Bay window front end ball joint replacement. How I did it.

wcfvw69 · Last edited by wcfvw69 on Mon Mar 02, 2015 5:01 pm; edited 1 time in total

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Brian · Posted: Mon Mar 02, 2015 4:24 pm Post subject:

Nice, now do mine Very Happy

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wcfvw69 · Posted: Mon Mar 02, 2015 4:30 pm Post subject:

MaritimeBay · Posted: Mon Mar 02, 2015 4:36 pm Post subject:

Thanks for the great write-up! I'm planning on tackling the ball joints this spring and this will be a great source of information and pictures.
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cdennisg · Posted: Mon Mar 02, 2015 4:39 pm Post subject:

Nice work. You probably figured out why shops tend to charge a premium for this job. It is tedious and time consuming.

Now, I am curious as to whether your ball joint tool will remove the two ball joints on the other side. It isn't uncommon to encounter a joint that needs a giant press to remove. You might get lucky, though. Let us know what happens.
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wcfvw69 · Posted: Mon Mar 02, 2015 5:11 pm Post subject:

cdennisg · Posted: Mon Mar 02, 2015 5:55 pm Post subject:

wcfvw69 · Posted: Mon Mar 02, 2015 7:51 pm Post subject:

Tcash · Posted: Mon Mar 02, 2015 7:54 pm Post subject:

Hi
Did you use penetrating oil on the ball joints?
Next time put a few drops of gun oil down the air fitting on your impact gun and it will hit harder.
Thanks
Tcash

Klaussinator · Posted: Mon Mar 02, 2015 8:46 pm Post subject:

Great job on making-do with the tools you had. This is on my list of upcoming jobs I need to tackle on my bus.

Thanks for the inspiration!
-Klauss
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airschooled · Posted: Mon Mar 02, 2015 10:36 pm Post subject:

Nice job.

What did your old joints measure at before removal? They have the hole for a zerk fitting, so if they didn't have busted boots in a sandy environment, they could have lasted forever…
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wcfvw69 · Posted: Mon Mar 02, 2015 10:58 pm Post subject:

wcfvw69 · Posted: Mon Mar 02, 2015 11:04 pm Post subject:

airschooled · Posted: Mon Mar 02, 2015 11:07 pm Post subject:

[quote="wcfvw69"]

wcfvw69 · Posted: Tue Mar 03, 2015 3:19 pm Post subject:

wcfvw69 · Posted: Wed Mar 04, 2015 3:54 pm Post subject:

As a follow up, I took apart the drivers side steering knuckle today to inspect the original ball joints. The upper had probably a 1/16 to 3/32" up and down play. The lower ball joint had just a hint of up and down play. I probably could of installed new boots and grease fittings on them and been fine. Since I had the new ball joints, I said what the hell and installed them. I did the same procedures as the passenger side at the start of this thread.

Both ball joints required some good hammer blows on the arms around the ball joints with the ball joint press under full removal load. Both came out with just the press and hammer blows. I was using a 1/2 impact and a small compressor that had to refill a few times while impacting them off. Both ball joints went in fine with the ball joint press. I think the key was using the little dremel sanding drum to remove all the rust and then smoothing it out inside the arm where the ball joint presses in. I then used wheel bearing grease on the arm and ball joint to help the new ball joints slide in.

Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.

After installing and reassembling the knuckle, I installed a new sway bar since my original snapped. I then pumped in probably a tube of grease on the four grease serts on the torsion tubes until it started to come out the arm seals. I also greased the bell crank.

As an interesting side note-

This bus had the original VW ball joints. They all still had plenty of grease in them dispite the split boots and the play wasn't horrible as mentioned above. I took it for a road test after installing all the new joints. I have to say I was shocked how tight and like new the bus drove. All the tire rods are also new. The steering box was gone thru and resealed and adjusted. The new ball joints are not "too tight" and the steering returns to center. On the freeway, I noticed it didn't follow the ruts like it did before. It also held in it's lane much better when a large vehicle passed me. The other odd thing was the bus pulled a bit to the right when braking before I did this work. The front brakes were all replaced a few months ago. I checked the drum brake adjustments while it was in the air and both were pretty close. It NO longer pulls when you brake. I'd heard worn ball joints could contribute to a brake pull but now have experinced it being true.
In all, I had about 9 hours in labor doing this complete job.
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PITApan · Posted: Wed Mar 04, 2015 4:15 pm Post subject:

How many ft-lbs is your impact wrench?

wcfvw69 · Posted: Wed Mar 04, 2015 4:27 pm Post subject:

cdennisg · Posted: Wed Mar 04, 2015 4:44 pm Post subject:

Glad to hear you were able to get it done without too much agony. Did you have to destroy that one good original ball joint to remove it? If so, too bad. I would much rather use a set of four good originals than any of the new stuff available.

Also good to hear that the steering wasn't too stiff after the install. My local VW guy has had problems with new joints being much too stiff after install. Makes the steering very tight and it will not return to center, as you mentioned.

I will be doing ball joints on my single cab soon. I think I have a set of trailing arms with four good joints and bad boots, so I may just freshen them up and install them whole. I know, I will be cheating.
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ChipWrecked · Posted: Wed Mar 04, 2015 5:10 pm Post subject:

Nice writeup... I did both of my buses with Nakata BJs. I used a similar method of cutting off the collars and used a 1 7/8" deep impact socket on the press. I did have a HF 20T press, but even then, it was terrifying anticipating the explosion of the ball joint breaking free. It was so loud one time that my neighbor ran over thinking I shot myself in my garden shed! I'm really not that depressed, I thought. He's a great neighbor.


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Bay window front end ball joint replacement. How I did it.
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