18 replies to this topic

[mintom]

hmm that does sound suspicious, all the shims in one go on one side. I guess grease out, and torque up needed when checking. Rebuilding mine today/tomorrow, so will see for myself and comment later. Following the mini addicts youtube vid as a visual guideline..
(There will still be the old shims that were on the ball joints before and could be reused?)

splitter

http://www.minispare...=...&title=BALL JOINT SPLITTER SCISS...

although half the price from machinemart

http://www.machinema...l-joint-remover

by the way.. the machine mart scissor splitter is a great price, but lower finish quality in my opinion. I managed to break one (probably my fault in overtightening). I'm much happier with the quality of the Laser replacement I bought from Halfords, although the bolt on mine does not align the best when tightening.
Laser Ball joint splitter @ Halfords

[rustandoil]

I too need shims, as my new ball joints came with my vehicle, the ball joint packets had been opened and i don't know if some shims were removed or lost, certainly had only .003 in. no other sizes.
Hoping someone would suggests where to buy

Or i might get lucky at Castle Coombe this weeked..........

[mintom]

mini spares sell them. search for "balljoint" or "swivel pin shim". I'm listening to 998dave though on the necessity of extra shims when fitting new.

Edited by mintom, 24 September 2009 - 11:45 AM.

[cookie4343]

Does anyone no where i can just buy shims as i used all the shims out of both balljoint kits to do one side, if anyone can point me in the right direction it would be a big help thanks fella's.

Cookie,

There's something wrong if you've had to use all the shims, did you remove all the grease and clean up the surfaces before rebuilding and filling with grease?

The ball joint pin should only just be movable by hand when done up tight, not free moving.

Dave

I got the balljoint kits from mini sport and i followed the utube link, There is no up down play in the ball joints but the top one is easier to move than the bottom thats because of the spring in the bottom one, i have them fully assembled onto a front subframe and get no up down play or side to side play.
Ive done balljoints on many newer cars, why didnt they make them easyier on mini's.
Thanks for everyones help.