Date:         Tue, 21 Oct 2003 17:21:30 -0400
Reply-To:     David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Subject:      Re: sheer bolts/steering column
Comments: To: gary hradek <hradek@YAHOO.COM>
Comments: cc: Oxroad@AOL.COM
In-Reply-To:  <20031021193224.23397.qmail@web41307.mail.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

At 03:32 PM 10/21/2003, gary hradek wrote:
>Jeff,
>      It is not so the torque is right but so the bolts
>sheer during an accident.   I would reuse them and
>perhaps use some locktite.   gary

I respectfully disagree...the dealer says the bolts are an antitheft
measure; and examining the setup makes it very hard to see how the bolts
would shear in a collision or what use it would be if they did.  The bolts
attach the column to a pair of fairly thin straps suspended from the upper
dash area.  These straps operate primarily in tension and have no provision
to keep them in place sideways which would be required to shear the bolts
(in fact you sometimes have to bend them a bit by hand when remounting
because they got disturbed while the dash was off, or coming off).   OTOH
they *do* have the characteristic bend in the middle -- like the notches in
the stiffening members of the hood of a conventional car) so that they will
surely buckle if placed under a strong compression load.

It would be nice if someone took some pictures illustrating all this -- If
no-one else has by the next time my dash comes off, I will.  A pair of
those bolts is about fifteen bucks from the dealer, and it seems silly to
bother with them when any decent thief is going to use a slam-hammer on the
ignition switch anyway.

Even supposing that the bolts *were* intended to shear in collision, in
that case it would be necessary to use new bolts each time as VW specifies,
since the shearing of the head would in this case make sure that the
tightening torque was not too high or low.

My own suggestion would be to replace them with ordinary M-10 (M-8?)
hex-head bolts and be done with it.  And if anyone wants a pair of the
dealer monstrosities (nice parkerized-looking finish on them) they can have
them for $15 plus postage which is about what I paid for them.  I'm betting
that the price has gone up enough to make that an attractive deal.

regds,
david


--
David Beierl - Providence RI USA -- http://pws.prserv.net/synergy/Vanagon/
'84 Westy "Dutiful Passage"
'85 GL "Poor Relation"