Hi! I'm in the middle of installing a Strutmasters coil conversion. While trying to remove the upper ball joint, about halfway through loosening it, the allen key slipped and I stripped the center. Now I can't hold the bolt to continue loosening the nut. Any advice on how to remove this...hopefully without having to replace the whole wishbone? Thanks.

 

Hi PartsProjects,

Welcome to the Jaguar Forums! It's great to have you with us.

Sometimes the hex recess or socket in the stud strips only near the end, and cleaning the socket with brake cleaner spray, then tapping the Allen wrench as far as it will go into the socket will give you a new grip on the stud.

If that just won't work, you can try to tap a Torx bit up into the stripped socket to give you enough grip to turn off the nut.

There are some broken bolt extractors that are designed to grip in both the clockwise and counter-clockwise directions, which might possibly work.

Another strategy that sometimes works is if you can clamp the top of the steering knuckle/vertical link to the top of the ball joint/wishbone so the tapered section of the ball joint is forced to more tightly seat in the tapered hole in the steering knuckle/vertical link. This may give you enough friction so you can turn off the nut.

In the meantime, please visit the https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/n...-intro-must-5/ and post a required introduction so we can learn something about you and your Jaguar and give you a proper welcome.

Cheers,

Don

 

Ditto Don B: Clamp the taper tightly; remove nut with an impact wrench

(this is a fairly common hiccup)

 

Had to use a little heat to get some of my ball joints loose, twisted one of my Kobalt allen's around like a screw, before a little heat was used. Then a long Harbor allen held it, and the nut came off easily.

 

Great, thanks for the tips guys!

 

This thing is kicking my butt! Same thing happened on both sides. I had gotten the nuts loose enough to see the stud, so I cut the ball joint stud and replaced the upper wishbones the the Lincoln LS arms (perfect match, 72 bucks!).

One side went together fine...the other side the lower shock bolt would not budge. I twisted two heavy duty T60 torx sockets. Then I tried cutting the bolt out. Cut the head off the bolt and cut off the mount on the other side of the old shock - then tried to drive the bolt out with a hammer and punch. Will not budge. At this point I think I'm looking at having to replace the lower shock mount.

My question is, can the front lower shock mount be replaced without removing the arm from the car? Thanks guys!

 

Never mind, just found this: https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...shings-183343/

 

This car is going to be the death of me. Got new URO shock mount bushings and pressed them in. After all that I realize the hole in the bushing is smaller than the shock mount bolt. AAHHH!!!

This car is my daily and has now been down two weeks. Anybody know a good source for the lower control arm with all the bushings in it...quickly? Thanks.

 

Check Rock Auto for LCA

Avoid Uro stuff, always

Use impact T60 bit with good impact wrench

Clean inside of bolt heads before removing

 

Thanks for the reply. Hoping to get this thing done this week. No more URO parts!

 

Can I confirm is it a hex head for sure if so what size it was a 5mm hex head that slipped on me. Some say it’s a torx head ?

 

Hi Dmcr,

What year and model of Jaguar are you working on? It helps to visit your User Control Panel and edit your signature to include the year, model and engine of your Jag so this info appears in all of your posts.

Cheers,

Don

 

Hi Don. 2012 Jaguar XF 2.2 LE S 👍🏼

 

Just changed my struts yesterday, with none of these issues, hand tools only. The ball joint is a 5mm allen, and the bottom bolt is T-60. Arnott supplied a replacement bolt with an 18mm hex head.

Your difficulty makes me wonder if somebody used red loctite, which requires heat to loosen. Mine didn't even have blue, so I didn't use any, I see no reason to.

 

Brilliant stuff. Really appreciate the info 👍🏼 Might change my struts too at some stage if I can find and get at the head of one of the top control arm bolts under the hood. One of them is in plain site one is well hidden 😩

 

Seizure of the front lower strut bolt is very common and one reason why the independent shops wont quote a price for labour for replacement. When I was using a local indie near me, (since gone bust), they told me they sometimes had to remove strut and arm together, and saw the bolt free on the workbench. I think the problem affected early cars which may have had Loctite on the bolt.

 

Fraser is right on the mark, the 07's were this way.
But the 04 was from the Carolina's, and those came right out.
Then were reused with the new shocks, still in good shape.