Mercedes Vito Van W639 OM646 Front Lower Wishbone Control Arm Ball Joint Replacement How To DIY

[@hamsterdangler]

I just had to replace the ball joint on a W638. Got the whole arm from Auto-Doc. With the horizontal rear mounting bolt in place the vertical rear bolt was too short and was never going to fit. It was badly made, the manufacturer obviously does not use check jigs for their finished products. On the original arm the ball joint was bolted on, but on the new one it was fitted with big steel rivets. I had to carefully remove the rivets from the new arm with angle grinder and pillar drill and bolt the new ball joint to the old arm. Pattern pieces these days are often crap, my last delivery of a pair of Sprinter wishbones included one which was 6mm too short between the silentblocs. Van was up on axle stands for weeks while my claim was dealt with. Do not rely on pattern parts, you may be lucky, you may not.

[@Remmie1977]

I left the wishbone in place while replacing the ball joint. That went fine with drilling out

[@DanielJohnHowTo]

if that works great, we only took ours out in case it was difficult which it was