Ball joint extenders (REVIEW)

Both tie rod and tie rod ends are the same on a Mk1. I think all tie rod replacements have been adjustable for quite some time.

171 419 804 - tie rod (adjustable)
171 419 812 - tie rod end

 

Cheers matey.. Down to VW dealership i go...

I'll try and get some pictures up in the next week for everyone, should have it done by then...

 

I got a new track rod & track rod end from a local factors a couple of weeks ago when I fitted my quick rack, paid 20 quid for both, so dont get stung by the dealer.

 

good work lad^

 

So I fitted my compbrake track rod ends to go with the balljoint extenders and get rid of the bumpsteer but they seem to have made it worse!? Pretty sure I have it fitted up right - not had a chance to get the tracking fixed yet but that shouldn't affect the bumpsteer should it?



Got the wishbones and track rods pretty much level when the car is sat on the ground but where as before only fairly big bumps caused bump steer, now even the smallest bump or uneven surface seems to...

 

Bump steer wont be massively effected by balljoint extenders, the angle of the trackrods is unchanged.

The only slight difference will be because the bottom arms dont "shorten" as much on bump because they stay fairly horizontal.

 

I found that the bumpsteer increased a lot when I fitted the balljoint extenders which is why I got hold of the compbrake track rod ends to try to eliminate it but as I say, seems to have made it worse. There is another, thicker spacer that I could put on instead of the one on there now but it's only a couple of mm thicker...

Oh and cheers for the tuition at Silverstone in the Porsche the other month Ian Need to get this mk1 sorted and out to some track days...

 

No problem Wosa, shame I wasn't in the Ferrari that day.

If you are spacing the track rod end upwards, i.e. packing it further away from the steering arm you will be making it worse.

 

I thought the idea was to try to get the wishbones and trackrod arms travelling a pretty similar arc (ie get them as parallel as possible? Would it be better off have the ends mounted above the hub and spacing them further upwards?

I was pretty disappointed with the Ferrari. The gear change was awful - although it is hard to criticise anything else about it. I thought the Porsche was a lot smoother as a car but the Ferrari certainly stuck to the tarmac well and was pretty fast!

 

Is your track rod end on top of the steering arm or under it?

The idea is to get them both as level as possible....but my Mk2 has the track rod ends on top of the steering arm so if you space them upwards they will be even worse.

Sounds like yours may be under the arms...I cant remember what the Mk1's are like(I should do!)

We have 360's now at Silverstone which are a lot better on the gear linkage.

 

Mk1 are originally on top of the hub arm but I have moved it to underneath as in the picture above...

I think it was the 360 that I went out in with the f1 style paddle shift. It just seemed to pause for a second whenever you changed up a gear then it would engage and the power would come in. Seemed pretty harsh to me???

 

Ok..I cant see the pictures hereat wrok, my firewall blocks them.

Moving them from top to bottom of the arm is a big chunk.....you may have gone too far.

How does it look at ride height, does the bottom arm and track rod both look fairly parallel?

 

Near as dammit... The car has been lowered around 40mmm and the track rod arms and wishbones were pointing upwards a whole load when on top of the hub (the rod arms slightly more so than the wishbones). The ball joint extenders have moved the wishbones to pointing down (just) and now with the rod arms mounted on the underside of the hub the rod arms are pointing down a fraction too.

Before I moved them from top to bottom the wheel used to turn on its own when jacking the car up and down. Now the wheel stays pretty still when jacking up and down so I would have thought this would mean no bump steer but this doesn't seem to have transfered into practice.

 

get the car on the deck with the wheels on and see what the angle of the arms are like then. i've got mine on top and they are almost level, it's as close as they could be to being level.

 

Just popped out to the car park!



If anything, they could do with spacing down a fraction more... Perhaps the larger spacer will do it???

 

The track rod and wishbones dont work on exactly the same arc because they aren't exactly the same length.

I would think you have a worse issue on bump than rebound and you are only looking at rebound by the sound of it.

Its a lot of work, but assemble the car with no springs and lower the car to ride height, then check the tracking, then drop it to near the bump stops and check the tracking again, I think you will find its going onto toe in.

Just out of interest....you did re track it after fitting the ball joint spacers didn't you?

 

Yes had it re-tracked after fitting the spacers but not since fitting the rod ends (only fitted them yesterday)...

I will give it a go without the springs... If it is going to toe-in near the bump stops how would I go about solving that? Move them slightly up again?

 

I would think your tracking is miles out, so try that first....could solve the problem.

If its going onto toe in on bump move the track rod ends up, if its going onto toe out on bump move them down....but that is only if the track rods are deffo pointing down.

Its not as basic as two arcs though because the hub doesn't folow the same arc as the bottom ball joint due to the influence of the top strut mounting.

 

It's very complex all this suspension geometry!!! I think I follow you. Will have a bit of an experiment and see what's what.

Thanks for your help so far...

 

The only way to know for sure what it is doing is by measuring it.