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MetalStud2003
Samba Member
Joined: July 21, 2011
Posts: 24
Location: North East
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 Posted: Sun Jul 27, 2014 6:44 pm Post subject: Replaced Ball Joints and Tie Rod ends on my 67 today |
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| Thought I would throw some info out there about my experience replacing the ball joints on my 67 Beetle Sedan. All and all the procedure went pretty smooth. I purchased a 20 ton press from Harbor freight. The press originally sells for $300.00. It was on sale for $199.00. Plus I had a coupon for 20% off which knocked it down to $159.00. Great investment. Garage wanted almost $700.00 to do the job. With purchased tools and parts the cost was about $325.00 and I have a press to use on other projects. I agree with others on the forum. You do not need to heat anything. When you have a press, it does the job period!! No need for heat, welding the cups.. Just press them out.. and press them in. I also sprayed the Ball joints and tie rod ends with PB Blaster a week before I started.. All and all it went good. Went to Home Depot and bought a 1-1/2" coupling and used a 1" socket to press out ball joints and press them in. The Press also came with a platform with a series of holes which I was able to use to press the upper Ball Joints in...Total job in hours for everything, about 6. I would take this project on again. I am not a professional mechanic by trade but, I have been working on cars for about 30 years. I am in the third year of restoring my bug. |
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67 Sunroof
Samba Member
Joined: February 22, 2014
Posts: 1836
Location: Salisbury, MD
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| Posted: Sun Jul 27, 2014 7:21 pm Post subject: |
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Wow, good job! I rebuilt my whole front end including new dropped spindles for much less. I took all of the pieces to my machine shop and had them do it ($10 each) while I pulled all of the leaf springs (in my opinion a PAIN IN THE ASS) out, cleaned them, lubed them, and finally got them all back in.....
Front end turned out fantastic. Hey, you can use the press for other stuff too though-that's good. |
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Northof49
Samba Member
Joined: July 22, 2013
Posts: 1759
Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
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| Posted: Mon Jul 28, 2014 7:50 am Post subject: |
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You were fortunate that they pressed out so easily. I used a 20 ton press and couldn't budge one of them. Had to chisel out the guts of the ball joint and then use a welder inside the remaining cup to get it out.
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1958 Karmann Ghia owner |
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wcfvw69 
Samba Purist
Joined: June 10, 2004
Posts: 13389
Location: Arizona
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| Posted: Mon Jul 28, 2014 11:44 am Post subject: |
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| Northof49 wrote: |
| You were fortunate that they pressed out so easily. I used a 20 ton press and couldn't budge one of them. Had to chisel out the guts of the ball joint and then use a welder inside the remaining cup to get it out. |
Yikes.. You got very un-lucky there. Last time I did ball joints was on my 67. I bought a $40 Harbor Freight POS ball joint tool that needed to be modified a bit. I was able to press them in and out w/that tool and an air 1/2" impact driving the large bolt.
When I did alignment work in the 80's, I never used heat or welded on them. I did as the OP did and we simply pressed them in and out with a porta-powered press. That baby was strong and pushed them in/out very easly.
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Decades of VW and VW parts restoration experience.
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MetalStud2003
Samba Member
Joined: July 21, 2011
Posts: 24
Location: North East
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| Posted: Mon Jul 28, 2014 1:58 pm Post subject: |
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| Northof49 wrote: |
| You were fortunate that they pressed out so easily. I used a 20 ton press and couldn't budge one of them. Had to chisel out the guts of the ball joint and then use a welder inside the remaining cup to get it out. |
I helped a friend of mine out with one of the ball joints in his bug. He used a cheap C clamp style press and he could not get one of them out. I smashed the ball part of it out through the back side and took a Sawzall and put a relief cut in it at 12:00 and 6:00 being careful not to cut into the torsion arm. Then I simply smacked it out with a hammer. That procedure took about 10 min. I try to look outside the box sometimes when things do not go as planned and simplify them if possible. |
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