My steering has the same type of slop in it and it's been geting gradually worse for years. Traced the beginning of itback when I disconnected the PS pump and drove the van as a non PS ride with a PS rack. yeah the steering effort is increased for sure, and I'll bet the hanover folk didn't think they'd need a beefy u joint in there for the effortlessness of power steering. Scott, any chance you could do a ball park guess as to the diameter of the pin in that u joint? I've been meaning to carry a spare round piece of steel or bolt in case it should ever fail on me. I think I have a spare from the Syncro melt down, but couldn't locate it any time soon. Thanks DM&FS At 08:03 PM 7/28/2009, Scott Daniel - Turbovans wrote: >I havn't seen those wear ever. >( I can come up with a good used one though ) > >factors, that I can see, contirbuting to wear on that part, besides sheer >age... >or running with not-so-hot shocks, >tires out of balance, or tires or wheels out of round, >or no offenee...........believe it or not, clumsy heavy-handed steering. > >I wouldnt' think this myself, but I let a guy use a vanagon of mine for >about a year and bit once...... >non-power steering. >when I got it back it had a solid two inches of steeing play at the edge of >the steering wheel. >which I thought was weird since vangons almost never get steering play much >.......they get worn tie rod ends, sure ......but for play to develope, like >slop in the linkage , that doesn't really happen much. > Then one day I watched this same guy.........who weighs about 350 lbs at >least, back his own van out of my shop...... >and when it came time to turn the steering wheel, he *jerked* the sterring >input. Of course at low speed, that's rough on the steering linake. >And I don't mean just pull in the direction he wanted to steer, I mean 'jerk >it', like hard. >I am reasonably certain that his rough handling of the steering like that, >especially at zero miles per hour is what did it to my van- - created wear >like that. . >In that case it was where the tie rod ends come out of the steering >rack...... >completely ovaled out there, just ruined the rack. > >I've been saving an entire good used power steering rack, with the shaft >that goes forward to the 'V' steering box up in there ......a part you'd >never know was there , and the shaft has that u-joint in it. >I'll have to check if a non-PS u-joint is the same. >the two shafts, PS versus non-PS are slightly different, and the u-joint >might be too. Not sure if I want to break up the set, as it makes a perfect >set to convert a non-PS vanagon to PS. >scott >www.turbovans.com > > >----- Original Message ----- >From: "Warren Lail" <wklail@GMAIL.COM> >To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM> >Sent: Tuesday, July 28, 2009 5:40 PM >Subject: steering rack u-joint > > >>Greetings everyone, >> >>Recently when driving slowly on rough dirt roads I noticed a knocking, >>rattling sound that I can feel in the steering. Today when I arrived >>home (and after I washed away tons of mud), I crawled under my bus and >>it seems that the u-joint that connects to the power steering rack is >>quite worn and loose. Is this something that generally wears and >>needs replacing? It looks like it is attached to the steering rack >>and to a rod running forward by a couple of integrated clamp-like >>things with bolts through them. Hard to replace? Source for the >>part? >> >>Thanks, >> >>Warren in Santa Fe >>88 Westy |
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