Hi all:

A few days ago I installed new upper ball joints and shocks on my '81.
It also needed the lower ball joints done but even though I'd bought
the joints themselves, I decided to have the "experts" do the job.  So
I took the ball joints to the local wheel works emporium, asked "how
much" and "how long", and was told "1 hour per side at $75/hr and
we'll need the car 2-3 hours."

"Great!" sez I, and sign on the dotted line.

To make a long story short, it turned out to cost a *lot* more than
$75 x 2, and they ended up having the car for 2 days.  The culprit, it
seems, was that
  a) the "experts" had no in-house press and,
  b) no shop in the local San Francisco East Bay area could
      press the joints in.

Now, I thought pressing on and off ball joints, at least on older
cars, was a common enough event; what the *heck* makes the Vanagon
lower ball joints so difficult, if anything?

TIA.
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Tom Young                      tomyoung1@home.com
Lafayette, CA 94549        '81 Vanagon
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