This is a common problem in Vanagons as they are a brick - especially it you do not have LT tires installed. When we bought our Westie it had Passenger tires on it and it wandered all over the place - with LT tires installed it was a lot more stable.
-- David Marshall - Volkswagen Enthusiast - Quesnel, BC, Canada -- -- 78 VW Rabbit, 79 VW Iltis, 80 VW Caddy, 84 VW Westfalia -- -- 85 VW Cabriolet, 87 Audi 5000 Quattro, 88 VW Syncro Double Cab -- -- David's Volkswagen Home Page http://www.volkswagen.org -- -- Fast Forward Autobahn Sport Tuning http://www.fastforward.ca -- -- david@volkswagen.org (pmail) or vanagon@volkswagen.org (list) --
-----Original Message----- From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com]On Behalf Of Rich Propsom Sent: November 3, 2000 6:41 PM To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM Subject: Steering Adjustment
I have been trying to track down some of the steering wander that occurs on the 82 vanagon in strong winds. This is manual steering, no power. The ball joints and wheel bearings seemed to be in good shape and tight. A little investigation lead me to steering gear. With the front end jacked up there was a small amount of play (slop) allowing the road wheel to be moved a little (maybe a quarter inch in or out) without it turning the connecting shaft which is eventually attached to the steering wheel. After a little cleaning and inspection i noticed that on the bottom side of the steering gear is a socket which appeared to allow some adjustment. A bit of experimenting allowed this to be tightened somewhat, reducing the slop without affecting steering stiffness to much. Seems to be less wind sensitive. The question is....has anyone done this before? If so, is this just putting a little pressure on the rack or pinion gear forcing them a little tighter? Any ideas as to what problems could be created other than maybe a little? additional wear? Bentley does not address this issue.
Rich 82 X Diesel Westie |
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