Date: Tue, 28 Jul 2009 20:31:36 -0700
Reply-To: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Subject: Re: steering rack u-joint
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reply-type=original
Hi,
well, 400,000 miles - your van can be forgiven for many 'bad' things then.
85 Westy front springs are definitely 'too tall'. I would only use those
where I wanted a real lift.
I took mine out, ( 85 Wolfsburg Weekender ) and put in used 86 GL springs
and it came out just right.
since the springs don't have anything to do with upper ball joints, I'm not
sure what GoWesty has there.
I should look on their site.
the springs go between the body and lower arm of course. I could imagine
some offset upper ball joint thing that would compensate for camber change
with too tall springs though.
at 70K your Bilstiens could be kinda tired.
I've been wanting to try some Koni's from Van Cafe ......but they are out of
them right now, or were recently.
Tires sure seem to matter re 'shock action' and feel. I'm running these 15
inch Michelin Agilles 205/65 15 C tires .....
a very expensive tire, on my for sale 85 Adventurewagon and ..........now
those front new HD Bilsteins seem to be working !
it's the whole package of course.......the spring/shock/tire package. When
those are working really in concert.....
then you do start feeling magic on bumps, cornering, and tracking.
when it's really right ......
a car or van goes right where you point, and eats bumps and potholes like
they weren't there.
I have not noticed this affect so much with HD Bilsteins on vanagons
........until these Aggilles tires.
Prior to running them.......the HD Bilsteins seemed 'all right' ........but
not stellar.
now they do, or the front end does, I'll say.
on my mercedes sedan, and a turbo Volvo sedan, the Bilstein Affect was
immediately apparent, and magic.
I had been thinking they didn't get it quite right for vanagons .......
though perhaps tires are a bigger factor than you'd think.
Old Man Emu - if those are available for 2WD - you want 'em. They are just
great.
Well you got the right engine in there !
let us know how it all turns out.
Scott
www.turbovans.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Warren Lail" <wklail@GMAIL.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Tuesday, July 28, 2009 7:31 PM
Subject: Re: steering rack u-joint
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
>
>
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