Ball Joint Checking

[Don Giovanoni]

I have a shimmy in the front end at about 60mph. I jacked up the front end and the passenger side wheel had some play. So, assuming it was wheel bearing adjustment, I spent a lot of time adjusting and replacing the wheel. After locking up the bearing on purpose, I still had some wiggle. After careful inspection, I could see play in the top ball joint. Darn, I guess I have a big job ahead of me with only about 2500 miles on these ball joints. Originally had the front end very low, now suspect that the ball joints were bottoming. BUT, I just read on Aircooled.net that you should check ball joints with the weight of the car on them. I am really confused now. Anyone have any ideas?

[Manx-Australia]

To check a ball joint there are three easy ways. 1 - If you have a big ass set of multi grips / vice grips / pliers etc simple open them up over the BJ and squeeze the bottom of the bolt towards the top of the BJ. So you are squeezing it together. If there is ANY upwards movement then your BJ is stuffed. 2 - Make yourself a BJ lever, I have a piece of pipe about 2 ft long with two tabs welded on it just far enough apart to fit over the training arm. With the buggy jacked up put it on the arm and wobble it, if there is any movement then once again they are stuffed. 3 - Jack your front end up and wobble your front wheel while watching for sideways movement. Not as easy as the 1st two methods for picking up movement but needs no real tools. Now when I say movement I do not mean normal BJ movement, it will usually feel notchy. You also need to ensure that the BJ's are correctly installed, I have seen more than a few BJ's which are incorrectly installed. VW BJ's are directional unlike a lot of other cars, with the rubber boots on you can not tell this and people often put them in out of alignment. There are small marks on the arm to assist with this or with the boot off just make them perpendicular to the front beam. I hope that helps.