'Special' Ball Joints, yes or no with stock spindles

My car is up for brake, shock, and swaybar and I've got one joint with a destroyed boot. So I think it's as good a time as any to fix the joint and why not all of them at one time.
In CIP1 I find a choice of their 'special' extended movement ball joints or stock ball joints.

My car has stock spindles but I wonder if these extended movement joints will do harm or give benefit if they're used instead of the more obvious choice?

You may need the special ones if you have used beam adjusters to lower the front, changing the angle of the arms going back from the beam. That is my guess.

you only need them if you are going this low:


seriously - they have special notches that increase the range of travel, so if you are running really low (or have air), then you should get them. otherwise - just get a boot replacement kit and save yourself the hassle. replacing the ball joints is not a small task.

here is a lowering thread on TS: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=143095

here is a ball joint replacement thread on TS: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=177433

Wow! Mango, I've admired several photos of your car but didn't realize just how low you've got it. Amazing.

My car has the toothed weld-in beam adjusters on both beams but instead of lowering it further I've been thinking of raising the front end to about an inch higher than the rear.

I'm going to add the extended range caster adjusters and possibly change out all the ball joints just because I'm there. I've got a hydraulic press and likely any tool that might be needed to do the job. Can also do the 'heat old joint with torch removal method' if necessary. Anyway I don't anticipate a problem doing the job. Haven't seen ball joint boot repair kits anywhere I've looked so far - is that an OEM kit?

It's just that when given a choice in unfamiliar ground I hesitated long enough to ask the forum what these 'special' joints might do for the car, if anything considering it's stock spindles.

ken: this is what i was talking about:
http://www.cip1.ca/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=VWC%2D131%2D405%2D001%2DA4

Yeah, I saw them after posting above. I hadn't scrolled far enough down the page is all.

But...I went out an levered with my big bar on the joint with the bad boot and feel it move a little tiny bit. So I think I'll just go ahead and change all of them. They're so small it probably isn't a good idea to push my luck ripping around corners. A folded under front wheel might explode the fender of a glass car.

I would definitely go with the clearanced joints. No down side to doing it and if your limited now it will help the handling. I pay my local guy $10 an arm to press out the old and install the new. Well worth it.