Drop Arm Ball Joint
This tip has appeared on a few of the Land Rover Forums recently and looks so useful I thought I would repeat it here.
There are two difficult aspects of this job, removing the seating
inside the drop arm and refitting the base plate against the spring
pressure and inserting the circlip.
Remove the inner seating by finding a socket which just goes through the top ring (which the rubber boot attaches to) but which engages on the top of the inner seating, which is a smaller diameter.
Then get a 'G' clamp with one end on the top of the socket and the other end on a small piece of steel plate across the hole underneath the drop arm.
Tightening the clamp removes the seating quite easily.
The new one is difficult to insert - but after cleaning up the hole it taps in eventually, again using a socket and a hammer.
After assembling the new parts in the correct order, it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to push the base plate into the drop arm against the pressure of the spring enough to secure the circlip, and an ordinary 'G' clamp keeps sliding off and doesn't leave room to get the circlip in. Get an old mastic gun.
For anyone not familiar with this, it looks like a tubular frame into which a tube of putty is fitted and a trigger which when worked pushes a plunger through the centre of the frame. This can be used as a sort of clamp, as you can now buy clamps which work on the same principle.
The circular end of the gun fitted well over the top of the ball joint (see photo) - the threaded part of it projecting through the circular end - and, using a 3/8" socket extension or an extension socket (as in photo) between the plunger and the base plate, work the trigger and the plunger pushes up the base plate against the spring and holds it tight - hands free! - enabling you to use both hands to squeeze the circlip into its groove! It works just great.
The photo was taken underneath a Range Rover, but it is the same drop arm as a 90/110. Also, sockets are very useful as tools apart from their obvious use. When putting in a new clutch, a tapered socket of the right size works great as a clutch plate centraliser and support for the plate whilst you tighten the bolts on the cover.
Push a socket extension bar through the clutch center to retrieve it.
An alternate method of removing the upper ball joint cup is to use the
old pin as a tool to pull it out of the drop arm.
The outer edge of the ball has to be ground (or filed) away so it's small enough to pass through the top hole of the drop arm, but not the old ball joint cup.
The modified pin is inverted in the joint then some strong washers and the old nut put back on. When the nut is tightened it draws the old cup out of the housing.
Upper cup tool
If you have access to a metal working lathe, making a tool for extraction and insertion of the upper cup is straight forward.
In the photos and video below, Simon Hobson shows the tool that he made for doing this job. The details originally appeared in this thread on the Land Rover UK Forums.
Upper cup extraction/insertion tool parts.
Parts order to remove the cup - the smaller plug goes in through the top of the arm,
and the big washer goes underneath. 2 seconds with the windy gun and the cup is out.
Note that there is a slight step in the washer to centre it in the hole.
Parts arrangement for fitting the new cup. The cup sits on the step in the larger plug,
the washer goes on top of the arm (smaller step on the washer to suit the smaller hole).
Again, 2 seconds with the windy gun and it's in.
The tool assembled ready to screw the cup into place.
For those who doubt that it's an easy job with the right tools, here is a video of removing the upper cup and fitting a new one. It doesn't show the setting up, but it does show that it only takes 2 seconds to wind the old cup out, and 3 seconds to wind the new one in.
Other Links
Guide to replacing the drop arm ball joint on the vehicle.
Guide to replacing the drop arm ball joint with the drop arm removed.
Instructions for fitting drop arm repair kit ( PDF 618KB ).
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