Front Beam Replacement Questions

[vwwestyman]

I agree... These don't leave me with a lot of hope...

Luckily I had a couple extras because I ordered two sets, planning to also swap them on my '73.

So it is put together for now and I'll keep an eye on these. Suggestions on better ones for down the road? I am trying to tell myself that perhaps I accidentally damaged it putting things together. I did fight the retainers and accidentally pierced one (and replaced it at that time when I saw what I did) putting things together originally. So perhaps I pierced this one too, and didn't notice. I'll tell myself that...

I ended up doing a partial disassemble. I wasn't thinking I could get it to pop free and needed my tool, which couldn't go into place because of the dust shield. Though as I'm typing this, I'm realizing it may have been the spring tension keeping it in place, and the jack trick might have worked to loosen it from the knuckle.

In the end, I did remove the disc, caliper, dust shield, lower shock bolt and tie rod end. I was able to finagle the caliper enough to get the lines out of the bracket and hang it without disconnecting (and having to rebleed) which was nice. The rest came apart pretty easily, likely owing to having just been apart. I hadn't yet installed the sway bar-in fact I noticed this the other night when I was attempting to install it. Otherwise it may have gone undetected.

Once I was to that point, I was able to use my jack to lift the lower arm up, which allowed the joint to come out of the spindle. There was juuuust enough room for it to swing free before the upper ball joint interfered.

As I said, in retrospect, it might have been possible to undo the lower shock and tie rod end and then use the jack to pop the joint out. Once I swung the spindle out of the way, I lowered the jack, swapped the boot, and put it together.

_________________
Dave Cook

President, Wild Westerner Club

1978 Champagne Edition Westy, repowered to '97 Jetta TDI
1973 Wild Westerner
My Thing

[SGKent]

is that a blown out area on the arm, and a crack forming?

_________________
“Most people don’t know what they’re doing, and a lot of them are really good at it.” - George Carlin

[Cap10323]

[orwell84]

I’m going to fix my one torn ball joint boot with a piece of bicycle inner tube and some wire or whatever. It’s an original joint in good condition. Aftermarket boots have consistently sucked. They have one job. Jeez. How hard can it be to make a ball joint or cv boot that doesn’t fall apart so fast. Is bearing grease now made with battery acid? I just don’t get it. More and more of my bus parts are coming from the hardware store.

[Cap10323]

[vwwestyman]

[vwwestyman]

Tonight I went about rectifying a dirty little secret I didn't mention last year.

When I was replacing the boots, I noticed that the chrome was pitted on one of the balls. I don't think I can fully explain the decision making process that led me to simply put it together, beyond 1) being over it and 2) there was zero (really!) play in the joint. I think with reading all the comments about the shitty stuff currently available, I figured if there was no play I should keep running it.

But, I need new tires and still need to have it aligned since having things apart. And I'm getting ready to go on a long road trip in a couple weeks.

So I decided I needed to replace that damn ball joint because I didn't want that doubt in the back of my mind.

It took a lot of cutting, swearing, hammering and more to get it done, but I was able to replace the joint without removing the arm from the Bus.

I have a set I used to RandR the joints on my Thing, but it didn't fit to remove the Bus joint so I went the route of destroying the old one enough to finally get it loose. Took cutting slots, chiseling, realizing I actually had more room to cut safely, chiseling more, welding a bead (but at a low setting and only one bead to avoid heating the arm), realizing I could STILL cut more, and more pounding with a chisel, but I finally got it apart without damaging the arm.

WIth some creativity and using parts from my wheel bearing setup too, I was able to install the new joint. Will reassemble on Thursday.

Take that, stupid ball joint!

_________________
Dave Cook

President, Wild Westerner Club

1978 Champagne Edition Westy, repowered to '97 Jetta TDI
1973 Wild Westerner
My Thing