Date: Tue, 28 Jul 2009 20:31:31 -0600
Reply-To: Warren Lail <wklail@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Warren Lail <wklail@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: steering rack u-joint
In-Reply-To: <02b301ca0fe8$704e00f0$6401a8c0@PROSPERITY>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Hi Scott,
I crawled back under and the u-joint is definitely sloppy. I'm not a
hard driver, but some of the other things you mentioned do apply.
First, I have been driving with the front-end out of alignment because
no one seems to be able to get it to specifications (caster or camber,
I forget). It wears badly on the inside of the tires, especially the
passenger side. I replaced my springs some time back with springs
from an 85 Westy. Those springs gave me about an inch and a half
lift. I ordered those upper ball joint spacers from Gowesty that are
supposed to help with this problem. I plan to install them tomorrow
(as well as do brake work all around) and then go straight in for an
alignment. Hopefully that will resolve that problem.
Second, I installed Bilstein HD shocks in 2006, and now they seem
sloppy (probably 70,000 miles on them).
Third, my Vanagon has over 400,000 miles on it (except engine and
tranny), so it is expected that these parts would show some wear by
now.
So the combination if these things have caused the u-joint wear.
Speaking of shocks, I am thinking of using another brand, not sure
which at this point. Any suggestions?
Warren
88 Westy with 85 springs and Subie 2.2
On Tue, Jul 28, 2009 at 7:03 PM, Scott Daniel -
Turbovans<scottdaniel@turbovans.com> 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
>
>
| 
