Date:         Mon, 21 Jun 2004 19:50:51 -0700
Reply-To:     Shawn Wright <swright@ZUIKO.SLS.BC.CA>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Shawn Wright <swright@ZUIKO.SLS.BC.CA>
Subject:      Re: torsion rod bearings vs. upper control arm bushings
In-Reply-To:  <20040622014041.42505.qmail@web53908.mail.yahoo.com>
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On 21 Jun 2004 at 18:40, stephen steele <steeles159@YAHOO.COM> wrote:

> I, too, have no experience on this area of the van.
> But prior to tackling this job I did a search of the
> archives for upper control arm bushings(UCAB). As
> expected there's a wealth of info.
>
> SYNOPSIS:
> It seems that the change of UCAB does not guarantee
> the removal of front end squeaking. The r/r will take
> away the knocking about caused by the delamination of
> the internal rubber of the bushings. The Bentley says
> to spot weld the new ones in and most agree that this
> is necessary (some don't, though).
> Most also agree that this the perfect time to do the
> ball joints and tie rod ends, too.  I have put off
> doing my UCAB until I get all the other parts to do it
> completely.  I don't have the squeaking...mine is
> knocking about.

I'll weigh in with my experiences here, since I had both squeaking an knocking.
Replacing the UCBs fixed my squeaking, and has stayed that way for about 4-5 years
now, with plenty of rough road travel. Strangely, only the pass side had the proble, so I
left the driver side alone.
The knocking was caused by installing KYB shocks and using the bushings supplied
with them. Fortunately, I had kept the stock bushings, and on the advice of the list, put
them back in - no more knocking! This is on an '88 Westy, now with 382k kms.
--
Shawn Wright
http://Zuiko.sls.bc.ca/swright
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