scotty68

nvm

jes1888

iTrader: (2)

has somebody checked these ones from amazon?


there's only one review stating that they do work on G35 and to reuse the seat or buy a new one because it's not included but, how do they fare on quality? They dont look like ebay ones.

bjr

So it sounds like for 05+ that something did change but it is probably the size of the threaded shaft? There has been a couple of arguments over 03-04 vs. 05+ and a lot of suppliers still advertise they are selling you a joint for 03-04.
I've read all of these threads a couple of times and it's too easy to read more into it than there is since it is not spelled out with any certainty.

Autozone claims the Duralast part fits any year. So the main case that presses in has been the same size all along, then depending which brand name of joint you buy or what year car you own all you have to do it buy the correct seat to match?

johnx818

iTrader: (2)

I finally bought a Duralast BJ today from Autozone and ripped off the rubber boot as soon as I got home. The base opening of the rubber boot is sealed onto the BJ so it was tough trying to get all of the rubber removed.


I slip the Energy suspension (part #: 13009) over the BJ and it looks a lot shorter than the rubber boot that I just ripped off.


The base opening of the boot fits snug over the base of the BJ.


But once I pivot the BJ stud, the boot will just rise off the lip, which leads me to think that these are too short. I haven't tried pressing it in the steering knuckle to try with the cone yet because I can't be car-less in the event that it isn't the proper sized boot.
Can someone that has had success with the Energy boots please chime in?

Thanks in advance!

bjr

I think you should just use the boot it came with. At least one or two members said the Duralast boot was much better than other brands and I thought one of them said his was holding up fine.
I think you may be causing more problems than you are solving. If the original boot won't go back on, try exchanging it at the store for a new ball joint. The fact that it was so hard to get off is impressive. As long as the rubber seems like it is not cheap quality and hard/dried out looking already like some cheap rubber sometimes is, I'd bring one home and put it on the car just like it is.

guitman32

iTrader: (15)

Wouldn't normally quote myself but thought it was appropriate.

Bad idea pulling off a sealed boot, which is how they should be. When the spindle and ball joint are at static, there is already a slight angle on the joint, how much depends on your ride height. You won't really know how a given boot will perform once on the car because some are designed to crush and fold over themselves, others just kind of deform at random. The best ones (IMO) look like the stock boot.

johnx818

iTrader: (2)

The only tough part to remove is the base lip where it is sealed. The rubber itself was easily punctured with a flathead screwdriver.
Well, I'm going to give it a shot today with the energy boots. Worse comes to worst I'll purchase another BJ and figure out how I can return this one. Wish me luck!

johnx818

iTrader: (2)

I got the Duralast ball joint installed with the Energy suspension dust boot. Pictures are in this link: http://imgur.com/a/aqIPu
I'll be driving it around for a week and will be in the canyons this weekend to see how it holds up. I'm gonna jack it up afterwards to check for any leakages and deformations.

Originally, I was going to remove the whole knuckle and have a shop press it out. It wasn't until I saw how involved that was going to be when I decided to rent a ball joint press from Autozone and press it out on the car. The toughest part for me was getting the damn cone to come off, I spent about 30 minutes hammering at the separator fork.
All this was done with no beer.

guitman32

iTrader: (15)

^ Is that off the ground? Angle will be slightly different if not but not sure it would remain flush anyway. You should check.

Ive found that with a poor seal the joint can still be kept up if there is a zerk and you can just pump it up every oil change. But with no grease fitting that isnt an option unfortunately. You'll have to regrease them the old fashioned way.

johnx818

iTrader: (2)

The last two photos on that page is on the ground.

AARONHL

iTrader: (1)

Ya I used the red Energy boot on my eBay ball joints and the boot is too short. I can see a little grease come out every once in a while, but it's anot a big problem. I would think if they were 1/2" taller they would be a great fit

saywat?

don't laugh but I jus put a nice thick bead of black rubber silicon and its good to go

mcubed45

Does anyone have a link to a ball joint press or adapter kit that will definitely fit our cars?

We don't have autozone or advance auto in Hawaii. We have Oreilly's but none of the kits I looked at had the right adapter size. I'm willing to buy a kit if necessary but when browsing online a lot of the descriptions don't even list specific adapter sizes that are included.

mcubed45

Went shopping online at metal suppliers but all of them wanted to charge $40+ to ship a $5 piece of tubing to hawaii.

I hit up a couple of the local metal shops and one of them found some tubing that fit nicely.

The install went really well except the oreilly's kit also doesn't include a proper receiving cup for installing the new joint. All the adapters in the kit are 2" and the clamp is too small to use an adapter on each side of the BJ when pressing in the new one. Ideally I should've had the shop cut me a 1" piece as well to use on the receiving end.

bjr

I bought the Autozone Duralast part last night. Brought it home and the threads are about 1mm smaller diameter than the part on my car. I have a 05 Base model.
I was already anticipating some kind of problem after looking back at all of the disagreements on 03-04 vs 05+. I tried to research it some by looking for more than one part number for the seat(cone). I found a part number and the same part number with a +B at the end of it at courtesy parts and another online dealer that lists about 4(!) part numbers for the seat.
Not sure what I want to do yet (or can). I'm not very willing to buy something over the internet that I cannot return easily at this point knowing there is a good chance it will not fit. I think no matter what, the eBay joints are out for me. There is a choice at rock auto I thought but again what size and what quality. One or two other places sell something but again what size.
I've thought hard about just paying the $290 for the whole knuckle but would be a little worried that something about it would not fit the transverse link. However, there doesn't seem to be various part numbers for that arm. Also that is a lot of work to take off both arms, hub, brake caliper, steering linkage (which may get a damaged boot out of messing with it).
The only other option would be to order every variation of the cone and also any variations of the nut and use the autozone part then return the unused cones and nuts. Or give some dealer my VIN and hope the knuckle they sell me fits my variation.
Either way is going to be full of surprises.
Any ideas?

mcubed45

You use the new nut that come with the BJ and reuse the old cone.

bjr

Jeez. Forgot there is a new nut in there That does change how to think about this not matching perfectly.

But, will the old cone eventually press on the shaft after it is all the way down past the threads and seat onto the solid part of the shaft? The initial fit sliding past the threads will be way too sloppy. I was worried before if the threads were 1mm smaller the whole shaft may be undersized. Hope that makes sense...

I will measure the diameter of the shaft on the new part tonight and not worry about the thread size. I will try to see how far down the original seat is on the factory joint to compare. I guess this may work after all...

mcubed45

Pretty sure it just sits all the way at the bottom of the shaft. It is supporting the weight of the car after all. Lol

bjr

Right. I kept forgetting it is a tapered shaft too. But it's always possible that the cone is too big. I will post my results when I get around to changing it so everyone has one more example. I'm 90% sure it's going to work now.
Seems like the only real difference so far from my research is G35 RWD vs. AWD models...

I also got some feedback from a Nissan dealer that all seats have been the same part number 2003-2008 all models, further confirming that my first knee-jerk reaction to the thread size being smaller means absolutely nothing yet.

bjr

Duralast/Autozone did not work for me
I wish I had the 2 hours of my Saturday morning back.
Here is what I found. Your results may vary with the same part depending on your year of car?

I got to the point where I popped the cone off of my car and took it straight over to the new part. Much like I suspected when I discovered earlier in the week that the THREADED part on the Duralast is smaller than the OEM threads, the TAPERED part is much smaller too. I'm talking about almost 0.125". I measured at least 0.100"+ difference at the beginning of the taper.
No matter how hard anything (me or the car) pushes the cone down on the tapered ball joint shaft there is no metal to metal seating. What would happen if I just dropped the cone on and put it in the car is that the weight of the car would push the cone down until the boot was compressed as far as it would go. Maybe this would even shear the boot right off. The cone would bottom out on the boot or possibly the top of the ball and it probably would not pivot. Or the car would ride around supported by the boot!

I don't see the ebay or rockauto working out for me either. I question the quality first of all and I expect the fit to be wrong. Don't feel like trying to ship back things that may not even be returnable at this point.
I've been told by my Nissan dealer that there is only one size cone for all years.
I don't want to make my own cone because the shaft of the joint is 1/8" smaller and is not rated for the same load as the original.
It looks like for me, I am stuck buying a steering knuckle.

I've not returned the Duralast part or the press tool yet, so if anyone has any last ideas I'll look into it to save the money but I think I know what I'm going to have to do.

New knuckle = un-join compression arm and top ball joint, pop out steering linkage, remove abs sensor, remove brake caliper along with the whole caliper bracket in one piece after pivoting the caliper and taking off rotor, plus then after the knuckle is free I have to transfer the dust shield , plastic back shield, the wheel hub. What did I miss. Not impossible but time consuming. This is like a 3-4 hour job right?