edsnova posted:Gordy, Wolfgang is not removing his spindles from their ball-jointed captivity; for some reason he is trying to remove his old ball joints from the VW trailing arms. This on a car that's seen maybe 1500 miles flat towing since he began assembly 30-odd years ago.
As he has discovered, those suckers are very much pressed in. Removal is usually a heat-intensive process, best accomplished by a skilled professional. As is the insertion and in-pressing of the new items which, one presumes, actually fit these days and do not bind up once the thing cools down (as some batches of some replacement bjs were known to do in recent years).
The stock ones also last about 600,000 miles in regular street use, so I am at a loss as to why he is bugging these things at all.
Alan, as usual, has the best advice.
Part of the problem (or maybe better said is the problem some of the time) is the alignment marks not in their proper places when pressed together. Then the ball joint's movement is severely restricted.
