Been a busy boy Yesterday with my favourite 620ti.

[MGJohn]

Replacing this :~



and more particularly this :~



With this:~



and these ~ One I refurbished earlier ~ much earlier like six months ago



Close up on the new Ball Joint. :~



and the finished item :~



More detail follows ...

[ChronoCabal]

Looked like it was coming along nicely when I popped over!

[denis747]

Nice work John.

[MGJohn]

Whenever I see Original Manufacturer ( OM ) parts on offer at really attractive offers, I get them for the cars I wish to keep. Watch for Rimmer discounted offers and ebay bargains. Had this 620ti for over six years now. It's a good 'n.

So about a year ago I had accumulated at minimal cost, a pair of new 620ti Brake Discs, two pairs of 600 Front Wheel Bearings, some MG-R Lower Ball Joints and two Lower Suspension Arms.

Made up both refurbished front wheel knuckle assemblies using these parts and first fitted the nearside assembly with no problem. Took a leasurely couple of hours. Here it is, this one :~



Now to fit the Offside assembly. When it came to breaking the taper joint with the Ball Joint splitter on the offside assembly back then, no way could I achieve that. It was silly tight and had I tightened the bolt on the ball joint splitter any more, the tool would have broken. It was and is still silly tight despite many heavy whacks with the Club Hammer with the assembly off the car. Note the evidence of that in this picture I took yesterday :~



So that problem stopped further progress. Only now have I had time to rectify this. Hardly used the car but, it was in a safe condition to drive.

I shall have to angle grind it apart. This is what I was faced with when the assembly including that lower arm still attached to the knuckle was removed complete :~



I had sprayed all the bolts to be removed with some Penetrating Fluid the previous night and following morning. I'm sure this helps as some of the exposed threads on the 'wrong' side of their captive nuts were corroded by road filth exposure over the twelve years since the car was built. They'd never been touched in all that time. Others came out of their locations looking like new. I also used a wire brush on the exposed threads. All this helps and takes a little extra time of course. However, saves time in the long run by reducing the extra work involved when a seized nut or bolt shows up because of the corrosion. Even so, there are a lot of bolts and nuts to remove and some were very, very tight, particularly the Lower Front Tie Bar's two 17mm Bolts clamping it to the Front Suspension Lower Arm.

Here's the new Lower Arm fitted and bolted up to the Tie Bar:~



Then reassembled the Front Anti-Roll Bar to the Lower Arm after cleaning up and greasing the Drop Link Bolt, Cups and its Poly Bushes :~



Upper Suspension Wishbone Castellated Nut fitted with new Split Pin. These do NOT need to be very tight to hold their tapered swivel/ball-joint securely.



Be extra careful removing and refiiting the corroded bolts which secure the ABS Sensor to the Knuckle. The cable can be easily damaged then only replacement will cure that. Here it is refiited after some wire brush treatment. :~



Here is a close up view of the new Ball Joint. Note these MG-Rover replacement parts do not use a Castellated Nut ( which I prefer ) but a Nylock type Nut. I fitted a larger 19mm Nylock Nut in place of the smaller one the ball joint came with. Belt and Braces approach...



Lots of kneeling and twisting accessing this job. Boy did me old bones and muscles ache afterwards in yesterday's heat. Must have lost quite a few pounds in the process.. So, that's a plus too .. . Anyway, here's the finished item and the car is running really nicely now. I was pleased to see the Brake Pads were very flat with no wear irregularites which would mark and spoil the new Brake Discs. I had fitted them only a few hundred miles previously.



A few weeks ago I replaced the Water Pump on this car as it would occasionally dump most of its coolant out of the worn pump when the car was not used. Used, there were no coolant losses. Cars can be like that sometimes.... Here's the old and new Pumps. The stains on the non Coolant side of the pump show it has been allowing coolant to escape. I've seen much worse signs of Water Pump leakage so good I caught this one early :~

[denis747]

How easy would life be if bolts and nuts didn't corrode and seize. It is a pain when you get stopped by a seized bolt/nut. We can land space vehicles on Mars and yet bolts and nuts seize in this day and age. I especially hate exhaust bolts/nuts.

John if you manage to spot a split ball joint boot early then you can get boots from here http://www.balljointboots.co.uk/. I was under the car last week looking to see if everything is alright and I noticed a split on the nearside front lower ball joint boot. After splitting the tapper, the ball joint was ok with no play at all and there was still grease inside. I ordered the boots, I used size number 4, fits perfectly, it will also fit the upper ball joint and track rod end ball joint too. I used cv joint moly grease to regrease the joint. I spent only £6.58 and two size 4 boots were sent, here is the spare one that I will fit if any other front suspension ball joint boot splits. The boot fits on its own but cables ties are also supplied which I used and it secured the boot like new, no grease could come out.

[Steve_wedge]

Originally Posted by MGJohn

Upper Suspension Wishbone Castellated Nut fitted with new Split Pin. These do NOT need to be very tight to hold their tapered swivel/ball-joint securely.

Nice write up as always John.

One question though - is that boot perished in the picture above?

Steve

[denis747]

The upper ball joint boots can look like that but still not be perished.

[MGJohn]

Originally Posted by Steve_wedge

Nice write up as always John.

One question though - is that boot perished in the picture above?

Steve

Yes, it is showing signs of age but not actually split yet. I have a pair of these Upper Wishbones with near new Swivel Ball Joints and perfect seals. When the ones fitted become iffy, they will be fitted.

By the way. I have replaced four lower Ball-joints on these Rover 600s over the years and in each case, no big retaining spring Snap ring or C-Clip was found to secure them. These all were as they left the factory I suspect. The new MG-R ball joints came with a new spring C-Clip but even though the new Joint was fully home in it's location, there was not simply enough of the C-Clips slot revealed to allow the c-clip to slot into it.

If ever there's a next time, I will use an angle grinder to smooth off the casting rougher areas of the Knuckle ball joint housing location which interfere with access to the slot so the clip will not locate.

You can clearly see in this picture of the newly fitted Ball-joint the slot partly blocked and covered by casting rough edges. Look above the rubber seal and just below the Black painted location of the joint in the Knuckle location :~

[Steve_wedge]

Thanks for the update John.

Interesting re the C clips; having never changed ball joints on a 600, are they a press fit into the hub, or just a "drop in" - hence the supposed need for the C clip?

Steve

[MGJohn]

Originally Posted by Steve_wedge

Thanks for the update John.

Interesting re the C clips; having never changed ball joints on a 600, are they a press fit into the hub, or just a "drop in" - hence the supposed need for the C clip?

Steve

They are a press fit ~ I had to use a club hammer carefully for the very final fit. Access is awkward so anyone replacing these on their car do use the hammer carefully with some hard wood interposed to cushion the heavy blows.

They are very firmly located and I would be surprised if ever one worked loose because of the absence of the C-Clip.

As I said previously, now I have a better idea of what is involved, I will clean up the rougher edges of the Knuckle casting to enable that C-Clip to be slotted in place. All the MG-R Ball Joints came with a new C-Clip which I was unable to use.

[Pete27011]

Are the drop link poly bushes just universal types or can you get them for the 600 John?

[MGJohn]

Originally Posted by Pete27011

Are the drop link poly bushes just universal types or can you get them for the 600 John?

I got several sets a few years back when one side on my son's high mileage 620ti broke the bolt from corrosion and mileage although the rubbers looked OK. Because of that got several sets for all our cars.

Cannot remember if they were specifically for the 620ti/600s or not. Got the kits which include two sets of drop links as in my pictures, plus these main A-R-Bar mounting brackets and Polybushes from MarkCoupe "Gold Trader" over on Rovertech.net, ebay ( silverstorm on there but not certain ) and is occasional visitor to this site:~



I believe he imports them from the States where they are for Honda Accords of similar age to our 600s. I have seen him put sets on ebay too. I got mine from him via Rovertech.net.

[Pete27011]

Supaflex make polybushes for classic cars,im wondering if you measured specific bushes on the car and gave them to Supaflex wether they could come up with a match in their existing stock or manufacture some to suit?