Failed

[steady eddie]

Well I put the daughters 75 in for MOT this afternoon and it failed. On O/S lower suspension ball joint excessive play. On a brand new lower arm fitted on saturday by myself . Has anyone had faulty new suspension parts after only 8 miles? All the other work I carried out passed with no problems. I have replaced the pinch bolt this evening and will take for retest tomorrow. On the way back from the MOT station I got pulled by the police, the officer was very understanding and gave me a reminder that I was only allowed to drive back to the MOT testing station for retest if I had a pre booked appointment.

[Jules]

What brand and supplier please ?

Make sure it's not the pin loose in the hole in the hub carrier which can become elongated or worn.
(sometimes caused by excessive hammering or using one of those huge joint buster bars)


We've had a few cases of this and the only cure is another HUB carrier.
New one's NLA because we bought the ones from Xpart !!

[steady eddie]

I have sent you pm.

[Mike Noc]

As Jules says, sounds like the pinch bolt isn't tight enough. The torque value given by Rover isn't enough to guarantee it will clamp the balljoint, so worth giving it a bit more.

If you jack the wheel up and try and move it at the bottom you should see where the play is.

[Jules]

No Mike I didn't mean that!
I am assuming the bolt is fully torqued but pin can be still loose.

The hole maybe Worn/damaged?
If so the only solution is new hub carrier.
We've seen this a few times

[steady eddie]

I have removed the pinch bolt refitted and tightened up, checked for play and could not feel any so will take for retest later. Fingers crossed. ��

[Mike Noc]

Originally Posted by Jules

No Mike I didn't mean that!
I am assuming the bolt is fully torqued but pin can be still loose.

The hole maybe Worn/damaged?
If so the only solution is new hub carrier.
We've seen this a few times

Me too but I think it is the same underlying problem - the pinch bolt specified torque is too low and doesn't always clamp the balljoint tight enough, and over time any resulting free play wears the hub. In the OP's case though, probably the former, as it was recently replaced.

Interestingly the first time I came across this was with my car, when it was still a company car. I had a lower arm replaced, and then a couple of months later had play on that side. When it went back in they fitted a new hub as the clamp had worn.

As this was a main dealer - a well respected one too, they would have torqued it correctly. Since then when doing the same job on a couple of occasions I have found exactly the same thing when checking the hub for play afterwards - the bolt just doesn't clamp tightly.

Now it could be a slight tolerance difference with the new lower arms, but tightening the bolt more than specified has always worked for me, as long as the hub hasn't had a chance to wear.

[75c]

Originally Posted by steady eddie

I have removed the pinch bolt refitted and tightened up, checked for play and could not feel any so will take for retest later. Fingers crossed. ��

Fingers and toes. Really interested to see if that works, good luck.

[steady eddie]

She has passed, I torqued the bolt up then took it up a bit more maybe I need a new torque wrench as I just realised how old mine is it's possibly over 30 years old.
Many thanks for all of your advice..
Ed.

[chris75]

Originally Posted by 75c

Fingers and toes. Really interested to see if that works, good luck.

It's worked for me several times now ; quite a common fix