** Mint Wishbones, Ball Joints and Tie Rods **

Planning to change my steering rack this weekend and whilst I'm at it will be changing the GSF tie rod ends, ball joints and wishbones which are going in the bin ... even if they are less than a year old ! GSF = Pap !

So I've bought VW OEM replacements from the stealers to get it all sorted ! Seeing that I have had a little too much time on my hands I thought I'd do a bit of painting practice. I primed the parts first and then finished with VW Dragon Green paint !

Ball Joints & Tie Rod Ends:





I putting my old VW wishbones back on so I thought I'd give them a quick re-furb' !

Before -





After -

I filed down the rust and used some 80 Grit paper to get all the surface rust off then ....







Overkill by a country mile, but I thought it would be good practice as I'm thinking of tackling some of the body work on my car. I might even respray the whole car myself, just buy a compressor and the right tools

p.s. yes I know I sprayed over some of the bushes just too much hastle taping them up !

I'll put a few pics up when they are all on.

 

good work mate. wishbones came up well. a little tlc can make a world of difference.

 

by a country mile!

 

I can see mirrors under the car at shows so people know the trouble that you've gone to.

 

** Update **

Just going through my Steering Rack change at the moment. Started last weekend and I'm taking it nice and slow.

Last weekend I did this:

• Undone Tie Rods Ends & Ball Joints.
• Taken off the Wishbones.
• Drained coolant (changing sensors and fanswitch !).
• Undone engine and transmission mount bolts.
• Drained the steering pump fluid.
• Raised engine and propped it up on axle stands (1cm to clear mounts !)
• Disconnected the Universal Joint.

I've had some 'extra steering problems lately and under braking there have been bumps and crunches from the NSF area. So took the 'GSF@ wishbones off and what do I find ??? Completely sh***ed bushes ! They were bought in March and put on no too long after that. So they are ~7 months old and the bush has perished > ? Proof at last of how 'bad' GSF bits are ! Money back please !!!! I'll be putting my old VW wishbones back on which have 10 year bushes and look absolutely perfect !






To add insult to injury look at the 'GSF' anti-roll bar link the boot has perished ... and it gets worse the 1 year warranty ran out in the last week of October .... again s**t parts ! I think I shall have a nice big rant when I go for a refund on the wishbones ....

At least I have learnt a very important lesson ! Only buy OEM stuff ... and it is actually sometimes the same price as GSF / Euro Car Parts ! Plus a nice CGTI 10% discount !




Today I've done this:

• Disconnected the PAS pipes from the rack (at last!).
• Removed Sub-Frame & Rack

So today .... hey presto, the sub-frame & rack have been taken off the car !

The worst bit actually has been getting at the PAS feed pipes, there is just no room to get at those 18mm nuts. One of them had seized . I have to wait a week to get some flare wrenches. Finally got an 18mm one from eBay ... got a full set actually for 23 so that's cool. Halfords (frauds) only sold up to 17mm and everywhere else (even on the internet (Machine Mart, etc.)) didn't have an 18mm one. But problem solved.



Voila ->


Lots of CV grease over the rack and sub-frame A long story ! see here http://www.clubgti.com/forum/showthread.php?t=139346



I've bought new OEM engine mounts all round and ARB bushes so they'll be going on. I've washed & cleaned the sub-frame and will spend the next week filing and rubbing it down with some 80 & 120 grit paper to get the small bits of rust off. Then prime it, spray it Green and lacquer it Overkill yes but I need the paint spraying practice, and it'll look great when finished and fitted !

Ohh look a country mile again

So new rack to go on and I've a Powerflex poly bush for the rack too.

I'll post up the finished articles

 

whats holding your engine up?

 

It is propped up on 2 axle stands .... one under the transmission and the other is under the engine bracket that sits on the mount in the sub-frame

The Front engine mount bolt has been loosed a little

 

cool... i was wondering if it was as simple as that.

im looking at putting an eibach ARB on. the subframe has to come down to get teh ARB out etc.

good thread mate

 

Update Time

Finally starting to get somewhere

I've finished respraying the subframe, ARB and other sundries ! Hurrah.

After a long saga with new Tie Rods at last I have it all put together to go back on the car



Ground off the surface rust with a Dremmel, 2 coats of primer, 2-3 coats of paint and 2 coats of lacquer Great !







At last it is coming together, been a long time. New steering rack, new bush, new OEM engine mounts and tie rods. I washed the old boots New OEM ARB bushes and clasps (nice & shiney) !



Got it under the car, just got to hoik it back onto the chassis But some patience will come in useful ! Hopefully have everything back together for the weekend, tracked and be able to drive it ..... first time for almost 5 weeks

 

nice work mate!!

 

brilliant thread

 

looks great, now u need to paint everythin else to match under there!!!

 

Yes I'm thinking the same thing

Just planning on whether or not to do the rear axle beam It needs new bushes ..... so any excuse !

 

im amazed at how badly the gsf items wore, let us know how it drives afterwards

 

how much were your powerflex bushes?

i found them to be quite pricey!!

i need to do my rear axle bushes also, been told its not a nice job !

 

** Final Update ! **

Phew done at last .... got it all on and the car is finally up and running ! Yipee

Quite a job to get it back on by yourself. Could have really done with an extra set of hands. But after much swearing and cursing I sorted the problem.

I measured the old rack to make sure that the when the new one went back on that the tie rods were roughly in the same position as when it came off. Hence the steering wheel will mate properly with the rack and the Universal joint just pops back on (with a little jiggling). This keeps the geometry roughly the same.

So sub-frame back on, engine sitting on new mounts, all lined up and bolted down. New ball joints, tie rod ends and ARB links in place. All bolts torqued up properly. New rack and tie rods all lined up and connected. Checked the lower Universal Joint, looked fine .... no play and re-greased it. Reconnected the PAS pipes, 1 Litre of VW PAS oil added, manually turned the PAS pump to prime the pump. Turned the rack (engine off) left to right gently numerous time to get the air out of the PAS system. Reconnected the Aux Ribbed belt and tensioner, plus put the battery back in, added coolant & reconnected hoses. BAM ..... job done . Took it to get tracked & have camber sorted ... POW .... all working tickety boo !














Worst Bits:

• Trying to get the sub-frame back up & onto the car single handedly
• Anti-Roll Bar Clamps ... almost impossible to do back up with old bushes let alone new ones [:^(]
• Getting track/tie rods off of the old Steering Rack
• No car for 7 weeks :/
• Car paint & lacquer is brittle, hence one little clang with a tool and it chips the paint, but easy to remedy !
• Must have cost me a small fortune to do ! Haven't added it up yet (50 -ish on paint alone)
• Still a little play in the Steering wheel ... (U.Joints ?)
• Messing about with proping up the engine & transmission.
• Working on the car in 0-3C <brrrrrrrrr> I said last December I wouldn't work on the car in such cold conditions

Best Bits:

• Mint sub-frame & new rack. Check my underside bling hehehe.
• Sorted the steering issues out (almost) ! No more delay in steering at speed and no longer hard to turn right and easy to the left !
• One less job to do on the car ! Almost finished my list !
• Learned tons about the car's setup & layout !
• The car is almost new !

So next job .... Brakes .... going to strip & respray the splash plates as per the sub-frame. Paint callipers. Then new discs and pads all round. Not sure yet .... VW OEM discs or Black Diamond Grooved with Ferodo DS2000 pads all round. Depends what finances are like after Xmas and totting all of this up. Also change rear bearings while there too. But this have to wait until it is much much warmer !

I hope people like it

 

Nice work.

I wish I had a drive so I could rip my car apart.

 

Nice work indeed Ezy. Did you have the use another car for the 7 weeks?

 

No matey .... walk > train > bus The walking and train bits were good. The bus was awful ! YUK ... So rather than a 20 min journey to/from work it would be 1h30 or even 2hrs sometimes

 

Well done mate! Your patience is incredible. And the finished job looks superb.