[Vwdiesel] Re:E. J. Gilbert's bounce

[James Hansen]

 Both inner ends were loose and he
grabbed the ball joints with big pliers to check them and came up
with ok. I reminded him that there's always "squeeze" pressure on
them and he needed to pry down and check for movement.  One
bad ball joint too.  This thing only really wobbles on bumps and a
railroad crossing very similar to Doyts.
_________________

Yeah, this jogs my memory too.
In my 89 A2 Jetta, the LF lower control arm bushing was shot, the rear round
one.  I know A1's are different, but mine was "diagnosed" as good by a front
end and alignment shop when it had it there for an alignment check and to
use the slipppy slideys like Loren's deal. There was some weirdness in the
handling, and I was there over some other stuff, so we ran it on the lift.
He figured it was all fine, but if  you grabbed the wheel, and turned it as
if you wished to roll the carforward and back with the wheel, the wheel had
3" of movement to it fore and aft.  Not something the average shop checks
for unless they know the quirks of that particular suspension I guess. What
I'm getting at, is E.J.'s deal could be similar.  Don't always assume a shop
is populated by experts, they are just folks, and learn like the rest of us.
Having a fried watch for tracking issues under acceleration and deceleration
will find stuff like this.
Good luck E.J.
-James
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