Exchanging a badly rusted wishbone

Your English is quite phenomenal .....yes working with your hands especially doing these little projects is good for the soul ..you contribute some great work on the forum ....Paul
 
Great thread and quality photo's you done a top job there ?

This wishbone differs from the one on my Y plate A2.
 
Now the console bush is in place, even though I had some difficulties in knowing the angle it should sit in.
The online manual says 7 degree +/- 5 degree, but is it upwards or downwards from the horisontal plane? Hmm.
https://workshop-manuals.com/audi/a...ubber_bush_for_suspension_bracket/installing/

I had since before some photos of the car standing on its wheel, and from those I concluded that it was upwards from the horisontal plane, ie the wishbone lower point should be at the console rather than at the ball joint.
Please correct me If I got this wrong.

Photos from car on its wheel, showing the angle of the wishbone hexagon in the bush.
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Closer view.
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First attempt to "press" the bush, marked with JG, in, did not give enough force.
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The vice was more successful (and yes, the bush is slightly misaligned in this picture :) )
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When replacing this lower arm is there a secret to getting the arm out of this bush I can imagine it binds on well ..without dropping consul ..in fact without dropping consul can you remove the control arm ?
 
Next step was to insert the wishbone in the bush.
After some googling including the onlinemanual I got to understand this:
One is supposed to lubricated the wishbone hexagon and bush inside with a VAG dedicated lubrication which will with time diffuse into the rubber itself to assure a high surface friction to reduce risk of unintentional movements between the wishbone hexagon/bush hexagon hole.

I took a time shortcut here and used soap water instead.
I hope to be able to rinse of some of it now afterwards manually, and hope for the road water splashes to do the rest of rinsing away the soap water. Was this less wise?

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Tapping in the wishbone.
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greywolfhound said:
When replacing this lower arm is there a secret to getting the arm out of this bush I can imagine it binds on well ..without dropping consul ..in fact without dropping consul can you remove the control arm ?
Click to expand...

Good question.
I havent done it, but I think getting the arm out of the bush could be done without removing the console, and I think others here on A2OC have done this and can advice (?).

But getting the bush out without removing the console might be trickier.
I have been looking at this tool before I started this job, but actually I hesitate if it can supply enough force to pull the bush out. My bush seemed almost "glued" on the outer surface.
https://www.ebay.de/itm/PRESS-WERKZ...796895&hash=item5d8b80b2b0:g:AdgAAOSwf8Nc5ooG

And if the thread for the wishbone front bush screw is damaged (as in my case) I cant see how it can be repaired without removing the console.
 
Hoping not to bore you to death, her comes the final assembly as well.

Back with the A2 again in the garage. I hade put the old screws back in place last time.
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My (rather coarse) markings of the console position relative to car body can be seen near the two bigger screws as black markings. It helped me get it back near original position and thereby not too much disturbed wheel alignment in the end.
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Here is the console with wishbone back in place.
It took quite some wiggling to get it back without removing the antiroll bar but it was possible.
Note the white sticker telling me to tighten that bolt later when the car is on its wheel. I tend to forget easily ?.
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Preparing to mount the new steering joint.
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Just for information (havent mentioned this earlier in this thread), the wheel centre nut does not have to be removed for this job, but I did it just in case as you can see here, where I am just about to mount the nut.
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New ball joint in place, with some undercoat on top as rust protection.
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And then fasten the screw now once the car is on its wheel, giving the right angle of the wishbone front bush.
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Job done ✔
It took more time than I had thought partly due to the thread damage. Hopefully it is not an everytime experience.
 
Joga said:
New ball joint in place, with some undercoat on top as rust protection.
View attachment 60631

And then fasten the screw now once the car is on its wheel, giving the right angle of the wishbone front bush.
View attachment 60632

Job done ✔
It took more time than I had thought partly due to the thread damage. Hopefully it is not an everytime experience.
Click to expand...
Cracking job well done I think we can all learn something from this project ...I hope the other side is easier ?...Paul
 
Joga said:
The screw that holds the front end of the wishbone to console must also be removed since it also involves the "frame".
This screw was very very uncoopeative. I probably spent 45 minutes trying to persuade it to leave the console threads fully, giving it continuous lubrication and winding it back and forth in small movements. I relized the concole threads were being destroyed in this operation :(.
View attachment 60417

Voila!
View attachment 60418


And now I could wiggle away the wishbone/console.
Click to expand...

I have some more self generated statistics on this screw now; out of three, only one :oops: has been possible for me to remove without problems.
Besides the one above that didnt go well as the threads in the alloy console/bracket was ripped, I managed to remove one wishbone (left) without problems at the breaker yard, but when going for the right side wishbone on the same breaker car, the screw was first moving out like 10 to fifteen turns then got seized and wouldnt move at all.
Had I applied more force to it it would definitely have broken, so I left it.
 
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