Ball Joints

There was a bit of sunshine this morning so I thought it was time to get under the car and change the ball joints for the correct early style ones with the grease nipples that I bought from BerT3.

The VW workshop manuals says you can leave the brake drum in place when removing the steeing knuckle from theball joints but I don't like the idea of all that weight hanging on the flexible hose so I took the drums off. Good job I took the drums off as I found that I made the shape of one of the balance pipes between the front wheel cylinders incorrect and the inside of the drum has been rubbing on the brake pipe. Looks like I will need to make a new one.

To get the hexagonal nuts off the ball joints the breaker bar I use for the rear wheel hubs was used and with a bit of persuasion they came off fairly easily. Spring compressors worked well to pinch the upper and lower arms together and aid removal of the steering knuckle.

One of the ball joints was still an original VW one with grease nipple. The new ones went in fairly trouble free and everything was torqued up to the correct settings as per the manual and re-assembled.

Of the 4 ball joints I removed a couple feel very loose so I am glad I have replaced them. The replacement ones all needed repacking with grease and are a bit stiff at the moment but should loosen up when the car goes back on the road eventually.