Ball joints, tie rods, such fun

[tristessa]

on my '75 Bay .. especially the part where I was guding the balljoint into the steering knuckle with one hand, holding teh weight of the knuckle & brake rotor with the other hand, and using the third hand to start threading the nut onto the balljoint.

I've only done the drivers side so far, the passenger-side will be done in the near future. I could only afford two joints (and press-in installation) and since the D/S lower was so shot it fell apart when I got things loose .. that side got both of them. Meyle Germany was the brand provided, with a nice sticker on the box that says "Made In Turkey". Quality was much nicer than the Chinese crap the first parts house tried to sell me .. for more money.

On the tierods, is there any particular reason aside from "it's not stock, it's not the way Volkswagen designed it!" that we couldn't use an adjustable rod on both sides? I got to wondering partly because replacement ends may be easier to find (years down the road) than a complete tierod would be, and partly because .. well, it just seems so damn ineffecient replacing the whole thing when it's only the ends that are the wear items. The approximate overall length looks teh same with my tape measure...

[Amskeptic]

.. especially the part where I was guding the balljoint into the steering knuckle with one hand, holding teh weight of the knuckle & brake rotor with the other hand, and using the third hand to start threading the nut onto the balljoint.

Hal, you can slip a bottle jack under the steering knuckle and very nicely jack the knuckle into the ball joint.

On the tierods, is there any particular reason aside from "it's not stock, it's not the way Volkswagen designed it!" that we couldn't use an adjustable rod on both sides?

That's what I did. You must, you must, you must center the steering wheel with the lug on the dust cap just below the coupler, which must, it must, it must be centered with the boss on the steering box itself. Then you must look at the center tie rods and swing lever. It must, it must, it must be exactly centered with the torsion bar set screw on the middle of the beam. If it is not, you have to adjust the drag link length. Finally, you can go drive in a straight line and see which way the tie rods must be adjusted to center the steering wheel.
If the wheel is pointing slightly right, you need to shorten the right tie rod and lengthen the left tie rod an equal amount. Vice versa for left pointing steering wheel while driving in a straight line. The steering box prefers to have the on-center preload while you are driving straight.
Colin

[tristessa]

.. assuming that I have a bottle-jack that works, I could. But I flung my last one into the brush along Highway 101 outside Crescent City last year after the Bus fell off of it while changing a tire and the screw-out-to-get-more-height section bent, and yelled some colorful language behind it. Chinese POS, haven't bothered getting a replacment.

Good to know on the tierods, I'll hit the print button in a minute and let it digest for awhile .. can't do anything about getting more parts for a couple weeks, even *with* the $25 certificate from GermanSupply that I got at the Deschues RendesVW.

[hambone]

Next time yer in a junkyard pick up a Bilstein VW jack, they're not bad for just changing tires. Had to do it once on a grade in the middle of a dirt road, worked OK.