Date:         Sun, 25 Oct 1998 16:34:50 -0800
Reply-To:     gerry rafferty <gerryr@DIRECT.CA>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         gerry rafferty <gerryr@DIRECT.CA>
Subject:      BALL JOINT REPLACEMENTS
Comments: To: Vanagon@VANAGON.COM
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;

Put a message on the list regarding ball joint replacement-Thanks to Mike(mike and becky),Darrell Boehler,Pete Zendzian for their suggestions.Armed with these ,the Bentley and the Haynes Here's what I did.
 
1.Remove tyre (use a safety stand)
2.Remove upper ball joint nut(24mm)
3.Remove 2 bolts(19mm) holding brake caliper-this was the hardest part of job-they were in tight
                 used lots of Aerokroil, a "breaker" bar (24inch 1inch dia. fencing pipe for that extra              
                 leverage).At this point I removed the tierod-able to pivot steering knuckle for better access
                 Used a wire coat hanger to hold brake calper out of the way.
4.Remove tierod nut(19mm).I used a TieRod End Lifter(a hammer could be used)-back off locking nut 
                 1/8 turn and remove tie rod end.
5.Remove hub nut(27mm) and remove hub/brake disc assy.You now access the 3 screws of the splash 
                 guard.Remove guard.
6.Remove 2 hex bolts(6mm) of upper ball joint-separated wishbone then used a balljoint separator or 
                 "pickle"(looks like a tuning fork ,$9Cdn,highly recommended) to separate upper balljoint 
                 from steering knuckle.
7.Remove lower balljoint nut(27mm) to end of thread,place small jack under 3 lowerjoint adaptor  
                 retaining bolts(I didn't remove these as called for) then hammer out lower balljoint  and
                 steering knuckle.REMOVE CIRCLIP from top of lower balljoint.
On LH (drivers) side you'll have to remove speedometer cable-remove circlip on hub cap and pull through.
At this point I took the steering  knuckle to VW shop who pressed old lower balljoint and pressed new one in .REMEMBER TO INSTALL CIRCLIP.
Reassembly opposite of disassembly.
Took van for wheel alignment
Took me 1.5 days to do 
 Hope this helps someone
GerryR                  

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