Anti-seize the entire bolt.

 

I agree, anti seize every thing, I have to say your underside is very clean mu old girl is very dirty but then it is in a the wet UK, I noticed you bumper broken too, as mine is , I have just bought a steel one to go on after I finish my chassis repaires, in my post a busy few days I posted a couple of days ago

 

what is this place?

 

Sorry that was a typo.. it's actually rover land parts, they buy junked rovers and referb parts for resale.
https://www.roverlandparts.com/

 

cool, thx. I have bought parts from them.

 

Ok, by means of an update. Here we go.
The front axel housing arrived well wrapped and on time from roveland parts. It was clean (ish) and had a fresh coat of paint. Unfortunately (for me) the old ball joints were still in, and looked only slightly better than the ones from the old axel. Access and clearance were not issues in the removal /replacement although leverage was a bit as it was not attached to the vehicle yet.

New ds upper going in. I do suggest taking an angle grinder to the spacer attached to the install tool to allow proper seating against casing ear, otherwise you may end up having to reboot the ball joint insitu.

Lowers are by far the most challenging IMHO. take your time heating the ear evenly, and periodically and make sure the Clamp and spacer is maintaining alignment. I used plenty of gear oil on the threads of the clamp to help prevent binding under high stress. Heat, Wrench...rest, repeat


Transferring the diff. Good to make sure all the mating surfaces are as clean as can be before applying black RTV. Finger tighten the bolts and let set an hour before applying final torque.

Had to wait a week for parts to arrive and for the spring rain in the south to desist... Now is a good time to take stock and address potential problems.

Should have replaced the coil isolators, but I had to draw a line somewhere!


Taking the time to clean up all those points of contact now should make this job Much easier if I have to go back in there in the future. Also, plenty of copper grease on all bolts that don't call for threadlock, and especially on the hub flange and throat.
I also rebooted and greased my cv joints while I had everything apart. I didn't have a reason... But again they had never been done to my knowledge. Just good to know that I don't have to rip it all down again any time soon. *
All in all it's a hell of a job. Ball joints. I didn't take that many pictures, but I replaced all the suspension bushings with poly bushings at the same time.

Had a local machine shop press out the old bushings, and press in the new radial arm to frame poly bushings as those are the metal sleeved type. Also had them media blast the arms so that they were back to bare castings. Here I'm applying 2nd coat of med temp anti rust black. Grape juice is optional if you've run out of beer!

All in all a fun way to spend a week and a half in quarantine!

Having a bottle jack and a few ratchet straps handy makes reattaching the radius arms very straight forward.
Also, I nice long torque wrench won't hurt either.

Oh, also installed Tera firma track rod and drag link. Nice looking undercarriage if I can humble brag Thanks again for everyone's helpful suggestions and support!!

 

Looking good!

 

Looks awesome! You couldn't pay me to do D2 ball joints again, especially without a big impact driver. Hated that job.