Damper Issues

[Robin]

Spent this afternoon taking off the front suspension ready for my new suspension kit and new bushes to arrive.

Anyway all was going well until the ball joint on the drivers steering arm decided to spin along with the nut and the rubber is split, i am guessing i will be needing a new steering arm then?

Also to take the damper off there is a massive cap, the previous owner decided to paint the strut and cap/thread and now its bloody seized on! Is there a special tool to remove this cap?

I have tried the vice with no luck!

[Nick_S]

Did you have some ball joint seperators?
These are invaluble to fitting front suspension because not only will they press out the shamfered joint; turn them the other way up and you can use them to jam it back in again to get that tie rod nut off If the rubber has split then its a new drivers sterring arm. If it was the passenger side then you could get away with just replacing the tie rod end.

You need a monkey wrench (stilsons) to get them damper strut caps off.

[Robin]

Didn't use joint splitters as the driver side came out really easily and the passenger side was already split.

Are the G steering arms the same as any other Mk3? I am guessing the inlet manifold has to come out to fit a new sodding steering arm then?

[breadman]

Steering arms are G specific Robin - ball jointed at the rack end as opposed to being rubber bushed. VAG only, and not cheap.
You should be able to replace the steering arm without taking the inlet off though.

[Robin]

oh cock

[Fred]

I asked about steering arms at a VW garage last week and only the Fixed steering rod is still
available.

Fred.

[scotsjohn]

Also to take the damper off there is a massive cap, the previous owner decided to paint the strut and cap/thread and now its bloody seized on! Is there a special tool to remove this cap?

You'll probably get new caps with your inserts (best check and see) so you can afford to sacrifice the old ones. VERY easy with a hacksaw across the cap until you're just about through to the thread then you can peel them off with a bit of gentle chiselling.

Breadman seems pretty sure about the steering arms but my current G's got rubber bushed inners as had my old one which I had from near new. My old G did have replaceable outer ends on both sides and that's a definate change as only the passenger side offers that now. £70 quid for drivers side which is standard mk3, £27 for rod end for passenger side.

[Robin]

got the cap off last night by soaking it overnight in WD40 and using a vice and brute force!

[hayesey]

steering arms are definitely g40 specific, they have metal bushes in the middle joints but these have rubber boots over them so I guess you could be mistaking them for rubber bushes.  Or it's perfectly possible that someone has replaced them with non-g40 ones in the past.

I've never seen a mk3 polo with adjustable arms on both sides, no idea where someone would have got a drivers side adjustable arm from!  Are you sure about that, did it definitely have the nuts on the arm to adjust it?

[giorgio]

I remember hearing that when Mk3 were new-ish one of the parts companies made the other arm adjustable.

[scotsjohn]

I've never seen a mk3 polo with adjustable arms on both sides, no idea where someone would have got a drivers side adjustable arm from!  Are you sure about that, did it definitely have the nuts on the arm to adjust it?
[/quote]

That was my first G Paul and definately both ends adjustable; an H reg with only 30k on it. Although I believe it had a weird history engine wise I can't think of it needing anything  renewed in the steering dept. Funnily enough this was discussed with my local VW parts dept last year when I was renewing the present G's steering arms ( yes they are rose jointed- apologies to breadman) and their guy remembered  their existance although he reckoned they weren't on UK cars.