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Old Jul 12th, 2019, 17:37   #2
Clan
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Join Date: Jun 2007
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Miketwovolvos View Post
Just to alert folks to this...I have a 99 s40 and I have replaced a couple of bottom ball joints in the last ten years. I bought a new one last week and tried to fit it yesterday..too small..it measures 39.9mm around the knurled area (so it grips when pressed in) but the old one measured 40.3 mm. That .4 of a mm makes a massive difference..the new balljoint just flopped about in the control arm space.. I tried three different manufacturers and they were all the right ones for the car but they were all 39.9 mm..

I would be very interested if anyone else as had this problem..I asked the guys at work for some shim steel (0.1 mm) and made shim for it, held it on with superglue and eventually managed to press it in with the aid of some copper ease. The circlip was popped in and it looks like its all good. The ebay guys I bought it for swore blind it was for my car and this does check out. They refused to take it back, but did reimburse me. What a hassle though..nightmare to fit..Also, getting the balljoint 19mm nut bolt on and off..there is no clearance for anything but a 19mm open ended spanner, so you effectively cannot torque it accurately, but it is a lock nut so it should be OK..the old was so hard to remove I just hacksawed it off..

What a pain in the arse...
That bodge sounds dangerous to me and will fail an MOT just buy a new arm from Volvo as they don't supply the ball joint for a reason ..
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