1967 VW Bug Ball Joint Removal

I figured this would be a great winter project for my Bradley GT II. When I go above 60 mph, the front end starts to shake. (Yes, I checked the tire pressure)

There's a very nice thread on theSamba.com about replacing ball joints. There are also a couple Youtube videos that will inspire you to try using a ball joint press.  To summarize here are the different approaches some have done:

With the ball joints still attached to the car:
Use a ball jointpress
-- You can rent for free from Autozone (wrong size - didn't work for me)
-- Ebay has a cool tool you can buy - $200 - 500 (like I'm gonna use this thing over and over)
One guy used a puller - really?? (Mine were completely rusted in)
One guy used a ball joint extractor with some pipe ends he had especially cut for the job - he doesn't say what the sizes were and he's in Finland

With the trailing arms removed from the car:
Use a huge vice with sockets (my vice is too small)
Use a welder to heat them up then knock them out with a sledge hammer (I don't have a welder)
There are a couple sites that will take your old trailing arm and swap them for a reconditioned one with new ball joints installed.  Yes, there's a core charge:
http://www.chircoestore.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=186_189_230
Take them to a auto shop or machine shop and have them replace them -- BINGO!!!

Removing the spindles just to get to the ball joints can be daunting enough. 
Jack up the car, remove the tire, detach the tie rod (see my previous post for complications), remove the disc brake caliper from the disc brake and place on the shelf behind the spindle.
Move the disc brake all the way to one side, spray with PB Blaster, hit a few times to get the lubricant to soak in and use either a 17 mm or 25/32 socket to remove the ball joint nuts.
Now comes the hard part. Both of the trailing arms are under tension and it's difficult to lift the top one up. I used a pickle fork but it just wasn't giving me enough clearance.
The trick that worked for me was using a 2 foot long 2X4 to lift the top trailing arm up enough, with a prying motion between the two trailing arms to get it out of the spindle - usually with the camber still stuck to the ball joint bolt.

I tried using the free rental tool from Autozone but the all adapters didn't really fit.

Then I tried getting creative by using a few large sockets...nope!

I read where it's easy to remove the trailing arms by loosening the grub screw, I couldn't find a picture of one and mine was covered with dirt and grime.  So I unscrewed the bolt......now what???  Once I got myself into a position where I could see, it still needed an allen wrench to take it out.  Here's what it looks like.

To remove the bottom trailing arm you might have to cut off the sway bar like I did.  Quick cut and it revealed that the bushings were old, hard as a rock and cracked.

Here are the trailing arms after I removed them, notice I had one ball joint partly removed - argh!!

You can see where the grub screw mounts to the inner leaf springs in the front end. 

I took my trailing arms to Eastside Auto in Ellensburg and Mike was able to take out the old, replace with the new ball joints I had previously bought, all for $20 each.  He had to use extreme heat on one because it was so badly rusted in.  That's a bargain!!!

I still had to order new gaskets for the leaf springs, new cambers and a new bushing kit. $120.