Hi all,

Lube Mobile has quoted me a price to remove/replace the upper and lower ball joints on my NL. I am going to provide the parts.

Their quote was $507, online special for $465. Is this expected for this type of job considering how difficult they are to replace? I can't do it here at home...

Cheers in advance for the advice.

Nick.

4 hours @ $1xx an hour. Sounds about right.

Personally I can't justify paying anyone more than what I earn per hour to do something I can...

A bit fuzzy, but last time I did mine I think I just needed a mate with a press to to the ball joints. But the actual disassembly/reassembly was the main work.

I pulled them apart in the driveway..

Is Lube Mobile the mob who come to your house and do the work?

yes

Workshops will press out/press in ball joints if you remove the front end yourself for a small fee. much cheaper than paying lube mobile to do the whole job. Could probably buy a good enough press to diy for less than the quote

You need press dollies to do the job easily.

 

 

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you CAN buy a good enuf pres fa that $$






or make em

Ok. I thought so. Cheers.
There's a bloke in town that has started a mobile mechanics. Don't know about the hourly rate though.
Local Peter kittles Toyota charges around $160 p/h now I've heard.



For $500 you could almost get a press, the parts, dollies, jack and a tool kit to do the lot. Lol.

Point there though is that you're unable to DIY... Why is that by the way?

I did make them.....plus others.

I have one of these...



Click the link to see the page... Wasn't the cheapest tool but it has earnt it's money back already...

Cheers,
Tim

Cheers! I'm attempting to loosen the balljoints from the lower arms each side, so I can remove the hub/spindle. Even though the nut and split pins are removed, I am guessing they're rusted in place. I've sprayed a heap of WD40 to leave overnight and ready to get the BIG hammer on it tomorrow.

Here's hoping by taking both spindles to Pedders or something, they can remove the joints and fit the new ones for me.

I did all mine 2 years ago and the upper left has gone again, seems the only parts that break in my car are the new ones lol (and they're all genuine factory too) it must sit on the shelves dry for years or something.

I called around 8 mechanics I refused to see how anyone could charge me more than $20-$30 to pop that one ball joint out and the new one in. Instead I get quotes from the local industrial/automotive area for $60, which is was from at least 4 places/the average I explained it's just for one and they said they heard me correctly and it's still $60. I even got quoted $90 lol by one of the places.

It reminded me of when you pay bob jane $80 to swap a set of rims and all they do is place them onto a machine and press a button and give them all back to you in 5min and you're left wondering where the hell your $80 went lol. Should throw in an acid wash or something at that price tbh.

Anyway I called somewhere in Dandenong and he said $40 which relaxed me a little but I still wasn't entirely happy and called another place in dandenong who's doing it this week for $20 and will get my future business. $90 for a single ball joint lol some people.

and no not rusted they are tapered/wedged on. You need a ball joint separator tool to pop the arm ($20 from autobarn i think) otherwise you can maybe try to shock them off with a mallet or pry with a crowbar or some combination of both if you know what you are doing but if you've never done them before don't even bother with this and get the tool. I'm talking from experience.

You can get the separator tool in 2 types of metals, they're both the exact same design but one is a s**t black one made by trojan that doesn't work (I broke 2 and took them back) and the other is a lot more heavy duty and silver in colour, looks to be made of aluminum/stainless. So get the stronger one and not the black one, I think repco sell the good one or both types but whatever just don't get the black one.

Get some replacement nuts (22mm from memory 1 each side) for when you put the top arms back onto the upper ball joints as well.

I managed to get both spindles off with a great bang with the hammer! The bottom ball joint rubber boots had split and were loose as a.... lol Took them with the new ball joints to Pedders and they removed the old ones and pressed in the new ones I gave them for $80 the lot. Very happy considering Lube Mobile wanted hundreds of dollars. Midas quoted me $150...

Anyhow the new joints are in... Got new nuts and split pins etc... will put them back in with the new bearings, rotors, shocks... be like new, maybe!

Cheers for the advice.