Bongo Fury

After being in the position of being warned at my last MOT that my boots were a little perished & would need replacing, the mission was on.
I am aware of the threads on the forum earlier in the year regarding sourcing & the results not fitting ideally, & also with Ady sourcing ball joints & then "doing a little surgery" to see their innards.

So I did my own enquires, came up with some part numbers & then ordered them.
The results are that last week they arrived & on Thursday I fitted them & they fit a treat.
The place to buy these boots is your local Mazda dealer .... they may not seem cheap, but they are an exact replacement for the ones I removed (comparing serial numbers on the old & new boots) & they do fit exactly as I said above.



The part number is S10H-34-551 & they cost me £12.70 + VAT each. They had to be ordered from Japan, so took about 2 weeks to arrive. You may be able to haggle the price down a bit though, if your dealer is more generous than mine.

The TRACK ROD END boot part number is B455-32-279 & they cost me £6.70 + VAT each.



These part numbers fit genuine mazda balljoints & as I understand it these part numbers fit all Bongos.
ie. all Petrol & all Diesel variants. Our Bongo is a 1996 2.5td 4WD.

Nigel

Thanks for that just ordered 2 for mine

Hi roofraisers,

How did you secure the boots to the lower ball joint,did they come with clips or some sort of adhesive ?.

Cheers.

The lower band of the boots must have a metal ring inside the rubber as it is stiff to handle & maintains it's round shape.
I fitted mine by using a length on 1.5" diameter exhaust pipe with some slits in the end that allowed the pipe to swell as the boot fitted onto to ball joint. I used a large headed lump hammer (bigger than the diameter of the exhaust pipe) so one "tap" was enough to fit & then another smaller "tap" to finalise the correct fitment. The boot diameter must also be slightly less than the ball joint & that also gives a bit more grip to the fix.
You have to fit the boot square onto the balljoint & not over stike once the boot is home & fitted or else the lower ring will start to distort & then the boot goes slack & will not be secure.

Hope this makes sence

Nigel.

Hi Nigel,

Yes its clear,the problem was getting a dust cover that could be secure/sealed to the joint.

Cheers.

great job nigel. .
that info will really help us all. lazyb is also onto something that may be of interest on similar lines and should have results soon.
its good that you have given members another option other than full and possibly expensive replacement.
.

Great Thx! I'll watch my feebay ones until they fall off & get some real ones next time

If you are feeling a wee bit thrifty and want to save a few shekels.


http://www.instructables.com/id/Poor-ma ... /?ALLSTEPS

Nice work..... fine of course IF your ball joints are not worn.....

Might be worth someone looking into a Mazda dealer willing to do a group buy purchase with favourable costs..... looking at it in the round a 100 unit purchase only needs 50 Bongo owners chipping in and the ball joint cover is a part of the MOT.....

Happy to look into it when I get back from holiday after Bank Holiday with the Mazda dealer in Peterborough...

has anyone managed to buy a load of these-------------ian.

I've got 4 in stock. Genuine Mazda item. Exact fit. £18.50 including VAT, postage and packing. The only way I can do a bulk order is direct via suppliers in Japan. But the saving won't be much, and then I'd have to pay the international airfreight plus customs fees. Maybe Mike can get a better deal via his contacts?

thanks ian, just bought some from you for my spares box, they are spot on and fit well, mazda quality too.

still in the spares box .

just bumping this very useful thread.

rita wrote:If you are feeling a wee bit thrifty and want to save a few shekels.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Poor-ma ... /?ALLSTEPS

This looks too cheap to be true BUT I am responsible for replacing a flimsy rubber bypass hose on my 1978 Mini with oil cooler hose good to 150c and 100+psi (unlikely to get either in a cooling system unless it is part of a nuclear reactor) .... might scope out fuel hose of the necessary diameter???

This is a good fix, I used to do quite a lot of work on cars and I used to save all the rubbers form old parts that I could but the chances of them fitting something else was relatively slim but it did work sometimes and it's much easier and cheaper to repair in this way especially when the actual joint is OK and it just needs a rubber. why these weren't always available I don't know.
I refurbed our bottom arms for the last MOT but changed both bottom joints with new press in ones. The joints were gone, so rubbers wouldn't have done. Can't recommend that, one was tighter than the other, not sure why but I was too late noticing so had to keep going. I was pressing it in with my 30 year old Record vice and it snapped right through one of the thick bits of the casting. Managed to get it in the last bit but had to track down another vice, have you seen the price of these things second hand these days??