ShopTalk Forums | Aircooled VW Tech & Restoration Help

Well, it finally happened... I'm now a member of the Bajas That Don't Run Club. The lower driver's side ball joint on my car broke yesterday morning. Fortunately I was backing out of the driveway at the time, rather than hustling down the freeway. Anyways, now I've got to replace it and am looking for advice on methods. I do happen to have a ball joint press (bought it a couple months ago to do one on my Chevy). Is that the best/quickest way to remove it? Or should I use the heat method? Or something else?

I have also used a ball joint press with an impact wrench to drive in place. Also shop around for pricing on how much it will cost for someone else to do it. I have heard around$60, which seems worth paying and not having to mess with it your self.

Ball joints on a vw are tricky. A standard ball joint servicing kit doesn't work well on them. The best way seems seems to be to use a special jig in a shop press. I broke an expensive snapon balljoint servicing kit trying to do mine one time. After that, I just took them to the old guy downtown and paid him 10 bucks a joint or 30 for a set of 4.

You need the right tool.

That's what I've got Glenn. Have you used yours to remove VW ball joints before?

no no no. you next a gas axe or a plasma cutter.



.....so you can cut the frame head off and weld on a king and linkpin framehead.

Ive used the harbor freight version http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/d ... mber=38335 & had no problems doing the job on the car.... Tryed 1 with it off & it wanst as easy..

You guys take the easy way out on everything.

While I'm replacing the ball joints, are there any upgraded ones that I can buy for offroad use? And I've heard that they come in different diameters, is this true?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZLxPyRdAbY

im guessing when he's welding, you could just use a torch instead.

The one's I've done so far, uppers aren't the problem. There is plenty of meat to put them in a press and go to town. The lowers are a bitch though because there is no lip around the joint on the arm to grab it in a press. I usually cut the cap off of the backside of the joint, knock the threaded rod out backwards, then press what's left out from the back side.

Well, I finally managed to get the joint out this weekend... the neighbors haven't been happy with me since the car has been sitting in the driveway, broken, for like 6 weeks now! Since the ball had popped out of the socket (that's how the joint failed), I originally tried to press against the stuff that's inside the ball joint, but of course that just popped out when I put some force on it. So, I had to make a die that would allow my press to do it's job. I was originally going to lathe up a die that resembled a stepped hockey puck, such that the smaller diameter of the die would fit inside the ball joint (to keep the die centered) and the larger diameter would be large enough to press down on the top of the joint but still be smaller than the hole in the control arm so the die could press through the arm. Also I was going to need to make a shallow hole in the top of the die for the press to fit in, to keep the press centered in the die. Fortunately, I was in the Home Depot yesterday and discovered that a 3/4" iron pipe plug was the exact shape I was looking for and for $1.45 I couldn't pass it up... the square nub on the end of the plug (that you would normally put your wrench on to thread the plug into a pipe) fit inside the ball joint perfectly. And, the threaded part of the plug was the exact right diameter to press down on the top of the ball joint and still be small enough to go through the control arm! And, since the threaded part of the plug was hollow, the end of the press fit down inside it to keep it centered in the die.

I did end up having to use my propane torch to heat the control arm to get the joint to press out. My torch is pretty small so I didn't get the arm anywhere near the dull red people have said works best, but the heat did help nonetheless.

Now to try and press a new joint back in... (fingers crossed!!)

Put some anti-seize on the splines of the ball joint when you press the new ones in. It will make it easier to press in, and back out when the time comes to do it again.