good day all, started on her this morning, got the arb link off easy enough, though its fooked. im looking for a new bottom ball joint, the one under the strut. pages dont have a clue, and the other one in town says 'its too old for us'

ideas what to call them/where to get them other than ebay,

Thanks - ben

I was going to say Ebay, but you says no. I've been looking recently, they seem cheap enough on there if you can't get them anywhere else.

bottom.
ball.


pffffffffffppppp!

ive no objection to ebay, i just dont know the make or what they are like. 'firstline' or somthing liek that.

i did that jsut for you vnd!!

Ben

They don't generally wear, but can be accident damaged, one from a scrap yard should be fine provided its straight and the rubber intact. I probably have some spare in my parts bin.

Ride_on wrote:They don't generally wear, but can be accident damaged, one from a scrap yard should be fine provided its straight and the rubber intact. I probably have some spare in my parts bin.

They do wear...! Why use used stuff if you can get new from Ebay for a few quid?

Quentin Hazel do one and so do firstline from memory. Try a factors that stocks those brands.
Adam

I think I might have a pair of bottom ball joints brand new, not Volvo though - but doubt you can get them from them anyway

Was there something else you wanted off me? Sorry if I've forgot

managed to get pages to understand what i meant by bringing one in, 8.50+vat each.

the old ones were a reet biatch to get off!

Ben

pistonpen paultje wrote:

Ride_on wrote:They don't generally wear, but can be accident damaged, one from a scrap yard should be fine provided its straight and the rubber intact. I probably have some spare in my parts bin.

They do wear...! Why use used stuff if you can get new from Ebay for a few quid?

Because they are not as good as the OE spec parts, ebay is full of rubbish. I've been driving (hard) 340/360s since the early eighties, never worn out one yet (nor track rod ends). I would propose that the only ones that wear out are aftermarket ones replaced after accident damage.

nope, those aftermarket pieces are just as good, maybe even better than the shit volvo originally re-labeled for sell with a volvo logo on it..

if you don't wear the track rod ends, steering joints, bottom ball joints, wheel bearings etc you simply have to try harder.

every time you steer, the bottom ball joint moves along so they do simply wear, even in normal use.

accident damage isn't a factor either, but inproper alignment of the front suspension IS a big factor!!

Not ALL the aftermarket parts are good as OEM, for example cheap italian made steering joints are usually total garbage.

I had cheap italian made ball joints for one year and those didn't last one Finnish winter. When I checked the ball joints at the next summer, the rubber on both was totally cracked and joints were busted. Of course I should've listened because everyone here told me not to buy cheap italian steering joints because those usually don't last more than a year in here but I wanted to try..

If I remember correctly Volvo OEM ball joints are made by TRW which is probably the best manufacturer of steering joints there is so there is a quality difference between the parts..

Myself and a mate drove several 340/360s very very hard for at least 15 years in the 90s+00s (we are now in our 40s). OK we didn't do any power upgrades, but we did shock and wheel/tyre upgrades, cornering is much more fun than high power. I bent several rear axles into a dangerous state due to excessive toe-in, also knackered a number of strut top spring plates (bent+split the bearing seat). I am now looking at axle straightening and strengthening. Anyway no problems in any cars with worn susp ball joints, and my last 360, which I am restoring, did 200K miles.

Of course they wear, but a well designed one will not wear out in any reasonable period. I'd say >20 years anyway. The biggest problem I have noticed is with plastic based ball joints in the 87ish on 360 strut anti-roll linkage, now they do wear. Also my partners 97 323i wore out a lower ball joint after 80K (mot failed), again plastic based, very common problem sometimes within 30K, steel ones now available.