my front ball joint appeared to be totally shot. With the vehicle jacked up i was able to grip the front knuckle at 3o/c and 6o/c and move the entire knuckle and shock unit about 3/4".
I replaced the ball joint (which is where the play was coming from)
There is no difference in the amount of play after replacing the balljoint, so now i'm wondering what the issue is....could it be the front axle?.
I made a 30 second video and uploaded it to youtube...you can see it here.

‪MVI 0194‬‏ - YouTube

I have new tires to go on the car but cannot do that until i get rid of this play. Can someone please tell me what could be causing this.
thanks muchly

 

iownme, if the play is still at the ball joint, then I would be looking at the hole the ball joint sits in on the spindle. It is possible that if the previous owner did not get the ball joint installed correctly, it could have wobbled some, leading to the hole in the spindle being elongated and leading to the play that you are seeing. In short, the stem of the ball joint is not held in place 360 degrees around. It is only held in place at the front and rear sides of the spindle (as referenced to the bumpers of the car). So, imagine a round peg in an oval slot. Unfortunately, if this is the case, the only fix for this is to replace the spindle. PUlling the spindle off, getting it welded up, machined back to where it needs to be is going to be a hell of a lot more expensive than getting a new spindle.

 

Hi Thermo, the PO did not have the balljoint replaced, when i bought the car it had the original riveted balljoint. I do not think the balljoint is moving around inside the spindle, (though i will check at the weekend). As i push and pull on the wheel the spindle seems to be moving with the balljoint at the same rate. Can you think of anything else that would cause this kind of movement?
The axle and strut also moves when i push and pull on the wheel...the axle moves in and out and the strut moves fore and aft.
If we can't figure this out i'll take a movie of the entire unit moving.
Is it possible that the new balljoint is faulty?....the movement is exactly the same as before i changed the balljoint

 

any other ideas?...i just cannot figure out where this movement is coming from and i won't take the car too far like this...major P I T A

 

Ever consider the wheel bearing thats the useall culprit and never the axle, you can remove the axle and still not have play

 

To me it looks like your tapered BJ bolt is not properly seated. The bolt head you see in the film is a pinch bolt and from its condition it's not been undone...so how did you change your BJ's?????

 

thanks brutal...i thought a bad wheel bearing would allow play 360 degrees, not just at 3 o/c and 6o/c...i may just replace the bearing just to be sure...easy/complicated?.

thanks Tony...i had a shop replace the bj as i was unable to remove the pinch bolt (it was too tight) I'll ask them if they removed the pinch bolt.

The play (seems to me) is still coming from the actual bj itself...i'm wondering if the bj is faulty (or just cheap!)....the play is identical to the play with the old bj....(which also makes me wonder if the original bj was in fact bad) and maybe as brutal suggests it is in fact the bearing which is bad....but would a bad bearing allow that kind of play while gripping the wheel at 3o/c and 6 o/c only?

 

If you're still driving the car I don't think you realize how serious your problem is. If you hit a pothole your suspension could separate. You are risking a serious accident!

 

yes tony, i'm skating on thin ice!, when my rear controls arms arrive later this week i'll just take it to the shop...hate to farm out work on my car, but if none of us can figure this out i'll have the tech down the road check it out...i'm only doing essential driving...(and avoiding all potholes etc :+)

 

Yes a wheel would be(usually) loose all the way around. But it depends on how it fails and the damage inside. I have seen water get in bearings and cause flaking/rust in the races on the bottom due to gravity settling the water there this causes slop only in a verticle plane. Also you really need to have someone move it while you have your fingers on the differant pieces to feel the slack and exactly where its coming from. And was the ball joint installed correclty. The bj stud should comeup to the opeing in the hub carrier. If not the bj is not seated and the recess is not aligned for the pinch bolt. Very dangerous since yes it can come apart. Also if the lower struck is bent in the hub carrier i have also seen these creat loosness in the assembly. But useally this can be diaged better by looking to see if the gap between the rear of the front tire and fender is the same on both sides since and impact with curb or pothole bends back. Or maybe the bj is misboxed, wrong part etc and has a smaller stud than original, did you buy from jaguar or outside sourced???

 

I'm going to suggest that the vertical 'pin' in the ball joint has not been inserted into the hole in the hub and is simply sitting there ready to fall out at the first large road bump. The cinch bolt, by the amount of accumulated crud, shows no signs of having been removed to allow the pin to fully enter the hole. Simply loosening the nut doesn't do much.

A very dangerous situation to say the least.

Stop driving the car- please.

 

Are you sure you got the right part when you ordered the ball joint, the shaft to the ball joint could be to small to sit in the hole. Just another way to look at it.

 

iownme, taking another very close look at the video, look at the spindle in relation to the rotor in the first bit of the video. I am assuming you are pushing/pulling at the 6 o'clock position then. When you are doing this, you are getting movement between the spindle and the rotor. The only way for this to happen is for play in the wheel bearing. With that being said, I still think that the ball joint is bad else you have play in the hole in the spindle. I say this as you can see the ball joint flexing side to side (left to ride side of the car) as you are playing with the wheel. That means you have 2 issues. IT is very possible that one lead to the other if this problem has been going on for some time.

Maybe I am just being overly analytical, but I see movement in 2 places (bearing and ball joint). Maybe someone else can see it and tell me differently.

 

well now that i can view the video at home since vids are taboo and blocked at work..........that wheel looks like its moving more than just at 6 and 12....
again, people seem to repeat me, check that the bj shaft fill s the hole and isnt too small and or the hole not damaged and wallowed out. Im with Thermo too. I still think you have a bad wheel bearing too...

 

so who shoud do that?

ok ... mind, gutter, out.

 

thanks all for the great responses!....firstly, I'll stop driving the car until i fix this...

Surely the tech must have removed the pinch bolt to remove the old ball joint?...the entire job took them 30 mins

Is it even possible to reinstall the new ball joint with the pinch bolt still in place?

The BJ was aftermarket, not original Jaguar...i have a 2nd new bj which i could try installing to see how it behaves.

today i'll check the bj shaft/spindle for snugness

I'm going to order a new wheel bearing....before i do a forum search...is replacement easy?...i've replaced bearings on other cars so i'm confident i can do this too

 

You cant change the ball joint without taking out the pinch bolt. It what holds the bj stud in the hub carrier/steering knuckle. Reason i asked about aftermarket is i see alot of stuff that just is not correct or other parts have to be change to make them work. Like stype air filters, xj/xk bushings, ac compressors with correct copressor bodies and wrong clutches that i couldnt get belts over etc....

 

No it's not possible. Go look at your own video. That's the head of the bolt in the foreground. Does it look like it's been removed- ever?

 

Mikey...as Brutal stated...the pinch bolt has to be removed to replace the bj....therefore...the pinch bolt must have been removed, regardless of whether it looks like it or not....i knew this to be the case, but had to ask the question as i have been wrong before (hardly ever tho :+)
I think thermo and brutal nailed it with the bearing, bearing arrives tomorrow and the car goes in the shop on friday.
I'm pretty sure the BJ spindle is tight in the knuckle.

Now don't these x types have CV joints in the front?...could that also be an issue. I do not have the common clunking when turning which a bad CV joint will do.

Hopefully by the end of the week i'll have the new rear control arms and new tires on too...got the tires, still waiting for the mailman to bring the control arms

 

I just had a thought....If the wheel bearing was the problem, then why would the strut and the axle both also move (with the balljoint)...doesn't the movement in these other items show that the wheel bearing is not the problem?.
Or is the bearing part of the knuckle..(then it would make sense)
thermo..brutal?