Installing lowering springs in my 997tt. Accidentally pulled the boot off the lower ball joint. No tears, just pulled it out of the groove. How in the hell do I get it back on??

 

All-purpose grease and some muscle?

 

its not about muscle. its about getting in the little groove. I have a feeling that I have to replace the entire lower arm??? Does it come non-serviceable?

 

if you can post a pic of it we might be able to see how to help

 

you wish is my command.

 

try to see if that silver outer ring on the base is removable. You may be able to re-seat the boot and then press/tap that outer ring back into place

 

Been there, done that. I was never successful getting the boot back in the groove. You are correct, it's a non-serviceable part and as far as I can tell you have 2 options.
1. Replace the LCA now.
2. You can do as I did and run with the boot dangling until the balljoint wears out, THEN replace the LCA.
I used to track my car pretty heavily and was under it every week, so checking the balljoint just became one of my pre-event checks.

Good Luck!

 

Thats exactly what I did. overnighted a new LCA and put it in, figured that was the only way.

Did notice on the other side, however, a very small (1/16 of an inch) tear in the boot that I did NOT do. I think it is fine however, nothing is coming out of it, so I'm going to run with that normally.

 

Valex, sry did not realize the boot expanded so much.

I ran into a similar issue when making a repair on my RS4. Looks like you are good to go. I was going to recommend using an adjustable hose clamp around the boot, allow 1/4" of the boot's edge exposed (side that mates with joint recess) to attempt wrestling it in for a clean mate. Once you have that 1/4" or so within the recess/groove, keep applying much pressure while slowly unscrewing clamp.

 

Yea, now that I have a new arm, it's not #1 priority

However, I was going to try something similar to what you have suggested, we'll see how it goes, I don't have high hopes for it.