Date: Mon, 20 Mar 2000 00:42:37 -0700
Reply-To: Bill Nolan <bill@FREEHOLDER.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Bill Nolan <bill@FREEHOLDER.COM>
Subject: Re: Luggage Rack Rattle
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong... The seal you are
describing, with the rubber bead, is not intended for use on the luggage rack.
There are three kinds of seals used on Vanagon pop tops. The one you are
describing is used around the two sides and back of the poptop part. A
flat seal goes agross the front of the poptop. The "seal" for the luggage
rack is not intended to seal. It is a decoration. It is the U part you
describe, without the rubber bead. There are drains in the luggage rack,
and a true seal would keep the water on your roof.
The aftermarket seals I got for my van from Busdepot consisted of the three
different types, just like the factory ones.
There is a known problem with luggage racks vibrating when the original
rubber edge is replaced with the aftermarket one. I fixed mine by not
pushing the U all the way on, causing the rubber to extend down a bit more.
At certain speeds, and depending upon the outside wind speed and
direction, I can still get some vibration, but as I mentioned in an earlier
post, opening a wing vent window makes it stop immediately, although I
don't know why.
At 08:42 PM 3/19/00 -0700, Jon B Kanas wrote:
>I know what your noise is; It took me six weeks to find mine on my
1983... I
>found it in minutes on the 1987 (experience pays!!) It's the new seal you
>installed. If I'm correct, the seal you installed had a 'U' shaped channel
>which firmly slid over the edge of the luggage rack. Glued to this 'U'
channel
>is a round bead of soft rubber, which seals against the roof of your Vanagon
>when the seal is installed.
>
>The bead of soft rubber on the new seal is your problem; Air, being
deflected
>off of the windshield picks up the rubber, then is snaps back against the
roof
>of the Vanagon. I tried several fixes, the most successful was to cut the
bead
>of rubber seal from the U channel and remove it. I made clean angle cuts at
>either end of the windshield frame, near the rain gutters. I filled the open
>hole of the channel remaining with black silicone, and the appearance is
>excellent. The second best fix was to remove the luggage rack, and put a
strip
>of 1/2" self-adhesive weather-stripping (normally used between pickup beds
and
>camper shells) along the top of the windshield so that the rubber bead of the
>luggage rack weather-strip was securely compressed. This worked for about 1
>year until the self-adhesive weather-strip disintegrated.
>
>Unless you want to go to the dealer and pay for the factory seal, you will
need
>to fiddle about with the after-market seal until it is quiet. I purchased my
>aftermarket seal from Bus Boys several years ago. It is basically a good
seal,
>and the price is significantly better than the dealer part. I would really
>like to see an seal which is a single, molded piece of rubber. In
addition to
>the noise problem, I have also had the rubber seal separate from the 'U'
>channel in different places.
>
>Regards and good luck,
>Jon B Kanas
>
>Boulder County Colorado:
>194249 sq Hectares surrounded by reality.
>Working hard to keep it this way
>
Bill (SE Arizona) (Bill@freeholder.com) HTTP://www.freeholder.com
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