Pair of Wishbones

[Ed Doe]

Morning All,

I'm in the process of trying to sort out this front-end clonk I'm getting, and want to start crossing things off the list of what it could be before bothering with the f*ck-on of changing hubs.

Therefore I need a pair of wishbones of average condition to trial fit for a short period.

Offers invited via pm.

Thanks

[Niall]

Why not just jack it up and see what the issue is instead of just wasting time replacing parts until you've fixed it.

[Ed Doe]

I've tried that though. Literally, I've bloody well shaken, hammered wobbled and thumbed (inb4grant) everthing in the front end of the suspension with no success It seems to clonk at fairly high load, hence why I'm not getting much success...

[Scott]

Mine aren't too bad. If you feel like helping me fit my new ones you can have them

[Ed Doe]

Done

[darrenjlobb]

Wobble it harder, must be slop somewhere...

[cwspellowe]

Yes but Ed has girly girl arms so he couldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding.

Get some man in ye.

Giggidy.

[Niall]

Yeah sorry ed I agree with these guys. You just need a dose of MTFU

[darrenjlobb]

if you cant make the wishbone take slop on any joint with the wheel on / jacked up, then its fine, either that or as niall said need smoe MTFU pills lol!

[Curt]

I've got some decent ones I took off mine as I thought they were shot, but they're fine. You're welcome to try them (as long as I get them back, keeping them as spares as my lows inevitably ruin the current ones) although I think mine may be 16mm? As it's a phase win, and yours must be 18 I guess

[Ed Doe]

Damn thanks for the offer Curt, but as you say, I need a bigger balljoint to fit my hole...

[Niall]

Ed tbh unless the wishbone bushes are wrecked (which you would notice visibly and in the handling) then the wishbones should be fine. The balljoint could of come loose in the wishbone but I'm very doubtful and you would be able to see signs of where its been moving. It's more likely to be a top mount bearing or the hub has ovaled. You could try re torquing the pinch bolt in case you left it loose but generally if the ball joint has ruined the hub, it's a bit late and needs a new hub. Which I think I need . Should really look soon if I wasn't working every bloody hour of the day!

[Ed Doe]

So I went out on New Year's Day in the evening and (albeit with the car not up in the air) checked the torque on the balljoint pinch bolts; they're tight as fook! Couldn't even move them... there weren't any obvious signs of movement in the hub either really, so I think I can discount this?? Certainly for the timebeing...

Droplinks have done less than 50miles, and are brand new rose-jointed

ARB bushes aren't new but looked in ok nick when I changed the wishbones back in summer

Wishbones, I literally can't see any signs of damage etc? No signs of movement in any of the bushes through not being torqued up either, I ran the ratchet over most of them after checking the balljoints.

Topmounts; Now here's an interesting one...
I rang Baker up about these (didn't call Compbrake, as I was interested in the opinions of someone who hadn't sold me the parts...) Now when I said I'd had them on for about 8k on the road, he said "that's not too bad really for road use; they tend to wear faster on the road due to the unevenness of most of the roads on the UK. Track use is generally easier for them as the tarmac is super-smooth in the main..."
He has a replacement set of bearings, which are supposedly better than the compbrake offerings, so I think I may hit him up for these... But could this be causing my sloppy handling issues really?! I'm not entirely convinved...

If it's not the above, I'm a bit lost as to what the issue could be....!!! :S

[Niall]

Maybe it's just you ed....

[Ed Doe]

Maybe it's just you ed....

Ok, so the running rich thing, and the wierd issue I've had with throttle position/response may have partially been in my head. but The F-O clonk I get is DEFINITELY NOT.

[Ruan]

The clock is the lack of positive manifold pressure, you see...

[Ed Doe]

The clock is the lack of positive manifold pressure, you see...

Come fit a hooting great turbo on my car then

[CJ_Derv]

Got to agree with Darren!!!

I had a similar one and only noticed with both sides up in the air as apposed to one side and turned out to be tie rod on one side and track rod on other pal

[Ed Doe]

I just haven't found the time/motivation to get under it properly and shake shit about really. The weather hasn't been helping much though!

[Piggy]

you may find that its easier to check the top bearings whilst car is NOT jacked up.

sometimes when the wheels/hubs drop as the car is jacked up it loads them and gives a red herring 'ok'

[Ed Doe]

you may find that its easier to check the top bearings whilst car is NOT jacked up.

sometimes when the wheels/hubs drop as the car is jacked up it loads them and gives a red herring 'ok'

For stock mounts that's probably right, but these are spherical bearing ones, and I think they drop down when they're unloaded, and this is where the play might be...

[Niall]

you may find that its easier to check the top bearings whilst car is NOT jacked up.

sometimes when the wheels/hubs drop as the car is jacked up it loads them and gives a red herring 'ok'

For stock mounts that's probably right, but these are spherical bearing ones, and I think they drop down when they're unloaded, and this is where the play might be...

The bearings drop down when unloaded? Thats not right at all ed! They should stay exactly where they are loaded or not.

[Ed Doe]

you may find that its easier to check the top bearings whilst car is NOT jacked up.

sometimes when the wheels/hubs drop as the car is jacked up it loads them and gives a red herring 'ok'

For stock mounts that's probably right, but these are spherical bearing ones, and I think they drop down when they're unloaded, and this is where the play might be...

The bearings drop down when unloaded? Thats not right at all ed! They should stay exactly where they are loaded or not.

Yep. It's been friggin ages since I actually took a look at them without load on them (usually I'm mincing about some other problem that probably isn't there) so I need to get it up in the air and have another check.

[Niall]

Sounds like youve got some pretty broken bearings to me!

Edit: 8000 posts. god im a sad act bastard!

[Tom]

Probably a silly idea but have you ever let anyone else drive your car to get a second opinion as such? Or have you drove other peoples gti's to see what you thought?