Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Three Wheeler & Super 3 Front ball joint

I have been doing a bit of winter servicing on the M3W. Today was replacing the front upright ball joint rubber boots, as they were all starting to perish and split. I was surprised to find that all four joints were almost dry with hardly any sign of grease in them when the boots came off. I thought I had got to them just in time but the final one was quite badly worn and needs replacing, the new ball joint, impact wrench and 46mm socket are on their way.

My car is a 2013 one with almost 26,000 miles on it. If your car is a similar age I would suggest an early replacement of the boots. They are cheap and easy to replace and along with some new lubricant will probably give you another 6 years trouble free use.

At least you can replace upper and lower ball joints. On the Aero chassis cars the lower ball joint is bonded into to the upright and secured with set screws, so it can't be replaced.
A new upright is £660 +VAT. They seem to last about 40,000 to 45,000 miles.

WOW Peter, it makes me glad that I purchased an antique Morgan design with all its quirks.

They’re not bonded in , merely pressed, and the grub screws are a bit of a bugger to remove, but I’ve developed the tooling and sourced the correct ball joints to be able to replace the ball joints with out resorting to a new upright

Simon @ Sifab .co.uk

Are the Mini ball joints the same as the London Taxi ball joints?

If so, I have four brand new ball joints from the London Taxi that could be for sale if someone here in the US needs them.

Although they do look very similar Dan, the London Taxi ball joint number doesn't appear interchangeable with the Mini Metro Mk1 item. A shame as I expect that Metro spares are not easy in the US, or London Taxi. Metro items are readily available in the UK for about £15.00 each from a named manufacturer that you may of heard of.

Following your excellent advice chaps I’ve investigated my ball joints. The bottom two need replacing. The N/S upper needs a new rubber boot and a bit of grease. The remaining upper ball joint was OK, so just added a bit of grease

I’ve also invested in an impact wrench, but given the amount of spanner twirling I do I went for the Clarke cordless version from Machine Mart
https://www.machinemart.co.uk/p/clarke-cir18lic-18v-brushless-2ah--impact-wre/

Wish I’d bought one years ago!

It seems to be that many cars over about 4 years old have some worn or dry joints, well worth a check. That looks like a swish impact wrench WarBird, as I don't think I will have a lot of use for it I got a £30 cordless one express delivery from China but it worked amazingly well. Not sure how long it will last though. I couldn't move the ball joint with a large T bar but it undone almost instantly with the impact wrench, thanks for the advice RogG.

Both upper gaiters need replacing so new ones and a ball joint splitter on order.

Should they be filled with grease - if so what's recommended?

You can't actually get the grease to go where it needs to be but there is no harm in smearing some in there, Castrol LM would work.