[henno]

So much for Suzuki's being well designed.

Installing my Dobinson kit today and managed to accidentally pinch the passenger side lower ball joint boot. I imagine it won't be long until the joint itself is flogged out, with oil slowly escaping and dirt and dust entering.

I know the ball joints themselves are not replaceable, but are there any options for me to fix this without having to completely redo the whole day's work as well as the expense of buying new arms?

Shitty day is shitty.

[Scrawny]

You can buy just the boot. If you can get it off rip into Repco, they have them for like $3

[henno]

Fuck. Yes.

[Scrawny]

Get a flat blade screwdriver and lever the boot off from the bottom.

[greyghost]

just buy the ball joint boot. you might need to measure the ball joint where the boot seats and where the boot currently sits on the pin to get one the correct diameter
undo the ball joint slip the boot on. easy fix

[henno]

Is there a clip of some sort?

This thing has 10 years of shit on it. I don't want to fuck it more.

[droverdave]

Clean the shit off first. You don't want any dirt getting into the ball joint while you change the boot.

[Scrawny]

They usually have a metal ring that sits tight down around the bottom. If you can get your flat blade screwdriver underneath it they just lever off. You might need to encourage it with a hammer

[henno]

Thanks for the help, guys. I'll whip it off first thing in the morning and see if I can manage to find one on a Sunday. Failing that, I'll get it from my normal local parts dude.

[henno]

It seems this might be a bigger job than time I have in the day. Reading the FSM, it looks like I have to pull the whole hub assembly off, buy a puller of some sort for the ball joint, basically strip down the entire front suspension to get to the boot?

Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

[Lockie666]

Just split the ball joint with a solid hit with a hammer

[henno]

I have been bashing the shit out of this thing with a fork/separator thing. It won't budge!

[henno]

Got it! The technical term for the solution is "hit fucking harder".

[Lockie666]

You just need a bigger hammer

[henno]

Boot on and everything reassembled. I am not 100% happy with how it fits - the springs provided with the new boots aren't as tight as I'd like, but it was impossible to use the existing metal ring - but it's going to last a damn sight longer than one with a tear in it.