"Jan Andersson" > wrote in message
...
> On 2/9/2012 2:27 PM, Jim Ed wrote:
>> On Feb 9, 10:04 am, "Mr. > wrote:
>>> How difficult is it to press out/in ball joints ? '71 Ghia.
>>> --
>>> Karma, What a concept!
>>
>> I haven’t done it but you would need to take out the front beam
>> trailing arms and take them to an auto shop and have the new ball
>> joints pressed in or you could buy new trailing arms with the ball
>> joints already installed and do it yourself.
>
>
> What Jim said.
>
> Sometimes they sit VERY tight in there, a small press won't do it.
> When pressing the new ball joints in, make sure they go in indexed
> properly. The BJ cup is marked, and there is a faint little line marked on
> the arm, those marks need to line up. Under the rubber boot, the BJ stub
> sits in an elongated slot, it can only move full swing in one direction.
> If you press them in wrong, you may not have ANY movement or very little,
> when the suspension tries to move up and down. Then the BJ will likely
> break or the suspension just won't work at all.
>
> Just about ALL OTHER car ball joints have unobstructed 360 degree full
> swing range. Just not aircooled VW for some reason. I suppose it makes it
> last longer when there is more support for the ball/socket contact.
>
> I would look for arms that are already done, like Jim said. Maybe give
> your old arms as cores and get a core deposit back. That's what I did with
> a local aircooled VW shop before.
>
> Jan


That was a heluva piece of information. Thanks,

Diesel