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[Tick Tock]

Hello Chaps and Chapesses,

My Omega failed its MOT test today on 'offside rear track rod end ball joint dust cover excessively deteriorated so that it no longer prevents the ingress of dirt'

Knowing how difficult these rod ends are to separate from the rear hub assembly  - you've only got to see the threads on here to see how difficult they are to remove (heat, cursing, and even possible destruction in some cases) just to replace the rubber boot. I have a splitter and a big hammer, but there's no wear in the joint, despite it being on there for 15 years, so wondered what people think of these replacement split gaiters?

http://www.egmcartech.com/store/UNIVERSAL-SPLIT-BALL-JOINT-TRACK-ROD-END-RUBBER-BOOT-GAITER-KIT-FITS-ALL-CARS_151767524631.html

[terry paget]

Rear track rods are not so hard to remove from the car; what's tricky is freeing the adjusters. I have had MOT advisory notes on 'slight play in rear track rod' one year, only to have the same tester pass it without comment the following year. I used to 'harvest' old RTRs when I scrapped cars in case of MOT failure on RTR, but it has never happened yet.

I have had cars failed on split front track rod gaiters, they come cheap in ATP kits, so are no problem.

[Diamond Black Geezer]

Swapped over one of mine, and did the same as terry has done - got me some spares - in doing so I very very cleverly managed to rip the very good low mileage gaiter on mine.

I said a couple of rude words and invented a couple too.

Then discovered that a wishbones balljoint gaiter is identical. Grabbed one form the back yard, and bob's your etc.. Swapping was a bit of a pain, there's a coil of spring steel which you need to get off (easy enough) and get back on again (the tricky bit) best tip I can say is plenty of red (silly-cone) grease, sit on the living room floor with relaxing music playing. Took about 20 mins of fiddling in the end.

Wire brush your threads, and WD40 them before attempting removal. One side come off fine, the other I'm still trying to remove, due to corrosion. (and not bothering with the aforementioned wirebrish and penetrating method, which will teach me)

[Tick Tock]

Thanks for the feedback. I'll go for the proper job and remove rod end, and clean / wire brush adjusting threads. Cheers

[Marks DTM Calib]

Remember you can always use lock wire instead of the 'springy thing'