Thread: D2 Steering Knuckle Balljoints Removal and Refitting - A How To

D2 Steering Knuckle Balljoints Removal and Refitting
Well seeing as most D2’s are getting up the 10 year old mark, I thought I’d post up a how to on how to change these balljoints. I searched far and wide on how to do this and in the end it had to come down to a little initiative. So with the help of my dad, we made up a tool to remove these balljoints and another one to refit them. Now while these tools might not be the prettiest things in the world, they certainly handled the task at hand very well and made the job look easy.

Ok first of all, here is a picture of the lower balljoint, as seen in the pic the rubber is clearly worn out allowing all sorts of gunk to get in there, which will eventually lead to the balljoint getting loose and contributing to poor steering, vibrations etc. Mine were not up to the point of effecting the steering yet, but there was a bad sort of ticking noise that resulted every time the axles went up and down. The diff seal has also failed, so I replaced that as well. Now it is not always necessary to replace the top balljoint, but seeing as I had removed all the stuff to get there, I may as well and be sure all is well.



Make sure the vehicle is on even ground, chock the back wheels, make sure it is in gear with the hand brake on. Pop the bonnet, and disconnect the battery, always a good thing to do as we will be disconnecting the abs sensors.

Jack up the vehicle and support the axle with a jack stand, remove the wheel and start removing the calliper by undoing the two M19 bolts. Remove the calliper and stow it out of the way, but make sure it doesn’t hang by the brake line, I put it on the radius arm which keeps it out of the way.



Next, unplug the abs sensor which is just near the brake fluid reservoir, and carefully thread it through the wheel ach.



Undo the screw which hold the disk in place, it can be very tight due to surface rust, so make sure you use the correct size Phillips head as the screw is soft and its easy to destroy the head on it. I had to use an impact driver on mine as it was too tight to undo with a screw driver.



Undo the four M15 bolts securing the wheel hub bearing assembly in place, and carefully remove the CV/axle assembly, taking extra care not to damage the abs sensor cord.

Next remove the disk protection plate by undoing the 3 M8 bolts and note how the arrangement of the little brackets that hold the abs sensor wiring in place . I placed all the bolts and brackets in a container as I went along.



Undo the track rod and steering rob balljoints and remove them. It helps cleaning the thread with a wire brush and spray with a little WD40 as it makes them a lot easier to remove.

Next job is to remove the nuts off the balljoints, the lower one is M24 and the top one is M22. The bottom nut was removed but the top balljoint nut I loosened but left on the thread, there is a good reason why I did this. Next step is to use a rather large hammer to remove the knuckle from the balljoints, it takes a fair few hits before it falls off. (be careful not to clip the front panel with the hammer as you hit it.) The knuckle will eventually come lose and will only be held in place by the top nut. Keep hitting it while it is resting on the nut, as this pulls the pin out of the plastic bush inside the top balljoint and makes it alot easier to remove. (sorry I have no pics of this, as I was sweating at this stage, the knuckle is in very tight.



Ok so now the balljoints can finally be removed. As mentioned earlier these tools were made up especially for the job, using a power screw to press them out.

The tool is fitted to the lower balljoint first, (it doesn’t matter which is done first), you can see I used an old socket as a spacer and used plenty of grease on the power screw to make life a bit easier. Sometimes the ball joints are in very tight, I had to put a pipe on the end of the spanner so I used a good quality spanner but didn’t go overboard with the pipe length as something has to fail eventually and I didn’t want to get hurt in the process.



Next turn the tool around and do the top one, same process as the lower ball joint, just upside down.



Now its time to install the new ones, using the other tool I made up. It was made in a way that both ball joints are inserted at the same time, which makes the reinstallation so much easier than removing them. I welded a bolt on top of the threaded rod and using my HD ratchet torque wrench I just kept tightening until both ball joints were fully inserted. I also placed a bit of steel inbetween the knuckle on the diff housing to prevent it from flexing too much when pressing the ball joints in. However in saying this, I stood well away from the tool and used a long torque wrench to tighten with as I wanted to be well out of the way if something failed.



Both ball joints fully inserted



Next the outer diff seal was replaced with a new one, then it’s just a case of refitting everything in the same order as they were removed. The steering knuckle goes on very easy, but the bolts must be very tight, you don’t want them coming undone at 100km/h. Make sure the abs sensor is plugged in again correctly and that the wire is threaded correctly to prevent chaffing against the CV. It’s also a good idea to inspect the CV gaiter as they do tend to get holes in them as the car ages. The bolts holding the hub to the knuckle must also be very tight (can’t remember the torque spec).

This is a pretty easy job to do, provided you put a bit of effort into making the tools. As you can see I used some pretty thick steel as there a lot of force required to remove them. But I believe anyone with a welder, a grinder and a bit of common sense can make these tools quite easily. I can also post up the dimensions and some more photos of the removal and insertion tools on here if people are interested. In the end I am glad I did this job myself. The ball joints cost me $200 all up and the tools about $10 for the threaded rod, I had all the steel laying around. I think I save a fair bit of cash, as Land Rover quoted me $850 and one independent place in Brisbane even quoted $1200 as they wanted to remove the whole diff housing to do the job, which clearly isn’t necessary.

Hope this will be helpful for D2 owners out there who have worn out balljoints.
I would be happy to answer any questions.

Hi, we've never used this before so our message may end up somewhere it shouldn't be, so apologies in advance for any inconvenience!
Regarding D2 Steering Knuckle Balljoints Removal and Refitting - A How To can I obtain more information, photos, measurements etc of the tool you made - would appreciate any help you can give. Thanks,
barwayblue