KLANN ball joint tool - possibility of hire for other MBclub members?

[Will]

Following on from this thread, I've been working out the options regarding replacing the ball joints on my W201.

KLANN make a very good hydraulic press kit for replacing the ball joints on the front lower control arms (wishbones) as shown in the following short video clip:

http://www.klann-online.de/englisch/Filme_E/KL-0326-10_E.htm

It's not cheap by any means, but the beauty of using this superb tool is that you don't need to disturb the wishbones to remove the joints. This obviously not only saves a lot of time, but also removes the risk of putting the front end alignment out.

As a guide, I've been quoted around £200+ VAT labour round here for labour to replace both front lower ball joints (about 2hrs a side), I suspect this would be considerably more at a main dealer. Probably because most don't have this tool so would need to remove the wishbone completely from the car, then press and refit the joints using a regular hydraulic press.

Bearing in mind the number of MBs that I currently own (2x W201s and a W124), look after and also will potentially own in the future, I'm considering purchasing the tool - with the possibility to hire it out to other MBclub members to perhaps recoup some of the initial cost?

The kit I have been looking at is KL-0043-822. This is suitable for use on all W201, W124 and W129 (R129 SL) models.

http://www.klanngedore.com/pdf/chapter2.pdf

The parts themselves are very cheap (less than £15 a side), so it would pain me to spend comparitively so much in labour for just changing these joints, especially when I will probably be doing other related work in the near future.

Just to help me form a decision on the feasability of this, anyone here likely to be interested in hiring this tool - either now or in the near future? Unsure of exact costs at this stage, but I'm guessing something like £20/30 would be about right - possibly cheaper if we can get several people interested?

Obviously I'm biased, but I have to say that seeing how important the ball joints are, how cheap the parts are (£15 each), and how quick and easy this tool makes the task of replacement I'd be interested.

Any suggestions/pointers?

Will

 

[kth286]

Will

You should know that on the more powerful versions of 124/129 the cars do NOT have replaceable ball joints - they are welded at the factory and you have to replace the whole wishbone.

This fact may limit your market and therfore influence your decision re the tool purchase.

 

[Dieselman]

I wonder how one would get on with some solid flat steel and two bits of stong, coarse threaded, studding with nuts on pressing on some tube.

 

[Will]

I wonder how one would get on with some solid flat steel and two bits of stong, coarse threaded, studding with nuts on pressing on some tube.

I must admit, I had thought of similar ideas myself

But, the bulk of the saving in doing this job is in the labour (£200ish?). From my point of view, if I could hire the proper tool - and in this case a high-quality workshop tool made by Klann, I'd cheerfully pay £20/30 for the privilege to save me hours of my time trying to make something similar that might work.

I'm looking at this for the long term, hopefully it'll get this job out of the way for me and be able to help a few other members out in the future

Will

 

[Will]

Will

You should know that on the more powerful versions of 124/129 the cars do NOT have replaceable ball joints - they are welded at the factory and you have to replace the whole wishbone.

This fact may limit your market and therfore influence your decision re the tool purchase.

Thanks - I wasn't aware of that. Do you know of which models this applies to?

Will

 

[Harley Man]

Will, I have an hydraulic kingpin press which will most likely do the job on the car, or alternatively remove the wishbones as I have a 30 ton hydraulic press and can make the correct size drifts on my lathe if I dont have them, where do you live in surrey?

Harley man

 

[Will]

Hi there,

That's a very kind offer. I'll send you a PM

Many thanks,

Will

 

[andy_k]

when I removed the ball joints on the beetle, I used a home made tool and a couple of drifts I made on my lathe.

Putting them back in was easy, I just took them to a local garage and borrowed their press

Nice idea on the tool Will but surely you are going to need the spring compressor as well - that doubles the price of the kit