Date:         Wed, 15 Aug 2001 12:10:03 -0700
Reply-To:     Shawn Wright <swright@SLS.BC.CA>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Shawn Wright <swright@SLS.BC.CA>
Organization: Shawnigan Lake School
Subject:      Re: Front Suspension Blues (Got the Squeeks)
In-Reply-To:  <3B7A39E7.A85CC9D@home.com>
Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII

On 15 Aug 2001, at 1:59, Bruce Anderson wrote:

>     Hello All!
>
>          Brand new to the list! I'm driving a blue '87 GL Westy-
> nicknamed "Bear" by my almost five-year-old son, due to the way that it
> "growls" when we climb a hill..........anyway, I've been having a "bear"
> of a time with the front suspension-  after 150K miles, every dip,
> pothole, and undulation in the roadway creates squeeks, groans, and
> squeals, to the point where I'm just a little fed up. (It's funny, I had
> a '72 that made almost the exact same sound!) I've had my head under
> there while I had a friend jumping up and down on the bumper (don't try
> this at home- it looks plain silly) and as far as I can tell, most of
> the racket is coming from the upper control arm bushings. (BTW, I'm
> assuming that the bushings are pressed in?) The shocks are also looking
> a little ragged, and all of the rubber is still "original", so I'm
> looking to replace the rubber on the sway bar and trailing arms as well.
> What I wanted to know is........before I pull out the spring compressor
> and get to work on those bushings, are there any veterans out there who
> have battled the same problem? Any "common" problems with squeaking
> Vanagon front suspensions? Pitfalls to avoid? Secrets? Hot tips?
> (Already out of WD40)

Just did the driver's side on mine, and did the other side last year. You
won't need a spring compressor. You can check that the noise is from
the A arm bushings by disconnecting the upper ball joint, and moving
the A arm by hand - this should produce the noises you're hearing, at
least it did on mine. The manual says the bushings need replacing if
the inner race allows the bolt head to contact the outer casing, but I
can't see this ever happening. Mine has 365,000 kms on original
bushings and they showed no signs of collapsing, they just hardened
and made noise. (lots of it!).

The A arms are easy to get out, about 5 minutes to do, just remove the
ball joint, then hang the caliper with a wire to spring so it doesn't fall
over, then remove the A arm bolt and pull it out.

The bushings are pressed in, and spot welded if original, so cut the
weld off then either press out or start hammering. I used a large socket
(34mm I think) as a drift to get the first bushing out, then used the old
bushing to drive out the remaining bushings. Hammering can take
anywhere from 3 to 30 minutes (no kidding) and work up a real sweat,
so if you're not into this, or don't have a solid vise to hammer against,
you may want to take them to a shop to have pressed out/in.

Pressing in new bushings is a bit quicker - I was able to start them
straight using a vise - it's a bit hard to keep them straight at first. Once
started, use and old bushing to drive in, which should go quicker than
removal (but still a lot of pounding).

Squeaks are now gone on mine, but I still get a clunking/rattling noise,
even after doing the sway bar bushings, upper ball joints and shocks,
so I suspect it must be the steering rack, since everything else seems
tight.

You will need an alignment after the job, of course. Speaking of which,
can anyone recommend a good alignment shop in Duncan or Victoria,
BC? I tried to have it done while in Calgary, but the shop claimed my
camber was out and it was non-adjustable, even though the Bentley
clearly shows how to do it...



========================
Shawn Wright
Computer Systems Manager
Shawnigan Lake School
http://www.sls.bc.ca
swright@sls.bc.ca