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<blockquote data-quote="Vipersan" data-source="post: 740169" data-attributes="member: 325666">Absolutely Gutted !!I must've upset the gods at some point..Tonight was to see the entire mount reassembled...Err ..no..Joined the Centre mount assembly to the ring structure...only to find ...it would not swing left to right...Nor indeed forward or back ..In short ...one of the Ball joints had seized..I was extremely carefull when painting around the 2 joints ...and it turns out ...it wasn't paint.It was rust ...inside the steel ball cup..It moved freely enough when taken down and taken the polar mount was taken apart ..I can only assume the joint had seized with non use ...and some water ingress during the clean up and re-paint..It took me 4 hours to free it off ..and resulted in some minor damage to the paintjob ..I'll have to do some touch up job once its on the pole..I freed it off by inserting a metal drift into the joint bearing and heating the drift with a blowlamp ..once hot ..I employed rapid cooling alternating between oil and extreme quick cooling with water..A generous helping of force then applied with a 4lb hammer ..once the joint moved a fraction ..the exposed erea of the ball was wire brushed ..wire wooled ..and fine emery papered ..with more oil applied ..this process was repeated for 4 hours ...and I now have a totally free joint Both ball joints were then oiled and copper greased ...my hands are really hurting after this endeavour...but no way was I going to let the gods win ..Maybe I'll finally get the polar mount up tomorrow ..but am really peeved that I have damaged the paintwork..cest la vie..VS</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Vipersan, post: 740169, member: 325666"] Absolutely Gutted !! I must've upset the gods at some point.. Tonight was to see the entire mount reassembled... Err ..no.. Joined the Centre mount assembly to the ring structure...only to find ...it would not swing left to right... Nor indeed forward or back .. In short ...one of the Ball joints had seized.. I was extremely carefull when painting around the 2 joints ...and it turns out ...it wasn't paint. It was rust ...inside the steel ball cup.. It moved freely enough when taken down and taken the polar mount was taken apart .. I can only assume the joint had seized with non use ...and some water ingress during the clean up and re-paint.. It took me 4 hours to free it off ..and resulted in some minor damage to the paintjob .. I'll have to do some touch up job once its on the pole.. I freed it off by inserting a metal drift into the joint bearing and heating the drift with a blowlamp .. once hot ..I employed rapid cooling alternating between oil and extreme quick cooling with water.. A generous helping of force then applied with a 4lb hammer .. once the joint moved a fraction ..the exposed erea of the ball was wire brushed ..wire wooled ..and fine emery papered ..with more oil applied .. this process was repeated for 4 hours ...and I now have a totally free joint Both ball joints were then oiled and copper greased ... my hands are really hurting after this endeavour...but no way was I going to let the gods win .. Maybe I'll finally get the polar mount up tomorrow ..but am really peeved that I have damaged the paintwork.. cest la vie.. VS [/QUOTE]

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