from the front suspension is a rattling sound. sounds like metal pieces banging against each other. ive determined that the ball joints are bad, by raising car enough to get wheel off the ground, grabbing both sides of tire and trying to rock it back and forth. i get a lot of play, and i can see the plastic looking tie rods(?) swiveling in place as i rock the tire. now, heres where i need your input. apperently, the ball joints on the x-type are rivited to the control am, and the control arms are about 150 a piece. now the plastic looking tie rods are about 50 each, so were looking at 400 for parts, but in order to remove control arms, the struts must come off, something i cannot do myself.

heres the juicy part, ive talked to a few mechanics who suggested using an angle grinder, and grinding off the rivets, drilling and hammering out the old ball joint, and just replacing the ball joint with one that bolts into the control arm. is this possible??? i would still have to remove the knuckle, but would i have to remove the strut as well?? and would i need to replace the tie rods if i do all this???

any one ever done this??? i found the ball joints for 50 for a pair!!!! just need to know if it can be done in my driveway before i order them.

how hard is it to get the knuckle off the ball joints anyway????


thanks in advance, and if i do go forth with this job i will do a complete write up. thanks -steve

Stevis, yes, the separate ball joints can be used. I normally see them bolted back into place. As for getting them out, they will literally fall out of the car once the rivets are removed. Granted, just because I am paranoid, I would say to replace the rivets with some grade 8 bolts. Much stronger than the rivets.

As for getting the ball joint off of the spindle, what you will need to do is remove the tie rod end and then rotate the spindle assembly as far as you can in one direction. You will need to remove the bolt back there where the ball joint is coming through. Then you will take a large flat bladed screw driver and slide that into the gap where the bolt was. This will enlarge the opening that the shaft of the ball joint is sitting in and will allow the ball joint to slide out. Probably advisable to first remove the tie rod end, then attempt to slide the ball joint out of the spindle, then finally remove the rivets off of the A-arm. The hard part of all of this will be getting the shaft out of the spindle assembly.

If you need any more help, let me know.

thanks thermo, im gonna order up the replacement ball joints tonight. got an inspection sticker needed and i have till the end of this month to get it straightened out. im gonna take a few pictures and do a write up on it for others to see. if anyone else is looking for ball joints, go to ebay and search "x-type ball joints" and you should find them. 50 bucks for a pair. not bad -steve

so i tried it yesterday and heres what happened: tried it exactly as you said. i got the shaft to separate from the knuckle, but i couldnt get it all the way out. i even stuck the claw end of a hammer in the knuckle to open the space where it clamps around the shaft. i just couldnt get the shaft of the ball joint to come completely out, i was about a half inch shy. i consulted my JTIS and there was no info on this procedure. it did however say to lower one side of the subframe when removing the ball joint shaft from the knuckle. i tried this too, with no luck. after messing with it for a couple hours and busting up my hand with a lead hammer i put it all back together and brought it to a shop owned by a friend of a friend. hell let me know tomorrow what the cost will be. hopefully its reasonable. thanks for the advise, although now i remember why i dont mess with suspension parts....its a pain in the ----!!!

Where did you get the ball joints? I need them for my wifes car.

lol..almost the same thing just happened to me!...at least the giving it up and taking it in part :+)

took them 1/2 hr and charged me $25 to replace the balljoint

ebay..$56, free shipping

2 FRONT LOWER BALL JOINT JAGUAR X-TYPE 01-09 ALL TYPE - eBay (item 220485582808 end time Jul-17-11 06:19:58 PDT)

anyone has pictures of this procedure to show so i can follow and get mine done as well?

I found a better deal Rockauto.com $14.00. Here are the parts numbers.
MOOG Part # FDBJ0474 http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/images/MoreInfo2.png Front Axle, Left and right, Lower
Although it will say it is for a 2005 X-type, I did research and found the control for the 2005 is the same for the 2002. They have the same part-id. Therefore, the ball joint on the control arms are the same. This is the replace number for the 2005.

X-Type Ball Joint Replace - MOOG Part # FDBJ0474
 

I replaced the ball joints on my 2004 X-Type using MOOG Part # FDBJ0474. It worked great! Had to grind off the rivets.

You can use a impact air gun to knock off both top and bottom of the rivets so there is less to drill. pretty fast work. using a long spud bar for leverage and turning the spindle to one side, my joint came right out without dropping the subframe. Not a fun job. Just make sure you get a etter grade of bolt than the ones that come with the joint. I bought grade 8 fine thread bolts for the replacement job. I also took the time to dill the new joints for grease fittings.

I had a similar problem well mine is that i went to turn and my lower control arm seperated from the steering knuckle. I got a new control arm and cv shaft. I been trying to figure out what Im doing wrong that I cant get the ball joint to go back into the steering knuckle. Been working on it for about 3 hours now

It's easy this way
 

See photo

Big vice grip or crescent wrench on lower arm with a pipe for leverage and it's so easy to get that lower ball joint in or out.

Thank you!! I dont know what it was but I figure out how to do it. I got it on finally so i know I have to wait for warmer weather cause i tried it the second day and I went it took two minutes maybe less and it went right in, i replace the bolt now Im waiting on the new tie rods. I will do it hopefully wenesday when I get in from school

bostongrun...is right. The trick is to "jerk" the wrench and pipe downwards. and pull out the ball joint stem. I tried for 2 weeks to free it up. Bought a huge crescent wrench and 5 foot fence post. Using penetrating oil plus a quick "jerk" suddenly freed the stem. Nothing else worked!!
Thanks

here you go

Oh! You mean there is a logical process to do it right? Like dropping the subframe (just reverse the rearward bolt from bottom towards top for future if arm ever needs to be removed again, so no future subframe drop), etc.?

Dang, I thought just using brute force is always better, lmfao!

This bolt you should reverse =
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...1160cd9dd3.jpg

the video on replacing shock absorbers is very useful BUT it totally avoids the difficulty of how to unhook the ball joints from the knuckle joint.....The crescent wrench plus post extension is the magic bullet solution. You can NEVER hammer out the ball joint head as in the video......

This link actually has the removal I used.

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...-joint-185515/