2008 GS ball join replacement (Easy, or a total pain?)

[PrivatePilot]

Hey all - my wife's new to us 2008 GS went for it's certification yesterday and everything was good except 1 ball joint on the left side.

I have a pretty well equipped shop and will do the replacement myself. Depending on how much of a job it is I might actually end up preemptively doing all 4 actually since the bike has around 75,000km on it (47,000 miles) and I figure they all have some wear.

Who's done the job and was it reasonably easy or are they miserable to extract and replace?

I have also had the Baja Ron sway bar upgrade recommended by several people with similar year machines so I'll probably do that at the same time.

Input/thoughts are appreciated.

[Freddy]

Are you certain it's the ball joints and not the inner A arm bushes - which have to be greased periodically? My GS has 103,000km and the ball joints are fine.

[PrivatePilot]

Nope, ball joint for sure - watched the mechanic wiggle it, it's pooched.

The Spyder came from Quebec, and for anyone not familiar with Quebec roads, well, suffice to say many a suspension component has met a very premature death there lol. 75,000km there is roughly equivalent to 150,000+km anywhere else.

[Peter Aawen]

There's a 'non-dealer' Spyder Tech of some renown here in Oz who's sourced much better-quality a/mkt ball joints from Europe somewhere to replace the fairly expensive 'OEM ball-joints' that're made to a (very low?) price; non-greasable; and only have a 'repair by replacement' option - and if you're up for doing this sorta stuff on your car, it's a whole lot easier on a Spyder!

[oldgoat]

Nope, ball joint for sure - watched the mechanic wiggle it, it's pooched.

The Spyder came from Quebec, and for anyone not familiar with Quebec roads, well, suffice to say many a suspension component has met a very premature death there lol. 75,000km there is roughly equivalent to 150,000+km anywhere else.

Luckily for me I live at the western end of the island of Montreal. All my riding is done in Ontario except for Autoroutes 40, 30 & 20 in order to get into ON

[Mikey]

Peter, you think you can get some information on those ball joints he's using? Brand, numbers, ect

[Peter Aawen]

Peter, you think you can get some information on those ball joints he's using? Brand, numbers, ect

I can ask...

[BajaRon]

The work is not very hard. But you will need a good laser alignment when you're done.

[PrivatePilot]

Interested in the alternative ball joint data. I was doing some digging seeing if there was a moog cross reference but came up empty handed. I want to get something ordered in the next few days as it looks like anything short of dealer parts (they have them on the shelf) could take 2-3 weeks to get to me here in Canada.

Riding season is still realistically 8 weeks away barring an unexpectedly early spring, but I want to get it done and ready ideally in 4-5 weeks tops.

[PrivatePilot]

Regarding alignment, can any alignment shop do a Spyder? This is all new territory for me.

We are lucky to have a very highly regarded steering, suspension and alignment specialty shop about 20 minutes from me so I'm hoping I can just get it done there?

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

Regarding alignment, can any alignment shop do a Spyder? This is all new territory for me.

We are lucky to have a very highly regarded steering, suspension and alignment specialty shop about 20 minutes from me so I'm hoping I can just get it done there?

I think that today a lot of shops do a " Laser " type alignment ..... however they won't have any idea how to adapt their equipment to use it for a Spyder ..... but it's all the same the principle ...... good luck ..... Mike

[Snowbelt Spyder]

Regarding alignment, can any alignment shop do a Spyder? This is all new territory for me.

We are lucky to have a very highly regarded steering, suspension and alignment specialty shop about 20 minutes from me so I'm hoping I can just get it done there?

This company developed the laser alignment system / process for the Spyder. It's the one to get. It works. They do, in fact, have dealers in Canada. Hopefully, one is close by to you. Here's some information:

http://www.spydercomfort.com

http://www.spydercomfort.com/alignment.htm

http://www.spydercomfort.com/dealercanada.htm

Edit: And besides all that, Private Pilot, the Spyder has a Vehicle Stability System that is there to keep you from flipping over. It receives input from various sensors. When you do an alignment and make adjustments, a couple of them need reset. Otherwise, you get incorrect VSS operations and / or a Limp Home Mode. You can only reset these with a proprietary software called BUDS. Usually, one of those dealers has their own copy. The good news is that you can get your own copy here:

https://www.powersports-diag.com/en/...erface_unit-no

and you can get your own shop manual here:

http://www.green-manuals.com/motorcycles/can-am.htm

That should be enough for today. Good Luck.

[PrivatePilot]

This company developed the laser alignment system / process for the Spyder. It's the one to get. It works. They do, in fact, have dealers in Canada. Hopefully, one is close by to you. Here's some information:

Thanks, there's several within an hour of my house, and one within 10 minutes, so that works - thanks for the info!

Edit: And besides all that, Private Pilot, the Spyder has a Vehicle Stability System that is there to keep you from flipping over. It receives input from various sensors. When you do an alignment and make adjustments, a couple of them need reset. Otherwise, you get incorrect VSS operations and / or a Limp Home Mode. You can only reset these with a proprietary software called BUDS.

I have the BUDS system already so I'm good. I wasn't kidding when I said I have a pretty well-equipped shop.

In short, whenever I buy something new where there's a realistic chance I'm going to have to spend a good portion of what it would cost me to buy my own diagnostic hardware at a dealer instead, I just buy the diagnostic hardware. I did the same with our GM Vehicles and have a GM MDI.

I needed the BUDS hardware right out of the gate to change the language setting on the cluster from French to English, so right there I was probably going to be in for a "minimum 1 hour labour" scenario that would have cost me $150 probably, at least.

I live on the east side of Toronto and put an ad up on FB Marketplace for BUDS services and have already had a few customers on the snowmobile side of things, so I should recoup the purchase price fairly quickly, especially once riding season arrives and everyone pulls out their Spyders. And being able to do my own diagnostics moving forward is priceless.

[PrivatePilot]

Back on topic, does anyone have any recommendations for sources for balljoints?

I see them on Amazon and eBay, but they look to be the same brand for the most part, and I don't now about the ultimate quality thereof.

Dealer wants twice the cost for a set of 4 vs online sources and I'm not sure about how good they are in comparison to the aftermarket.

If I'm going to drop the cash to align the machine it only makes sense to just do all 4 balljoints at the same time, so that it is.

I have ordered the Baja Ron sway bar and links and will be putting it on at the same time. Since this machine is for my wife and the whole reason she's moved to 3 wheels from 2 is due to confidence issues after an incident on 2 wheels, I want to ensure the 3 wheels are as stable and confidence-building as is physically possible.

[Freddy]

I can ask...

[larryd]

Here is a link for some aftermarkets on E-bay...It also shows all the size dementions...May help to crossover to a known brand???

https://www.ebay.com/itm/282893221332

larryd

[Peter Aawen]

Still waiting to hear/know if said 'non-dealer' Spyder Tech of some renown here in Oz wishes to divulge his sources - I don't know what arrangement he has with them, or whatever else may have bearing on the matter, but I have asked... And I'm also aware that due to his renown as a 'non-dealer' Spyder tech, he IS a busy man!

[Peter Aawen]

Aaand, cos I posted that ^^ I got a response!

Up until fairly recently, it's been a bit of a 'local secret' here in South Oz that we've got one of the better 'non dealer Spyder Techs' hiding in plain sight, but I guess the cat is well'n truly outta the bag now! Stu (who is a member here ) is the skilled tech who runs Charles Street Auto Repairs, Unley, here in South Australia. He normally specialises in looking after European Cars, but since both he and his Good Lady became Spyder Ryders a few years back, he's been working on more and more Spyders and growing his skills & reputation for doing a great job along the way - he's rescued & restored to perfect working order a few Spyders with problems that others had given up on and were otherwise destined to be scrapped; but he persisted, found, & resolved the elusive problems and fully restored the Spyders, much to their owners delight! His reputation has been spreading to the extent that he's even been asked to quote on accident repairs by some of the big Insurance Companies cos they've heard how good he is too! That's probably not very helpful to all you lot who aren't here in South Oz, but I say all this so that you know he isn't going to be putting dodgy parts into anyone's Spyder, and he goes out of his way to source gear that works!

Anyhow, he's sourced some pretty good quality upper & lower ball joints from Jay Parts (in Belgium?) www.jay-parts.com - if I've got it right, the important part number to remember is JP0048, but you should check them out on their website if you're interested.

[PrivatePilot]

Thanks all for the info. At long last I got the ball joints done, ordered a set online and did the job in my garage. It took me far too long, but that's a whole other story.

I also installed the Bajaron sway bar kit (with the aluminum end links) at the same time.

Anyhow, I believe it needs an alignment now but I'm getting quotes for between 2.5-3+ hours of labour for the job from one of the local shops that has the hardware. Does this seem right? I've had full alignments done on vehicles before (which include a lot more adjustments than the simplistic Spyder setup) so I'm struggling to understand the cost.

[Isopedella]

Well you got it done at the end of the day. Well done.

That link for the ball joint may come in handy Peter.

Wheel alignment on my F3 took less than an hour.
It was an old school one and not a Laser.

I wandered off and had a leisurely breakfast and slowly walked back. It was sitting in the yard good to go when I got back in 1 hr.

[pegasus1300]

Peter, I wish we had one of those here in Central Utah.

[PrivatePilot]

Wheel alignment on my F3 took less than an hour.
It was an old school one and not a Laser.

I wandered off and had a leisurely breakfast and slowly walked back. It was sitting in the yard good to go when I got back in 1 hr.

Where did you get it done, a regular shop or somewhere with spyder-specific hardware?

As I mentioned earlier in this thread...there's a steering and alignment specialty shop literally 20 minutes from my house that's been around for something like 50 years that does regular passenger vehicles, but I've no idea if they can do a spyder lol.

[Isopedella]

I got it done in a small town called Stratford in South Taranaki, New Zealand.

It was an Old School tyre shop that also does alignments.
The first thing they got out was a tape measure and some chalk.

Not sure after that as I had just completed 90 minute ride and I was seeing 2C / 35 F on the dash and went to a Cafe just down the road a bit for a hot feed. Left them to it.

The local Can Am dealer down the road recommended them saying they use them as well.

Got to comment it was WOW thats much better when I rode it. Just right.

[PrivatePilot]

Cool. Alrighty that decides it, I'm going to take it up to the old-school shop and see what they can do. Hopefully they have one of the old-school guys in the back take a look and go "hell yeah we can make it work". If I did the same thing day in and day out for decades I might be interested in trying something new lol.

[Isopedella]

Yeah why not. Give it a crack.

Gotta say 2 to 3 hrs sounds complete Bulls...T

If it helps I got from the manual says

Toe in should be 2MM =/- 0.5MM or 5/64 in +/- 1/64 in

Camber should be 0 Degrees =/- 0.5 Degrees...


Give them something to aim for.