[Vwdiesel] boots, ties, and dressing for the ball

[Shalyn Shourds]

Well, what I did tonight was replace the ball joint, being fairly easy, 
and then I stuffed a laser pointer in a piece of PVC pipe and aimed it 
to a target piece of PCV tied to each rear wheel to align it.  Got it 
sort of close.  Turns out that $14.95 won't get you a piece of precision 
equipment, though, so the beam is definitely not concentric to the body 
of the pointer.  I think, though,  that I got it a lot closer than it 
would have been otherwise.  It still pulls a little left.  There's a 
product that a very small engineering investment could bring to market.  
Put a laser on a magnetic mount, put a couple of targets on magnets, 
stick the whole mess to the rims, and run the tie rods in and out till 
everything lines up.  You could even slip a little level into the laser 
body to adjust camber.   Tomorrow morning, I'm going to mess with it a 
little more by test and feel.  Unless it looks really easy to me by 
daylight, I'm going to leave the tie rods for another day, when the TDI 
is running.  If it took Loren 2-3 hours and worked right the first time, 
it will take me 2-3 weeks and a half-dozen tries :)  In the mean time, 
I'm going to be slapping parts on the TDI.  Until the head blows, it 
drives straight down the road. 

-Shalyn


LBaird119 at aol.com wrote:

>  Gads, I just did those last Fall.  Last warmish day of the year even.  
>I think I was able to get a wrench on one of them (there's one flat set 
>to put a wrench on as I recall) I think I was able to get a pipe wrench 
>on enough to get them loose enough and then undo by hand.  It was 
>a pain but better than it looked.  Did both tie rods and one ball joint 
>in 2 or 3 hours, including adjusting the toe to driveable.  I just headed 
>up the road and then stopped and lengthened or shortened one a bit 
>(each after each replacement) until the steering wheel was back to 
>straight and it didn't pull to one side or the other.  I measured from a 
>groove in the tread to the same front and back and that actually got 
>me closer.
>     Loren
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