upper and lower ball joints replacement

This old blog: http://erwinxjs.blogspot.nl/2016/09/the-verdict.html from september 2016 highlighted the torn rubbers on the lower ball joints. Which is a fail for the MOT. And last week I got reminded the MOT is going to expire by the 31st of March. So I had to fix this now. I thought it was going to be an easy task but it was still quite a bit of work. Eventually the whole arm with disc and caliper had to come off. It was a very heavy item. When I had it finally off I was surprised to see a completely different lower ball joint was fitted. The one I ordered superseded the old one. But I was unsure how it could be fitted as the arm was fitted with a special clip (spigot) to hold the ball. The new ordered ball joint is more sophisticated and more or less a fixed item. The old one can be completely overhauled and I found an online turtorial by someone. But clearly that is to much hassle. You can order the new replacement for only € 12,50. I thought I was clever by using the new one and tried to push out the spigot. This didn't work out and also resulted in damaging the rubber. Today I learned I have been a fool as the spigot was suppose to be pushed out the other way. In order not to damage the arm it was decided to cut it with a small grinder. This made it easy and the spigot got smashed out easily with a hammer and a spanner. Yes! As I had to order a new one I also decided to get the upper ball joints replaced as everything was off. This was a good choice as one of them was also in a very poor condition - see pictures below. Remarkably the upper ball joint on the other side was very good and I suspect it has been replaced recently. It makes me wonder why they didn't the replaced the lower ball joint. If you read the mentioned blog link you will also read that I have an invoice which states they had the ball-joint replaced, so it must have been this one. I wonder why they didn't do both sides and also skipped the lower ball joints. You can also see they had replaced the bushings for the "anti roll bar link". And also both brake discs and the brake pads are in very good condition. It looks like they have been replacement very recent. Perhaps this was also done by the previous owner but I don't have an invoice for that. One of the calipers was overhauled at least and for that I do have an invoice though. In any cause everything got mounted back. Once I had done the right side had fill up the brake fluid as quite a bit was spilled. Once sorted I took the opportunity to make a test drive. I could feel and hear a huge improvement. In the afternoon I fixed the left side but since it started raining I didn't bother to make another test drive. I also had to buy more brake fluid as more got spilled. So by tomorrow I hope to do some driving. Can't wait. I also updated the costs spreadsheets. On the right bar of this blog you will see a label called "costs" in case you are curious as well ...