I have discovered my new to me Vanden Plas needs lower ball joints. I read that some folks have located the ball joints only and have replaced those versus buying the whole control arm. Being thrifty and mechancally capable-I want to go that route. So any tips on a good source for those ball joints?
Thx,
Wayne

 

I bought mine from britishparts.co.uk as part of complete front suspension kit. They are also availalbe separately. This is a difficult job and you will need some very heavy duty tools to accomplish it.

I changed mine with the control arms on the car to avoid the difficulty of removing the spring. I bought a heavy duty ball joint press after everything else I tried bent. You will also need a hand grinder and an assortment of sockets or pipe lengths.
You have to cut away the outer rim of the ball joint to expose enough surface of the control arm to fit a cup onto teh control arm. I had to also cut a notch in the cup to fit around the raised portion of the control arm. I did not use any heat on the control arm.

When the ball joint finally goes it will sound like a gun shot.

Good luck

 

Rocklandjag,

thanks for the info. I can see what you mean about needing to remove the shoulder on the old ball joint to get the control arm exposed. I've got a good number of tools including multiple c-clamp presses and such from doing MB and BMW work. I've stayed away from Jags until I came across this relatively low mileage VP-58K and went for it. Now that I'm getting an education in what it might need, I see I will quickly gain a lot of experience. I also have the ABS and traction control issue I'm researching. Kind of surprised to see bad ball joints at this mileage.
I appreciate the response and instructions. Being from Texas, I'm hoping for a small bore gunshot versus the kind one might get from a car in your part of the country. As ho as its been down here, I'm surprised they won't fall out.
Wayne

 

Unlike rocklandjag, I could not get mine apart without removing them and attacking with a 30 ton shop press. Mine sounded like a bazooka discharging.