Well I decided to do the front end

[Darkness_is_spreading]

I found a few tricks that really helped me out will help the next person out in the future:  I picked up  a 5" ID pipe,  3" ID pipe and a 1"  solid piece of steel. I used the 5 " pipe to help aide in the pressing out of the bearing, and used  some needle nose pliers instead of the C clip clamps ( I broke a set of these clamps).  

Using my fathers 20 T press,  the bearings came out like nothing,  I'm now in the process of cleaning and preparing the Knuckle for the new Ball joint  and Bearing.

The biggest problem is trying to pull the tie rod ends out with out using a puller.......   :x  but after some negotiating with the hammer,  it decided to pop out.

I want to finish the front end on this car so I can pull the motor in my 88 Jetta for  an 83 NA......

[LeeG]

Here was my ghetto approach to doing bearings on the car:

Pulling the hubs:

This might not work if yours are really jammed on there, mine came without much trouble.  Longer bolt threads would have been helpful.


Pressing the bearings out:


This worked very well, reverse the setup to press them back in.  Note the fine thread and the diameter on that redirod, you need it!  Also note that the gear I used as a big washer is bending,  thicker chunk of steel would have been better.  That is an old motor housing I used, you want a chunk of sturdy pipe just a bit bigger than OD of bearings.  You also want some heavy washers just a bit smaller than OD of bearings.  After I pressed out the old bearings those washers had a nice cup shape to them that was perfect for pressing the new bearings in with contact only on outer race.  New ones go in easier after you sand inside the knuckle a bit to get rid of rust, then grease it up.



Tierod ends:  Go to princessauto.com or somewhere liek that and get one of their $14 pullers.  You wont regret it.

Balljoints, with new balljoint in hand go look for a large tierod 'pickle fork' that just fits over the balljoint.  Balljoint forks are too big.  I ended up grinding a tierod fork a bit to make it big enough.  I really had to wail on it with a BFH to get them out.

[burn_your_money]

Do you have anymore pictures of your bearing puller LeeG?

[LeeG]

Not sure how much extra help that one is, its the only other one of it in use.  I could take some pics of the bits and pieces, but its just big washers and nuts that you can't see in behind there with the crescent wrench on it.    After I got it cranked up a bit, I got in behind and gave the end of the rod a few good wacks to encourage the bearings to break their grip.

I've wondered since if a screw from a scissor jack would do this job.  Coarse thread, so you'd need more tourqe, not sure if the threads would be strong enough.  The fine thread rod shown did cost me $20 or so, its not your typical hardware store junk.

Can I try to describe something about it?

I would do it this way again, I was quoted something like $50 per hub to re&re bearings if I brought in the knuckles off the car.  This was less hassle and probably didn't take as much of my time as taking them in would have.  I did have to drop the control arm on LHS to get the axle out, so probably should have gotten an alignment, but I cheated and used the outline of the bolts in the conrtol arm rust.

[macsdub]

tie rod ends are easy
get a floor jack(or even the vw jack,if you are careful)
and loosen up the tie rod bolt a bunch
place jack on loosened bolt head/tie rod stud,jack up the jack and hit the knuckle area with a hammer
keep the bolt on,as a "safety" you dont want tie rod in the nads
just make sure to thread the bolt all the way off and then back on part way first,so after it pops you dont need to swear to get the bolt off all the way,cause the tie rod end is spinning
itll pop,ive never had one not pop
but then again,ive put so much pressure on them before that i start to lift the car up off the ground
usually you dont need this much pressure,3 or 4 inches of compression  of the suspension is all thats usually needed