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  View original topic: My ball joints rubber sleeves are shredded!
Spanky Sun Jul 29, 2007 5:51 am

I wondered if I could remove the Ball Joints and replace those rubber protector sleeves without having to remove the drums, torsion arm, or other stuff?

Could you tell me how please?

wcfvw69 Sun Jul 29, 2007 6:27 am

You have to take the spindle off each side. You don't have to take the torsion arms off. Once the spindle is out of the way, you can slide the old boots off and install the new ones. Many vendors including Wolfsburg West sell just the boots.

Spanky Sun Jul 29, 2007 9:26 am

wcfvw69 wrote: You have to take the spindle off each side. You don't have to take the torsion arms off. Once the spindle is out of the way, you can slide the old boots off and install the new ones. Many vendors including Wolfsburg West sell just the boots.

Thanks for the quick reply wcfvw! By SPINDLE do you mean the wheel brake drum and steering knuckle? I notice that BENTLEY says: "The brake assembly can be left in place if only the ball joints require attention".
When the steering knuckle and brake drum are lowered off of the ball joint stems what do you do about the tie rods (still connected to the steering knuckle)? Will they drop down with the steering knuckle as it is slid down off of the ball joint stems:?:

Thanks for the help here. I'm growing more confident about doing this job!! :D :D :D

mattt Sun Jul 29, 2007 9:54 am

On the Thing.....

Steering knuckle = spindle.

They are both the same one unit.

You can leave the brakes attached to the knuckle/spindle when you remove. On the drivers side make sure to pull the speedo cable out of the knuckle/spindle. Tie rods "should" be fine still connected to the knuckle/spindle.

wcfvw69 Sun Jul 29, 2007 9:55 am

Spanky wrote: wcfvw69 wrote: You have to take the spindle off each side. You don't have to take the torsion arms off. Once the spindle is out of the way, you can slide the old boots off and install the new ones. Many vendors including Wolfsburg West sell just the boots.

Thanks for the quick reply wcfvw! By SPINDLE do you mean the wheel brake drum and steering knuckle? I notice that BENTLEY says: "The brake assembly can be left in place if only the ball joints require attention".
When the steering knuckle and brake drum are lowered off of the ball joint stems what do you do about the tie rods (still connected to the steering knuckle)? Will they drop down with the steering knuckle as it is slid down off of the ball joint stems:?:

Thanks for the help here. I'm growing more confident about doing this job!! :D :D :D

Correct. Spindle or steering knuckle. You don't need to take the drum off. Take the nuts off the ball joint but leave the nut on a few threads. Smack the spindle or knuckle where the ball joint stud goes through. It will loosen the stud up in the spindle. You can leave the tie rod hooked up but it's easy to take it off too. Do the same thing. Leave the nut on a few threads and smack the end of the spindle where the tie rod stud goes through and it will pop loose.

How old are your ball joints? Have you checked them for wear? If they are original and the boots are torn up you might as well replace them while you have it apart. The good German ball joints are only $20 a piece.

Spanky Sun Jul 29, 2007 10:22 am

[quote="wcfvw69"] Spanky wrote:

Correct. Spindle or steering knuckle. You don't need to take the drum off. Take the nuts off the ball joint but leave the nut on a few threads. Smack the spindle or knuckle where the ball joint stud goes through. It will loosen the stud up in the spindle. You can leave the tie rod hooked up but it's easy to take it off too. Do the same thing. Leave the nut on a few threads and smack the end of the spindle where the tie rod stud goes through and it will pop loose.

How old are your ball joints? Have you checked them for wear? If they are original and the boots are torn up you might as well replace them while you have it apart. The good German ball joints are only $20 a piece.

I've thought about doing that. The car has 84000 on it, a '73 THING, but you know there is no shop on this Island that I know of that could press a ball joint.... perhaps I can UPS the "spindle" to a firm on the Cape. While I'm at it a shock and brake line replacement would be convenient as well....

Good description (above) of loosening the stud that's been in the spindle for 35 years. I know I would have been stymied by that had you not mentioned it!!

Thank You-Thank You-Thank You-Thank You-Thank You-Thank You- :D

[email protected] Sun Jul 29, 2007 10:55 am

I believe the lowers can be done on the car without taking everything apart by just removing the nut on the ball joint, german boots are hard to get, but i have some, the cheaper boots are like a buck, but are just that cheap. for the price of a boot, $12, you might get new ball joints, they arent $20, not for thing they are like $35

wcfvw69 Sun Jul 29, 2007 12:28 pm

[quote="Spanky"] wcfvw69 wrote: Spanky wrote:

Correct. Spindle or steering knuckle. You don't need to take the drum off. Take the nuts off the ball joint but leave the nut on a few threads. Smack the spindle or knuckle where the ball joint stud goes through. It will loosen the stud up in the spindle. You can leave the tie rod hooked up but it's easy to take it off too. Do the same thing. Leave the nut on a few threads and smack the end of the spindle where the tie rod stud goes through and it will pop loose.

How old are your ball joints? Have you checked them for wear? If they are original and the boots are torn up you might as well replace them while you have it apart. The good German ball joints are only $20 a piece.

I've thought about doing that. The car has 84000 on it, a '73 THING, but you know there is no shop on this Island that I know of that could press a ball joint.... perhaps I can UPS the "spindle" to a firm on the Cape. While I'm at it a shock and brake line replacement would be convenient as well....

Good description (above) of loosening the stud that's been in the spindle for 35 years. I know I would have been stymied by that had you not mentioned it!!

Thank You-Thank You-Thank You-Thank You-Thank You-Thank You- :D

Once you take the drum and spindle/knuckle assembly off and get them out of the way, you can take out the torsion arms that the ball joints are pressed into. It's very easy to do. There is the grub screw and nut. Loosen the nut and back out the grub screw. You can then send just the four torsions arms to a shop for them to press the old ones out and new ones in. You then just reassemble it.

Glad to help. :D

Towel Rail Sun Jul 29, 2007 12:47 pm

wcfvw69 wrote: How old are your ball joints? Have you checked them for wear? If they are original and the boots are torn up you might as well replace them while you have it apart. The good German ball joints are only $20 a piece.

Tack on about 50% for the price of Thing-only ball joints, but I definitely agree -- if your boots have been torn for a while, the joints been exposed to dust and rocks and water, and are probably grinding themselves apart. I don't know how common it really is, but the thought of a ball joint popping out of its socket at 60 MPH is a little scary to me. :shock:

- Scott

Ian Epperson Mon Jul 30, 2007 12:43 pm

I ran mine for years with shredded boots full of grit and generally crappy. If I ran it in the rain and let it sit for a few days, steering would be hard and the front end would grind/squeak when I'd hit a bump. Paradoxically, they were horribly loose too, which caused the steering to wander quite a lot at speed, but they were not going to pop out. When I finally replaced them, it took a lot of force to separate them from the spindle, and they did not fail.

Wobbly, grinding, hard to twist, yes. Catastrophic failure, nope.

Towel Rail Mon Jul 30, 2007 7:09 pm

Point. :lol:

I'm having my ball joints and tie-rods replaced right now. The ball joints aren't nearly loose enough to pop out, but the driver's-side tie rod end is amazingly loose. That could cause some problems!



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