Club 80-90 Forums

There are three MOT testers at the place I use and I was chatting to one chap when my tin top was in a few months back ( but he didn't do the test) and he was saying that these vans always have some play in the front suspension ball joints but it's only possible to see the play with a special VW tool and that they were not allowed to use it.

The Pop top went in Friday and this chap does the test and I get an advisory on it, when I asked which side he seemed a little vague and said drivers I think.

Jacked it up and had a look and there are no marks from levering with any sort of tool so how does he know there is play?

My gut feeling is is this chap worked for VW once and puts this on every VW T25 without actually checking anything but I could be wrong.

So my question is ( if you read this far) what is the tool and how do you check for play?

thanks

If they have a modern, semi automated ramp , it’s possible to see them move, I just use a bar

The tool was for torsion bar suspensions, T25s you check like any other ball joints with a pry bar.

Thanks chaps, I will have a go.

Tried in here with a crowbar but can't see any movement, perhaps this is the wrong place?

and how would I check the upper one?

Strange I can't see any marks from the MOT inspector, are they allowed to use pry bars?

Could you take it back to the tester and ask him to show you the movement?

R0B wrote:Could you take it back to the tester and ask him to show you the movement?

I will ask him to show me next year, I'm certainly not changing them on an advisory unless I can see movement.

It can't be hard for me to test with the right knoledge and tools.

When I use to do pre Mot's I'd lever the joint(s) with the weight on the wheel then again with the vehicle jacked up and the suspension drooping as well as feeling for play in the wheel top to bottom and side to side then lever the wheel up a few times with the bar between the ramp and the tyre. Sometimes if something looked suspect or it was a 4x4 then with the vehicle off the jacks I'd get someone to rock the steering while inspecting the components. By doing that some ball joints would lift slightly.

I'll add that I'm not an MOT tester I just use to prep vehicles for the MOT and this is the method I used.

If I remember rightly when the vehicle is logged onto the system the computer will give special notes which could be to check a component a certain way or something that is commonly missed. Maybe if there are any MOT testers on the forum they could see if there are any notes for T25's

I hope that's of some help, I'm actually trying to find a front end knock on my van that wasn't picked up on the MOT and I can't find it either. Sounds like an anti-rollbar knock but there's no play in anything.

had a bit of clunkyness with the tin top which seems to have gone with radius rod bushes

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I have a better look at mine next time I get it on the ramp.

Anybody now how to check for play before I ask on facebook?

thanks

Allegedly they tend to fail first in the up and down plane, rather than side to side (which is what I think you are trying looking at the orientation of your pry bar).

Limits of wear are a bit more tricky to ascertain, but generally it seems if there is noticeable slop then its knackered.

MOT test procedure if here - http://www.ukmot.com/manual/2.5/Suspens ... acked)#MOT

Bar under wheel and lift, plus wheel rocking whilst you look at the ball joints. Failure is 'excessive movement', so its all subjective.

With the slightly loose wheel bearings on the T25 I suspect you need to exercise caution that you are not detectiung slop in the bearing rather than the ball joints.

Excellent thanks I will try that.

T25Convert wrote:Allegedly they tend to fail first in the up and down plane, rather than side to side (which is what I think you are trying looking at the orientation of your pry bar).

Limits of wear are a bit more tricky to ascertain, but generally it seems if there is noticeable slop then its knackered.

MOT test procedure if here - http://www.ukmot.com/manual/2.5/Suspens ... acked)#MOT

Bar under wheel and lift, plus wheel rocking whilst you look at the ball joints. Failure is 'excessive movement', so its all subjective.

With the slightly loose wheel bearings on the T25 I suspect you need to exercise caution that you are not detectiung slop in the bearing rather than the ball joints.

I tried a scaffold pole on the ball joint while wheel was hanging and with it jacked and no movement I could see



then with the wheels on the ground a scaffold pole under the arm and again no movement I could see.

Next step is to remove upper ball joint bolts and see if that makes any difference.