Cast lower ball joint separation

cheechy

A2OC Donor
I'm currently scratching my head trying to safely separate the lower ball joint from the carrier without damaging the boots as they are under a year old.

I'm trying to fit a new cv joint and it appears that unless you remove the wishbone you cant get the room to remove the cv joint from the hub.

Suggestions? Thanks
 
I dont think the cast iron wishbones have a serviceable ball joint. Needs a whole new arm I think

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Sounds like you're looking for a way not to have to split the balljoint so as to save its boot, but there isn't one. The balljoint is sealed into the cast wishbones for life.
 
I changed my cv boot in July . If this is what you’re trying to do .

I have a cast arm . The nut between the arm and the hub came off but I used a hammer to tap the arm to free the ball joint from the hub as it was stuck and not coming free.
The splitter was going to damage the boot on the cast arm. I was very careful not to damage the rubber boot when tapping it or the ball joint . There are some vids on general freeing up ball joint you will see hitting it with a hammer I didn’t go as hard as they did.

After it was free . Some of the things that were useful to changing the boot.

supporting the drive shaft and track rod end to stop them dropping as this is in the Elsa win guide. This when I removed the spline from the hub this is after you’ve freed the ball joint.

when I was removing the spline from the hub I had to buy a tool as it’s glued In I brought loctite 603 to glue it back after I changed the boot. Pic of the tool
if you’ve brought a genuine boot and clamps . The clamps are hard to get tight are really and are hard. I ended up getting a tool with a ratchet. Pic below.

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I think I may have to give in here and remove the wishbone bolt as I cant get the ball joint free from the hub. Will need to look out part number for the bolt and order one up
 
If you damage the Rubber boot on the arm. You can replace it with a genuine boot but it’s not cheap. I found the after market ones not quite as good as the original and finding a clip to hold it these were not as good. I have done this on an arm I’m replacing on the drivers side. I brought a lemforder ball joint for a pressed arm and carefully removed the boot and retaining clip . The arm I installed it to it was cleaned up and removed the retaining clip this was shot and rusted. After this was cleaned up it took a while to transfer over as it’s fiddly getting the clip back on.
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A couple of sharp hammer blows to the steering knuckle avoiding the joint boot
Whilst applying downward force on the arm will free off the taper
Ideal tool for levering
 
I always use one of these for the 1.2Tdi:


With care, the joint can be separated without damaging the boot. If the local VW garage were to renew a boot, they have to change the whole part because the boot is not available on its' own as a spare and they have to use VW parts!

RAB
 
In the end I removed the wishbone bolt so will need to dig out part number and get it ordered up...putting back current one for now but car wont be going anywhere for a bit so no big deal
 
Hi
I recently stepped into same problem, because ball joint rubber on both sides is broken and these cannot be replaced separately.
Whilst looking for spares I notices there are variants of lower control arms where ball joints can be replaced.
I also included pictures regarding of these parts and here's my question: can I upgrade my car's lower control arms to later ones that use removable ball joints? are these the same length and size?
 

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Hi
I recently stepped into same problem, because ball joint rubber on both sides is broken and these cannot be replaced separately.
Whilst looking for spares I notices there are variants of lower control arms where ball joints can be replaced.
I also included pictures regarding of these parts and here's my question: can I upgrade my car's lower control arms to later ones that use removable ball joints? are these the same length and size?
Don't, the newer lower arms rust very very badly and are dangerous. Most people are downgrading to the older cast wishbones as they are better

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I'm currently scratching my head trying to safely separate the lower ball joint from the carrier without damaging the boots as they are under a year old.

I'm trying to fit a new cv joint and it appears that unless you remove the wishbone you cant get the room to remove the cv joint from the hub.

Suggestions? Thanks
OMG that was my job this weekend too. What a saga. I'm thinking of starting a trauma group.
 
I use a Sykes Pickavant version of the tool mentioned by RAB in post 10.
I've had it 40 years and used it dozens of times and never damaged a ball joint boot.
Just ensure there are no burrs on the spherical seat of the bottom leg of the puller, add a smear of grease then gently slide the leg between the boot and suspension arm. With the top leg of the puller clamped against the ball joint spindle. if needed, give the puller top arm a whack with a club hammer to 'shock' the taper free.
All the force is applied between the suspension arm and ball joint spindle so once inserted correctly the puller does not crush the boot

Cheers Spike

PS.

Sorry for the long winded description

Just spotted the very puller on ebay - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sykes-Pi...137233?hash=item366c980991:g:-PIAAOSw54JfjDq0

The home made steel wedges in the pics are not part of the Sykes kit
 
As above, sometimes also the boot moves a little further down the joint to allow the splitter easier access. Never damage a boot splitting a joint.
 
Don't, the newer lower arms rust very very badly and are dangerous. Most people are downgrading to the older cast wishbones as they are better

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Is this really true ? Seems unlikely upgraded control arms are made from worse quality. Especially when original control arms have CV joints integrated into themselves and require replacement of whole arm instead of just CV joint.
Can someone else also confirm this claim ? I was thinking of buying beand new control arms of course. If I would need to replace them after 6-7 years, this is still fine or will these rust out before that ?
 
Is this really true ? Seems unlikely upgraded control arms are made from worse quality. Especially when original control arms have CV joints integrated into themselves and require replacement of whole arm instead of just CV joint.
Can someone else also confirm this claim ? I was thinking of buying beand new control arms of course. If I would need to replace them after 6-7 years, this is still fine or will these rust out before that ?
Hi Lemps ... yes it's really true, the solid ones on the earlier cars are more robust and many A2 owners have replaced the 'updated' version to the originals ... mine lasted sixteen years from new with 190 000 miles before showing signs of wear on the ball joint, the wishbone was still unmarked ... I would say the newer hollow version was a cost cutting exercise rather than an upgrade. Not that difficult to swop if you are patient and give yourself a bit of time and there are a few guides to follow on the forum.
All the best and good luck ... Tom
 
I'll share my experience on this:
I'm changing dampers on my A2 so I must separate the lower ball joint from the hub . I didn't have the VAG ball joint press tool that the service manual asks for.

First, to get the nut off I had to heat it using a propane torch (1925 C). I did several cycles of heating the nut for 10-15 sec. Sprayed penetrant on it. Repeat. (I took care to aim the flame up so I didn't wreck the ball joint rubber, and I used a heat shield so I didn't burn the CV boot.)

I had the car on jack stands, so I put a jack under the lower arm to exert pressure on the ball joint so I couldn't spin. That meant I didn't have to faff with a T40 torx to counterhold the stud. Using a 18 mm round spanner, extended with a big spanner to get leverage, I had give it what I got before the nut would release.

To release the ball joint from the hub I used two hammers to bang on the SIDE of the ball joint fixation point in the hub. Perpendicular to the direction of the ball joint bolt. One hammer as counter-hold, one to whack the opposite side. No use of pullers was needed.
 
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