A solid clunking over bumps is telling me it's time to replace the ball
joints in my  (non-synchro) 87.      And after 145,000 trouble-free (I
wish) miles,  it's not unexpected.

Has anyone done that and survived?    Looks like a pain from the book.
Can it be done without special VW tools?

(For laughs, I called the local dealer and got a quote of $200 per side
exclusive of parts  ($88.50 each for the lowers), but they admitted they
didn't do it very often...)

Dave