ball joints

waynek · Post by **waynek** » Sat Jan 18, 2003 3:34 am

Hi all,
I own a 1974 Thing and need to replace the
ball joints.Any sugestions on the best
method.I've read comments from other
sources recommending removal of center beam
and take to a machine shop.
Thoughts please..

richsmith · Post by **richsmith** » Sat Jan 18, 2003 5:51 am

Wayne,
Hi! On one of my things, I just pulled the wheels/hubs off and then removed the 4 control arms. If you remove the whole front beam, you will have to remove the gas tank, disconnect the steering and unhook the tie rods to get the beam out. That's a lot of work. I took the control arms to a local VW shop and they pressed out the old ball joints and installed my new ball joints. I suspect any shop that does suspension work can do that.

On my other Thing which is a very low mileage Texas car, I ordered new rubber boots from Vince at Things unlimited and just replaced the old cracked boots and added some new grease. Worked just fine.

Good luck,
Rich in Indiana

waynek · Post by **waynek** » Sat Jan 18, 2003 12:59 pm

Thanks Rich,
I will be working in my garage tomorrow
and will look at removing control arms

peterjager · Post by **peterjager** » Sun Jan 19, 2003 5:36 pm

Take the arms off and use a fork to pop the Ball joints loose from the spindle.

Take the arms to someone that presses in ball joints, most shops i tried said no way when i told them it was for a VW.

So take it to a VW shop, they will probably charge you around 30-40 to take the old ones out and put the new ones in, and if your lucky they will clean the arms while they are at it.

I had everything blasted, 4 arms, 2 spindles, and all new ball joints pressed in for 50 plus i got them the next day i gave him a tip of 10 bucks.

Peter

Kubelmann · Post by **Kubelmann** » Sun Jan 19, 2003 6:27 pm

There is a set of four good German ball joints for the Thing on ebay right now for (buy it now $85) I bid and got the same ones for $75 and was very impressed with the quality. Pimpride ISP is the seller. Go to ebay type VW Thing Ball joint in the search window and it will come right up. Thye sell these ball joints on their web site for $45 each. Hope this helps, RW

Brad · Post by **Brad** » Mon Jan 27, 2003 4:21 am

I too bought my Ball joints from Pimp Ride and have been very happy with the quality and price. At USD$75 it was cheaper than anywhere else.

prerunner1499 · Post by **prerunner1499** » Mon Feb 03, 2003 3:06 pm

I 3 got my bj's from da pimp, ordered them last monday and got them friday, nice quality. Now fot the change over. $91 to my door