This message is from Bill Robertson, which I've agreed to post on his behalf since it concerns safety:
Byrne Heninger installs Volkswagen Beetle/Bug ball joints in his lower control arms. They are high quality ball joints, Made in Germany, that a Volkswagen mechanic friend of mine is familiar with and has used himself (Uro Parts). There is absolutely nothing wrong with the quality of Byrne's ball joints -- problem is their orientation. As Byrne installs them there is high likelihood they eventually break. It's not a question of "if" -- it's a question of "when" (my "when" happened this morning, fortunately at slow speed in my own neighborhood within walking distance of the service truck).
VW Beetle/Bug front suspensions are very different from our front suspensions. Control arms point towards the front of the car, not the sides of the car. VW ball joints are directional -- the ball is only captive on two sides. There is very little movement towards the captive sides, and tremendous movement towards the non-captive sides (nothing holding the ball). Orientation notches indicate, *ON A VOLKSWAGEN*, front to rear. If you install a VW ball joint sideways *ON A VOLKSWAGEN* it will eventually break.
Byrne (or more likely a mechanic on Byrne's behalf) very dutifully installs his ball joints with the orientation notches front to rear, as all Volkswagen literature tells you to do. Problem is: our control arms are 90 degrees different from a Beetle/Bug. Orientation notches need to be rotated accordingly -- side to side. As supplied by Byrne, every time our suspension goes up and down the ball joint hits the part of the socket with very little movement. Eventually metal that holds the ball captive bends enough that the ball pops out and the joint separates, folding your wheel underneath the car. Problem is exacerbated by the fact that there is no metal on the other two sides to hold the ball.
I installed my replacement ball joint "sideways" by Volkswagen standards, which is "frontwards" for our control arms. After lunch I will pop out and rotate the other one.
Again: if you are running Volkswagen ball joints, and if the orientation notches are front to rear, your ball joints are experiencing undesigned stresses and likely will eventually separate.
Orientation notches should point along the axis of the control arm.
Volkswagen control arms point towards the front of the car, so their orientation notches should point front to rear.
Our lower control arms point towards the sides of the car -- orientation notches should point side to side.
Bill.
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Originally Posted by Chris 16409
