GS; 4200/3200 Ball Joint Dust Covers...........part 2

CraigWaterman11

CraigWaterman11

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Okay guys I am gearing up for getting the Mas. ready for spring/summer here in Boston, not there yet but close. Since I have the rims and tires off the car now (sold the muti-spoke rims to put the GS rims on) I have been itching to get these new custom made ball joint dust covers on it! (To be honest I put part 2 in the title but I don't remember if I covered the custom made ball joint gaiters/dust covers here like I did on Mas. life in the Tie Rod thread). I started on the drivers rear. I didn't take any good photos to begin with because when I do the other side I plan to upload a video for the guys who are interested in doing it themselves. In either case, here is a photo of the finished product for at least the top left side. The red color around the dust cover is actually Mobile 1 Synthetic grease I filled the ball joint and cover with it after thoroughly cleaning it out. I used copper tie wire so that it wouldn't rust...
IMAG0856.jpg
 
CraigWaterman11

CraigWaterman11

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Here is what the ball joint looked like to begin with. I didn't take the dust covers off. They did this on there own. I believe it's the material they are made from. I have an OEM dust cover and it's almost like a hard plastic. Just so you know I repacked the ball joint just a few months before I stored it for the winter. So that's actually fresh grease compared to what would of happened if it was left unattended (really not good). I didn't want to lose the ball joint because of dirt/debris so I packed it with a synthetic marine grease until I could do what I did above. Once the ball joints are gone you have to replace the entire control arm.
@ Catman this thread is for you I know this issue will hit closer to home because of those 3200's and I seem to forget to come over here on a regular basis but yet you always come to the U.S. forum to help out.
IMAG0861.jpg
 
T

timkee330ci

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Craig, two guys here in hong kong have fitted your dust covers on our 3200GT. The fit is prefect. We really appreciate the effort you out into it. A few others will install them after seeing mine.
By the way, i have also installed your beefed up control arm tie rods on the rear. They are solid, top quality. My indie put them on with no problem at all.
Many thanks!
 
CraigWaterman11

CraigWaterman11

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timkee330ci said:
Craig, two guys here in hong kong have fitted your dust covers on our 3200GT. The fit is prefect. We really appreciate the effort you out into it. A few others will install them after seeing mine.
By the way, i have also installed your beefed up control arm tie rods on the rear. They are solid, top quality. My indie put them on with no problem at all.
Many thanks!
Click to expand...

Timkee! That's great, I knew you guys would love them! Very happy for you my friend.....I was wondering where you were at as far as posting and saying "What's up and how you doing?". I am glad you have them both installed and enjoying the benefits! You know I really wish I would have had the gaiters/dust covers made first before I installed the tie rods because the tie rods have to be removed in order to split the ball joints and put the covers on. ( I did know this before hand I just didn't contract to have the Gaiters made before I finished the tie rod project). In sum, this means unless you take exact measurements of where those tie rods are at you will need to take it in for an alignment again. So please tell your friends to install the gaiters/dust covers first before the tie rods, or best case scenario is really to do them both at one time. This will save you the extra money in labor, and alignment fees.

Again so great to know you got your baby on the street!
 
CraigWaterman11

CraigWaterman11

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Okay guys I finished a video for you who would like to know how to do the ball joint dust covers yourself. I would recommend if you do not have any mechanical background not to do it. I tried to film the video, which happened to be longer than I wanted, to cover everything I could think of to help guys who want to do their own ball joint dust covers. This applies for the GS; 4200; and 3200 Coupe or Spyder. I covered how to remove the tie rods in a previous video I posted in the tie rod thread so look that up if you need it. There's a snow storm coming for us in the Boston area so I had to get all this done and out to the way. I am using the HD camera on Google Glass. I think it's one of the best mobile cameras I used to date. Give me an hour or two and the video will be posted.
 
IAB

IAB

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I've just ordered new ball joint cover/ gaiters for the front of my 3200gt from eurospares, page 055 item 032 part number 3870002000 £6.11 each front upper and lower outer ball joint covers. The items I received were the factory replacement rear upper and lower ball joint covers this is the type with the fluted design that looks like a 1950s cooker knob. These covers are quite hard plastic and Craig's do look longer lasting, more flexability allowing the two parts to rotate without distorting and eventually ripping the gaiter. UK M.O.T. test now fail split gaiters so if your up against it try eurospares.
Hope this helps. Andrew
 
davy83

davy83

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I would agree that i think one of the reasons these joints are so fragile is that the covers crack and allow dirt in, and the joint won't last long from there. Not sure i would agree the standard Maserati covers are hard? When you get your new suspension arm form Maserati it has a rigid plastic protector over it, but the joint has a proper flexible rubber gaiter over it? I suspect its just that a lot of the 3200 are now getting quite old and rubber covers like this do get harder with time. (has anyone else noticed that the word Maserati comes up as a spelling error on this forum, slightly ironic!)
 
CraigWaterman11

CraigWaterman11

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IAB are you sure these would fit the rear of our Maseratis? Did you install them yet? Very curious as I definitely would not have gone through all of the trouble I have to get these made. Additionally I do agree with you it is a very hard type of plastic. I bought a used control arm with a really great ball joint cover and I removed it to take measurements from it. It was a harder plastic and about as good of quality as our Info Center buttons. I'm really not surprised they didn't last. Either way I sold all of the covers I mass ordered, and don't plan to re-order them. I am pretty certain they will never have to be replaced on my Spyder again. I just want to know for my own sanity whether or not they do actually fit from the front because the ball joint set-ups are different. Do you have a dial caliper and photos?
 
davy83

davy83

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where did you get these ball joint covers? I am in the process of replacing a lower ball joint that i did 3-4 years ago and it looks like the gaiter split and let dirt in. I now agree the standard covers are very poor. So where did you get the ball joint gaiter?
 
CraigWaterman11

CraigWaterman11

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davy I had them custom made. I had to place a bulk order to make it even feasible or worth it to do so. At the time there weren't any alternatives that I knew of and now that you are stating what you are I guess it was still a right choice. I ordered enough so that brought the price down to $30 a piece for me, it was like 40-60 of them. But this is a standard problem when you custom make anything. Unfortunately, I sold the last 4 about 2 weeks ago. I tried to help everyone I could. If I thought people wanted them again I would bulk order them.
 
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