What's the general consensus on the ball joint, replace or rebuild. The manual says replace if the dust cover is damaged, however the dust covers are still available from Nissan. The specs for testing the ball joint are also in the service manual.

I've managed to disassemble, clean and rebuild my original ball joints, any reason for not using them with a new dust cover and fresh grease?

Aside from replacing a part that meets Nissan specs, another factor to consider might be that used Nissan is probably better than new aftermarket.

13 hours ago, SpeedRoo said:

any reason for not using them with a new dust cover and fresh grease?

If there is more than 1 mm of play in the balljoints i would replace them, i believe nissan still have them? just look up the last part number and the dealer has the orig. part.. (If the balljoint comes apart.. someones life ends, would you take that risk?)

9 hours ago, dutchzcarguy said:

If there is more than 1 mm of play in the balljoints i would replace them, I believe Nissan still have them? just look up the last part number and the dealer has the orig. part.. (If the balljoint comes apart.. someones life ends, would you take that risk?)

I have no idea what you are talking about, there is no way the ball joint can come apart, it is a enclosed joint. The nut would have to shear off the shaft but even then there would be no catastrophic failure. How can you say someone's life ends if this happens? My question was if I should keep using the original balljoint if it meets all of Nissan's tolerances as @Zed Head said.

I would say yes, if it's not sloppy

Thanks @Patcon and @Zed Head for answering. I have stripped both joints down, they are the early 11mm type. I have lapped in the ball section to the parts it mates with using valve grinding paste, polished everything up with a brass wire wheel and reassembled. Will paint it in black satin as per original and grease up before removing the grease nipple and fitting the original plug @zspert mentioned should be in place.