How do I do this? I have the ball joint and strut anchor out. Do I need to rent/borrow a ball joint press? The Bentley manual says "press out ball joint". I am finding this easier said than done. Should I use a brass rod on the ball joint bolt and bang away on it?
Thanks!
John

 

hi jmarble,

Most everyone that has posted on this topic on all the forums I visit, have described using a vise to hold the ball joint and hammering off the strut anchor plate. Some use brass tools. Some use wood block and hammer.
Some hold the anchor in the vise and hammer off the ball joint.

When I replaced the ball joints on my car, I was able to unscrew the retaining nut on the anchor and hammer off the ball joint for the driver's side only. The passenger side had rusted too much and after removing the nut, I had to drill out the stud.

The hardest part of installing the new ball joints was tightening the retaining nut onto the ball joint stud. Make sure you tap the anchor down tight to seat it on the tapered stud. Then maybe use a tiny bit of anti sieze on the threads.

Best of success to you,

Brandon in Franklin, TN

Took about 2 hours per side. Was the first time I had done that job.

 

Hey Brandon, thank you very much, that helped a lot! For future searchers, I also found that it helped to take the boot and snap ring off the ball joint, clean out the rust and grime where it met with the strut anchor and soak that seam good with PB Breaker. I was then able to hold the ball joint bracket in the vice and bang off the anchor with a brass rod. It didn't work before I hit it with the PB. Going to get some genuine Volvo ball joints tomorrow, as well as the strut anchor bolts, and I'll try your tips to get them installed.
Thanks again,
John

 

I learned a few things that others might find useful. If you order the kits from your Volvo dealer (the part numbers are 274118 (LH) and 274119 (RH)) the strut anchor bolts (4) are included in the kit. Also included are 4 nuts which look very much the same. These are the 3 nuts for the ball joint to control arm connection and the nut for the ball joint stud. A more observant person than me will notice that 3 of the nuts are grade 10 and one is grade 8, otherwise they are almost identical. Same diameter and thread. I mistakenly used a grade 10 on the ball joint stud and didn't realize it until I was putting in the final suspension bolt. Rather than take everything apart and risk screwing up the ball joint I just used one of the old control arm nuts for now although I may grab a new grade 10 nut at the dealer. I guess the end result in my case is the ball joint to strut anchor connection is stronger than it needs to be, which I can't see as a bad thing.

I used a borrowed (autozone) ball joint press to press the ball joint to strut anchor while installing the nut on the stud. This worked very nicely to keep the stud from spinning when torquing down the nut.

The ball joints I bought from the dealer for $47 were stamped as Volvo parts but were also stamped as TRW. FCP Groton sells TRW ball joints for $35. Are they exactly the same? I don't know. Maybe there are other differences in the Volvo part beyond the Volvo stamp. That's what I'm trying to convince myself since I paid the Volvo premium. They certainly seemed like very high quality parts.

Lastly, after finishing up, I noticed I still had some vertical play in the wheel. What the heck?! Only thing I could think of was wheel bearings and/or hub. Upon inspection I found that the castle nut on the spindle was very loose. As in I can wiggle it by hand loose. Tightened it up to spec and it's rock solid now. I guess the lesson here is check the obvious first. My left ball joint boot was all torn so I don't feel too bad about replacing it.

Hope this info helps someone in the future.