Tie rod end ball joint splitter for a midget

[thisisnotaspoon]

Like the poor kid in a messy divorce I only get to see my midget for one weekend a month due to working away from home, which means no time to get it fixed (it's been in bits on the garage floor for almost a year now waiting on 'a few quick jobs'!).

Anyway, light at the end of the tunnel, only the nearside tie rod end left to replace (the drivers side just popped out with a light tap from the hammer) , soooooooo.......

Someone point me at a splitter that definitely fits, I've not got time to buy one and find it's not the right size.

And once that's done it's time to start figuring out why it'll now start but not run, I'm hoping it'll just be the year old petrol in the tank just being off, but suspect it's going to be a day out with the multimeter, grrrrrrrrrrrr.

[na]

Apply plenty of penetrating/releasing fluid such as Plus Gas (WD40 is not as good) and leave it to soak as long as possible

There’s a John Twist video that shows how to split it with a bar and hammer but I can’t find it, see if you can – http://www.youtube.com/user/Universitymotorsltd#g/...

otherwise this is what I used, just an example you may find it at a lower price – http://www.amazon.co.uk/Joint-Splitter-Version-Sma...

be very careful about buying new TREs I bought a set and the boots split in less than 6 months, the ones I got from MGOC Spares were much better and came with greasing nipples

a bulb on wires with plenty of different connectors can be less confusing than multimeter readings

start at the begining and check the electrode levels and fully charge the battery as this will help with diagnostics

[na]

look what I found for you - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQ428hwJn38&fea...

[johnbaz]

Never had to use a splitter, the method in the video has workerd every time..

Just make sure that you hit the forged steering arm rather than anything else, the vibration parts it...


John

[thisisnotaspoon]

Cheers, been offline all week, on the basis that I've hit it with a hammer repeatedly and it's not shifted so £10's less than the £80 in petrol it costs to drive down the M1 to spend the weekend fiddling with it so I'll buy the tool! They can't deliver in 48 hours so I've ordered the same type of splitter from halfords, hopefully it'll work.

Thanks for the advice, with any luck it might actually have an MOT for my birthday next month! (pigs might fly and a politician might not get amnesia at the Leverson Enquiry, but stranger things have happened).

[na]

fair enough

remember before using the splitter in the future to lube it unlike the one I used that so difficult to use before I lubed it

bear in mind the splitter may damage the boot

apply plenty of penetrating/releasing fluid such as Plus Gas (WD40 is not as good) and leave it to soak as long as possible just make things easy and protect things with a little Copperease but don't get any near the brakes