Lt35/ Merc Sprinter wishbone and balljoint quandry.

[The North]

After 5 weeks of dodging the damned rain and scratching my head trying to think of a plan to pres the bottom ball joints out of my VW lt 35 vani finally decided enough was enough and had a look at it tonight,  The best way i can think of is to remove the lower wishbones completely and press out the ball joints in my mates press. Now spiting the ball joint from the hub assembly looks straightforward enough, but when i jacked up the front of the van the wishbone went down for far enough and i am not sure if the front spring wont need a spreader making up to take the tension off the wishbone.
  I want both wishbones off for the bal joint replacement, so i was wondering if any on here are sprinter/ LT knowledgeable and can offer any advice on this job, they look a pig to get out the wishbone. And trying to whack it out in sittu looks a no no to me.
 Any advice. ? I am especially concerned with the spring tension its a big old spring and will take some compressing once it escapes and only way i can see is make a spreader bar of some kind.

[The North]

Well the spring is strong but i wedged the spring against the sub frame rail and took the wishbones off, it may have been that the spring would come down and not be under load but i was not sure so i wedged it anyway. The Ball joints took some pressing out of the wishbones,on my mates press  if you look at the expensive tools on youtube for sprinter ball joint removal they make it look super simple. I bet with one of those tools it would be a right rave on pushing one out. And those that whack them out with a big hammer, i say this you are a better man than me gunga din.  All in all an unpleasant job they are tight in very tight in.  Job done vw soon back towing stuff. 

[Manky Monkey]

That's good news mate. I'm very wary of large coiled springs, having had several close shaves over the years with them unexpectedly going boing & nearly taking my head off.

[The North]

 I actual fact the lt35/ sprinters don't have coils ,, but  have a huge transverse leaf spring, that's what i was being so careful about all fettled now though .

[Manky Monkey]

Didn't know they still used leaf springs on modern vehicles.

[The North]

  And a transverse leaf spring at that , they have gone coil i think on the new shape sprinter and the VW crafter that replaced the old up to 2006 Sprinter shaped LT35. Ours is an old 1999.

[Manky Monkey]

I've got a transverse spring on my truck project. Maybe it's more up to date than I thought!

[spanners]

  it was a leaf in the end,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,===== not a problem