Ball Joint Reboot Kit Retaining Wire? (1 Viewer)

[badlander]

Just put a new boot on my passenger side upper ball joint. What's the deal with the wire they give you? It's not even spring wire. It's just soft wire. Is it supposed to wrap around like the original spring wire or are you supposed to unwind it, wrap it around and then twist the ends to tighten it? I wrapped it around like the original but it's not even tight now, barely snug....
I'm thinking about putting the old wire back on. Any suggestions?

 

[jcrandall]

I didn't understand this wire either - I ended up twisting it, but not 100% comfortable with that.

Looking forward to anyone's ideas.

 

[super90]

I just slowly, carefully worked it down around the new boot, one twist at at time. Not totally as snug as the original, but it's been on there for a couple of years, no problems.

 

[Scottb4857]

Thought the same thing when I saw it, had been careful when pulling off the old one so just re-used the old ones when I replaced mine last week.

 

[spressomon]

Same problem with all the ball joint boot kits I've bought & installed for my 100 over the years. I ended up using SS safety wire and twisted it tight...100% effective and easier too. The "spring" wire Toyota includes with these boot kits is definitely not the same as they use for initial factory assembly of same!

 

[badlander]

I ended up redoing mine too and twisted it just tight enough so I could barely rotate the boot. It still has two complete wraps of wire around the boot and the length of wire was just right for twisting. I think that is what they intended. I'll post pictures of the finished product later. Thanks for the input everyone.

 

[badlander]

Pictures.....

With the end of the wire clipped off.