OSF lower front wishbone replacement

[wigs_1]

As the title says.

Is this an easy enough job to do on the driveway?
It looks reasonably straight forward, the only issues I expect are:

- Splitting the ball joint. Never easy but I should have the tools this time.

- Removing the drop-link.
The Haynes says the car needs to be on the ground (or on ramps with weight on the wheels) to disconnect the drop link/anti-roll bar from the wishbone. Is this the case? Or can it be done with one wheel in the air?

Thanks, Chris

[zollaf]

the anti roll bar is a tough old bit of spring steel. whatever one end is doing, the other end likes to do the same, thats how it works, one wheel moves up and the bar tries to move the other wheel up to keep the car level in corners. so, jack one side up and the wheel drops whilst the other side doesn't. this puts the bar under tension. the end result means a 'ping' as you undo the side you are working on and possibly a broken pinky, and you certainly won't get it back into place, so have both wheels off the ground, this way both sides of the arb are doing the same, no tension and no problems.

[Col]

Check that your balljoint splitters jaws open wide enough.

My normal splitter that I've had for 20+ years wasn't.

Trial fit your splitter first and before you do any other work, you don't want things in bits and unable to split the joint.

Also on the B5 there is NO wishbone as such but two separate lower arms.

[passat 130 tdi]

best if you have 2 jacks. take the lower anti roll bar bolt out with wheel on the ground first . when you come to fit it again simply jack up the anti roll bar till the holes line up , your only talking maybe an inch or so . the ball joint in question you can whack either the arm itself etc to pop it out or use a punch and drive it out. Once you get started you'll soon realise how easy of a job it is .you may need that extra jack at the end to jack under the arm ball joint because the whole thing turns trying to tighten up the nut.

[wigs_1]

Thanks for all the replies folks. I'll be giving it a bash next weekend. Roll bar off whilst on the ramps, roll-off, jack-up, fix, back down, up the ramps and refit roll bar.
Easy when you type it quickly......

My ball joint splitters aren't the best, but I do have a set of hydraulic spreaders (ie: probably more power than is actually necessary or safe etc). Combine this with a selection of different sized persuading devices and I'm confident its a go-er.

Will feed back next weekend

Cheers, Chris