[Vwdiesel] Strut service w/o alignment

[Val Christian]

> Well as you an others have pointed out ( and I discovered for myself this m=
> orning ) The strut has to be removed to change the bearings ( and making an=
>  alignment pratically manditory )  It will not drop far enough so that I ca=
> n compress the spring while leaving the strut attached at the control arm. =



I tried this a couple of months ago, on my A2, and it worked:

-remove tierod for steering
-loosen ball joint retaining nut and remove retaining bolt
-remove CV joint nut
-drop strut down through tower

Alignment was just fine afterwards.  There were a couple of problems:

-ball joint didn't want to come out of  knuckle.  Lots of persuasion.
 Using a drag link socket, and a hammer, allowed me to spread the knuckle.
-loosening things on a 12  or 13 yo western ny  car took more time than
 it probably would have taken me to set the front end up right again.

I think I'd do it the same way next time, though.

Good luck.

Val