Miata upper control-arm balljoint replacement?

Plan on replacing the upper ball-joints on the Molvo with the Moog replacement item.

The one video on youtube makes it seem easy enough to press in and out. Any tricks or pitfalls that I should be aware of?

Not really it was very straight forward when I did it. Press the old out press the new in.

Pretty easy. The big snap ring on the Moog is a pain but no more than any other big snap ring.

I would recommend a spot weld to help hold it in. I've seen some aftermarket replacement ball joints pop out of the upper control arm. I can't recall if they were Moog or V8R.

Thanks all. Joints are in off to do the deed.

Done. Boots were a bitch.

Ah yes. Forgot about that. I punted and put on poly boots after wrecking the first one.

I prefer more than a spot weld now after having one pop out at a rallycross.

Keith Tanner wrote: I would recommend a spot weld to help hold it in. I've seen some aftermarket replacement ball joints pop out of the upper control arm. I can't recall if they were Moog or V8R.

I would recommend 2 or 3 1/2" long beads of weld. I broke a V8R ball joint out of a control arm when it was merely spot-welded in.

EvanB wrote: I prefer more than a spot weld now after having one pop out at a rallycross.

cough

In my defense, I can't drive for poo. And I was the first car on course, and I said that someone was going to hit the rut in that corner.

Linky because you can't embed to a start point

In reply to EvanB:

Even with the snap ring on? Did the snap ring break, or pop off?

In reply to cmcgregor:

The whole ball joint came out of the arm as an assembly, the snap ring is just for the top cap that threads on (at least on the V8roadsters ones I have).

Ah, I see. The Moog ones have a snap ring that helps hold it in, I was getting a little worried that that wasn't sufficient.

I also recommend a weld. This was a V8R ball joint.

cmcgregor wrote: Ah, I see. The Moog ones have a snap ring that helps hold it in, I was getting a little worried that that wasn't sufficient.

Sounds like the ball joints for the SA/FB RX-7 and early 626/MX-6.

Those need welded in as well.

The problem is the control arm is not meant to be serviceable. When you press the new ball joint in, the hole will expand a bit, and it will not hold the ball joint properly. Back when they were common, I had a maybe 1 in 3 chance on the 626/MX-6 that the ball joint wouldn't just rattle around loose to begin with. I installed the last R/F control arm in Mazda inventory in 2001 in my service writer's MX-6 after a ball joint replacement rattled around. At least, that is what the dealer told us when we ordered it.

If you drive with the ball joint rattling, bad things happen.