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On 7 Jul 2003 at 23:49, Chris J Valade wrote: > I was concerned about the torsion bars thinking that maybe they > had gone down a few notches under the pressure of the drop, but now that > you mention it I don't think I will mess with that unless after > everything else the front end is still low. Besides that, if they did > turn it shouldn't be a problem since they still feel tight (does this > mean that it was impossible for what I fear to have occurred at all?) and > because I can place them in at the correct angle anyhow? I've never heard of one "slipping" a notch on the spline. Here in the rust belt I HAVE seen the splined socket that is welded into the axle beam rust free and release the torsion bar. > Should I worry if the ball joint moves too freely? And it would > be a bad idea to not get new dust boots...right? Especially given that > Vegas is a dry and dusty place--go figure, it being a desert and all=) > Does anyone produce ball joint boots, or boots for a different ball joint > that would work, or hell, is there much of a chance finding good quality > used ones? There are tests in the Bentley that you can do to each ball joint to determine its fitness. They show how to do this installed in the car, but you can also do this loose, in a vice, or partially installed, with a C-clamp. > I discovered this when the left upper torsion > arm wouldn't come out despite my attempts to force it out with a crow bar > which I not only pulled on with all my strength but also hammered. I > realized that something had to be in the way and when I was looking I > noticed that the portion of the beam described above which comes out just > below the lower torsion arms was shiny silver I can't quite visualize this, but I seem to recall that you have to rotate the upper arms to get them to clear and come out. Isn't there a bit of a flange at the base of the arm that is not a complete full circle? If so, rotate that so that it clears. Otherwise, I suppose that it's possible that your front axle has been lowered by a previous owner and they also bent that stop to allow you more travel. You might have to bend it back to get things apart. Keep in mind that there are rubber and plastic parts in there VERY close to this point. Using a torch to heat the stop support might very well ruin these parts, unless they have already been burned. I don't think replacements for any of these are available anywhere. > Also, I was just looking at pictures of the front end when it > wasn't jacked up and everything was assembled and noticed something that > confused me: should the lower torsion arms be touching the rubber stops, > or should it be the upper torsion arms that are touching the rubber > stops? In the pictures, the lower arms are the ones that are touching > the rubber stops. With the car just sitting on the ground, neither stop should be in contact. With the car jacked up the upper arm should be dropped down and in contact with the upper stop. -- ******************************* Jim Adney, jadney@vwtype3.org Madison, Wisconsin, USA ******************************* ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ List info at http://www.vwtype3.org/list | mailto:gregm@vwtype3.org