MX5 front upper ball joint

[samuelt]

Hi all

i have just come back from the shotblasters, they are not to keen to shotblast the front upper wishbones from my MX5 as they say they will destroy the ball joints. They have also said that in their opinion the ball joints are needing replaced, but these are not sold separately and a wishbone from a factor are £180. How loose can the ball joint be before it is a problem? The ones i have do not move to freely. Is there any chance that the wishbones on ebay are any better?

thanks

[Kevin Patrick]

samuelt - I recommend pressing out the ball joints before media blasting and powder coating. They can be pressed back in afterwards if they are still good or replaced. My originals from the donor were probably past their life anyway. I recently ordered some aftermarket press-in upper ball joints from V8 Roadsters over here in the states. They look great and also have a grease fitting. If you can get access to a shop press it can be done very quickly.

[samuelt]

hi Kevin, thanks for the details and the advice. I have since taken advice from an MOT inspector at the garge i use for our cars and he is happy that the bushes and ball joints will pass an MOT, but i will be buying these if they do need replacing, thanks again.

[lukiez]

as regards shot-blasting its fine if the rubber boot is still intact, just tape up the end to stop too much grit getting in
or if you're changing the boots anyway as i did, its worth re-packing with new grease. this does firm them up and is stated in the Mazda service manual for these.

i'm replacing all the rubber boots on the ball joints, they're cheap enough to replace since there's nothing wrong with them

[samuelt]

I have now done the upper arms with a wire brush on a grinder, i also plan to change all 4 boots as 2 were torn anyway. mx5spares are out of stock of hte top ones , autolink UK have them on ebay but not on their website.