Ball Joints/driveshaft Seals

[chats371l]

Hi one and all,

My car is currently at Long Stratton Motor company having a 'B' Service and some other work done.

They gave me a couple of pickups that I will need to get sorted at some point but just wondering if you have any experience on these and also what am I looking at cost wise (so I can get saving :-) ).

- Driveshaft seals are leaking, not too badly at the moment but I am told this is a common fault on Esprit's.

- 2 of the ball joints are wearing and I believe one of the gaiters has split too. Is this an expensive job? How hard is it to do yourself?

Thats about it. Long Stratton said that these items would be fine until the next service but I would obviously like to get them sorted as soon as I can afford.

Any help or advice you have on these would be appreciated

Chats

[pitstoppete]

gearbox seals,

[chats371l]

Thanks for the detailed response pete.

I think I will definately look into it once I have the report back from Long Stratton garage.

I am currently doing a full rebuild on another car so a lot of the tools I already have available from this.

Thanks for the help

Chats

[Jonathan]

Echo what Pete says.

TBH if their prices are reasonable I would let them do it - the seals are easy but time consuming to do and MUCH easier if you have good / easy access under the car - ie a lift or like me you yank the boot floor out. Laying under car to do the seals isn't much fun esp 1st time around.

The lower ball joins on mine were a PIG to remove otherwise they would be simple to do - they are just sooooooooooo jammed in - I had to use a large fly press to bash them out and the ball joint was in pieces by the end of it.

Depends, if you do them yourself you can clean the faces up and put copper grease on them so when they go in the future you have an easy job - few mechanics bother using copper grease - but when it's their time trying to un-sieze a bolt etc they reap the rewards in speed of doing the job.

The front suspension is easy to work on, you dont have to lift it much off the deck to get full access so you can do a propper job.

Any ideas what they charge ?.....considering the weather I'd be tempted to get them to do it in a day and you have your car back enjoying it in the sun !

[chats371l]

Any ideas what they charge ?.....considering the weather I'd be tempted to get them to do it in a day and you have your car back enjoying it in the sun !

They didn't give me an idea of cost though I collect the car in a week or so and I will ask them for an idea then. That way I can save and get it done.

I do have a pit in my dads garage so can get under the car but having previous experience of doing my driveshafts on my X1/9 which was a bit of a pain I will make a decision based on there quote for cost.

The engineer did say at Long Stratton that it wasn't really bad and could easily wait until the next service though I would like to sort it sooner.

Thanks for all the advice

Chats

[glynherron]

track rod ends, piece o pi55, few quid down the motor factors, bout an hour to do ish,

Hi Pete

Do you know a cross ref for the track rod ends? I didnt know of 1 and spend

[andydclements]

They didn't give me an idea of cost though I collect the car in a week or so and I will ask them for an idea then. That way I can save and get it done.

I do have a pit in my dads garage so can get under the car but having previous experience of doing my driveshafts on my X1/9 which was a bit of a pain I will make a decision based on there quote for cost.

The engineer did say at Long Stratton that it wasn't really bad and could easily wait until the next service though I would like to sort it sooner.

Thanks for all the advice

Chats

When I removed my driveshafts (Renault trans), the biggest pain was getting enough movement to get them off the stub in the transaxle, in the end I jacked (then propped) the car as high as I could go, released the top and bottom arms, and then moved the trailing arm as far down as it would go, it just gave me neough movement to get the shaft of the transaxle, then get it out of the bearing in the rear carrier.

If you decide to do it yourself, and get stuck, feel free to ask for assistance / brute force you may not be that far away I'm near Norwich.

Andy

[chats371l]

If you decide to do it yourself, and get stuck, feel free to ask for assistance / brute force you may not be that far away I'm near Norwich.

Andy

Thanks for the offer Andy. My car is in Wroxham. I will see what the garage says and then have a think about when and how I want to go about doing it.

Cheers

Chats

[pitstoppete]

Hi Pete

Do you know a cross ref for the track rod ends? I didnt know of 1 and spend

[glynherron]

depends for what age car it seems.

elite/eclat/excel (although PAS) and early esprit are the 1/2 UNF type and i Believe a rover 820 one was perfect (although a fine thread on the tapered end) when i did my excel. have the old ones and the boxes from the motor factors to check tomorrow,

later cars with power rack on the parts list show an M12 one, which shouldnt be too tricky to size up from my book.

Hiya Pete

Thanks for the info

I dont need one for now, although others may need it. I posted for an alternative when I needed one, but the only ref that came up was for an American car (cant remember which one)

Cheers

Glyn