And put the thinnest ones in first with the thickest on top under the nut or you could pick up and distort the thinnest while tightening

_________________
David L


My greatest fear in life is that when I die my wife will sell my Mini and tools for the price I told her I paid for them!

I always pull the hub + driveshaft out then do them on the bench. I bolt the drive flange onto a plate held in the vice, as it is hard to torque the bottom caps up properly on the car. This jig also makes it easy to torque up the CV nut and check preload when replacing wheel bearings.

_________________
DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.

Any photos of your jig Doc? - I'm looking at a plate to bolt onto where the callipers bolt on for disc brakes just want to see if I'm on the right track

_________________
David L


My greatest fear in life is that when I die my wife will sell my Mini and tools for the price I told her I paid for them!

I'll take a pic in the morning.
It is just a bit of 10mm thick steel plate ~150mm square, with a hole in the middle to clear a 34mm socket, and 4 holes 10mm dia, equispaced on a 4" PCD.
There is a bit of 25mm? bar welded to it radially. This is a torque arm I sit on a brick when undoing or doing up the CV nut on the car. I also clamp this in the vice when working on the balljoints or torquing up the bearings.

_________________
DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.

I would also like to see your jig, battled with ball joints over thw weekend

I know its heresy ..and we're all perfectionists..but the other day I actually used my torque wrench to set up a set of balljoints for teh first time (finally bought a suitable socket)...

For the past 40 years I have used the trusty big shifter to crank the nut up bl*&^y tight.

Haven't had one fall off yet......

Cheers, Ian

My mate was a marine engineer, drove a Morris 1100. He had a big shifter for this job too.
One day we were doing about 80 or 90 kliks and a balljoint unscrewed. It was verrrrry interestingggg (scary) but not funny bringing it to a halt.

_________________
DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.

One way I found worked was have the hub off the car, refit the road wheel, place it face down on the floor and stand on the back of the wheel and standing/bracing the back of the hub/disc with my feet.

But a rig as Doc describes would be the ideal for sure.

_________________

68 Morris Cooper S Mk1 (*ex 78 1275 LS 4th last built, 70 Morris 1500 OHC & 70 MiniMatic)

Here's a pic of my `hub holding device'-
http://www.flickr.com/photos/31275265@N05/10299234735/

It has been used over the last 30 years for a variety of other purposes, hence all the `lightening holes'.

_________________
DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.

There was a similar discussion last month - see here viewtopic.php?f=2&t=82831

I included in that thread a copy of the relevant Technical Bulletin so you can see what the factory recommended.

_________________
ex-NSW Police 1970 MK II Cooper S
VMCI #43

I went to do my ball joints once and found that I could undo them by hand - the mechanic hadn't used shims, they were held in place by the locktab! Funny, he went out of business...

Thanks for the pic Doc however no time to attack one so I use the above wheel method - worked a treat.

Now Minisport said they fitted non-genuine ball joints to the disc assemblies - blowed if I can tell the difference - had the flat and in all respects totally identical to the Unipart "Genuine".

Also worked out why they were 'solid' - 3 standard shims top and bottom - torqued to 70ftlbs job done. I had to add 0.15 to 0.18mm in shims to end up with "stiff movement" on torque.

_________________
David L


My greatest fear in life is that when I die my wife will sell my Mini and tools for the price I told her I paid for them!

Interestingly enough, I've just started doing the ball joints for my new discs, and the first three went on fine, but the fourth one is loose - without *any* shims! I might need to grind it down a little.

I had a new ball joint that was so badly made, one side of the cup sat flat on the hub and there was a 3mm gap on the other side. The thread was that far out of square in the cup.

_________________
1963 Morris 850

It's a dud, toss it away and find another for safety. Even good s/h is better than some of the badly made cheapo ones.

_________________
DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.