Once a suitable place has been found, it is time to make the car safe. Apply the hand brake and place a chock underneath the wheel. If you are working on the rear then chock the front, vise versa if you intend to work on the front like we are then chock both rear wheels. Look in the Ford owner’s handbook for the best place to jack up the car.
With the wheel off and the car suitably safe on my axel stands, it is time for me to undo the large nut in the center of the ball joint, this holds the joint to the suspension leg. I now need the new ball joint splitter to separate the lower part from the upper. A few big hits and the lower wishbone became loose and dropped down.
I then removed the two securing bolts and the ball joint was detached. I always like to put a little copper grease on the retaining bolts so future removal will be made a lot easier. The new ball joint was quick and simple to fit. Simply re- in act you steps in reverse.
The second part of the job was to change the tire. I have chosen to fit my spare tire and have the old one changed as soon as the car is back together. I did encounter one problem whilst carrying out this repair. I noticed a crack in the brake disc. I read the Ford manual and these cracks are due to the disc temperature being too high. After having thought it through and checking the other side, which was clear from cracks. I decided to check out the caliper on the defective side. The wheel hub was tight to turn.
After checking out the section in the Ford owners hand book and the manual I came to the conclusion the brake caliper was sticking. I removed the two Allen key bolts that held in the brake pads, then forcing the brake piston back I removed the pads. The two retaining bolts holding the brake caliper to the hub were next. The caliper has two slides. I noticed one was sticking. With some fine emery paper, I cleaned it and greased it to prevent any water penetration.
I cleaned the whole caliper and slide mechanism to ensure it would operate correctly. I replaced the cracked disc with a genuine Ford disc. After reassembling the brakes, I pumped the brake pedal until it was hard. The hub was now free to spin by hand.
I replaced the wheel ensuring the wheel nuts where tight. After removing the jack, I once again tightened the wheel nuts and replaced the wheel trim. It was now time to test drive the Ford car and check out my handy work. The car ran like a dream and the new tire was replaced the very same day.
