Club 80-90 Forums

Hi all,
Been madly fitting all new bushes to my front end....steering rack, lower control arm, arb. And what a difference they have made!! BUT have now been trying to remove the radius rods so that I can replace the rubber bushings and spacer tube. Have marked position of inner bolt and wound it toward chassis and removed the outer bolt but cannot see how to now remove the rod??
I have done it on a 2WD bit the Syncro is different. I assume it is threaded into the lower control arm?? If so how do you undo it? There is no flatting on the bar to get a spanner on and obviously no nut holding it in place in the control arm.
Hope somebody can shed some light on this!!
Must say...Brickwerks bushes are fantastic...plus I ordered on Wednesday lunchtime and got them Thursday morning....brilliant.

Yes, it is threaded into the lower arm. I would use a set of stilsons or something like that, that grips harder the more force you apply. You might be better removing the lower arm and rod as one. As I have heard the rods can snap.
When I did mine, I left the inner bush. I did the outer bush and sleeve in situ. Inner bush can wait until the suspension has to come apart

Thanks Lloyd. But you would have thought that VW would have 'flatted' a section so that you could get some leaverage on it. Have tried mole grips but they tend to slip.
Did I imagin it or are both the rods on a usual thread to undo / do up?? I.e they are both anticlockwise to undo??
Just a thought...

i don't know the answer to what way they undo, but even if you do manage to undo them the inner bush will foul on the hole the rod passes through. So i think the lower arm would have to come off anyway

Could well be the way! I am replacing the lower control arm bush anyway, so it will have to come out.
Has anybody else taken these out??

don't dissemble them, remove the lower arms, in fact I'd remove the whole lot as it's so much easier to get the radius rod end nut started on the threads if it is horizontal, get nut started then fit lca bush bolt, then refit upright, then reset caster
early syncro with pressed steel lca has removable radius rod which makes it easier but you still need big ratchet strap and big bar and friend to get it all lined up again to get the three bolts back in

Thanks Aiden,
Have now given up on idea of doing it myself...I know my limits...have contacted my mechanic friend who is going to do the lot. he has the tools, know how and above all the confidence.
I'm happy with the work i managed so far!!
Thanks again for info.