90 Top link ball joint

This is a new one on me as I have always run leafers in the past.
Looking over my 90 (1988) prior to it's MOT I see that the rubber boot on the suspension top link ball joint is split, which I believe is an MOT Failure.
My question for those who know more about these machines is:
1. Do i just replace the rubber boot, I can't feel any play when checked with a crow bar the way the MOT Guys seem to do it.
2. Order a new ball joint and replace
3. Order the ball joint and the bit it attaches too which is about 4 x the price.
Thanks in anticipation of your wisdom!

If your sure the joint is okay just replace the boot, I did that on mine a few years back for the same reason, it’s still fine. I did clean it up and regrease it properly though

flat said:

If your sure the joint is okay just replace the boot, I did that on mine a few years back for the same reason, it’s still fine. I did clean it up and regrease it properly though

Click to expand...

I have next week off, so plan is to take the rear body off, pressure wash/wirebrush the chassis and generally clean and tidy it all up. Will check again that there is no play when the body is off and replace the seal only if so.

The amount of effort you may have to put in to remove it from its carrier you may wish you bought the complete unit if you do replace. I managed to hammer mine out, but people eon here have had them in some fairly serious hydraulic presses and still not managed it.

If there is definitely no play I would just do the boot, but if it is just split you may get away with just super gluing it back together.

I replaced mine a few years ago. Whilst it was not exactly 'loose' the new one felt a lot tighter. If you're doing this sort of thing I'd have thought it would be worth replacing the joint because they're wear items. If you're messing about getting the nut off and getting the tapered piece out of the bracket on the axle you might as well change the whole thing.
There's a picture on here somewhere of me putting 25 tons on the ball joint to get it out of its bracket with a hydraulic press
https://www.landyzone.co.uk/land-rover/springs-and-things.239690/page-2
It actually bent the bracket, but the ball joint wasn't coming out. Good job they're available as a complete assembly. Maybe now I have an acetylene torch I could have heated it up to red heat and pressed it, but that was't available at the time.