David Beierl wrote: > I'm talking about the hinges in the middle of the lifting > struts. They have an extremely serious design flaw and if not taken > care of you are headed for a nasty fall. The pictures at > http://picasaweb.google.com/dbeierl/VanagonPopTopHingeTroubles# will > show how to evaluate the situation and a possible repair. There are > no doubt many ways to repair this; the one I used is based on what I > had conveniently available, i.e. a lathe and some bronze round > bar. There's a discussion on Samba involving this in which the > repair was done by welding. > > The basic cause of the problem is that the part of the hinge that > bears on the center tube is much too thing and acts more like a knife > than a bearing. The rather frightening damage shown in the photos > happened between 1984 and 2004. Another cause is that as Scott > points out, this stuff never gets preventive lubrication. I can't find a post from Scott dealing directly with this. I eyeballed the situation here and it's not clear where/how one lubricates the problem area. And with what. -- Rocky J Squirrel 84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana") 74 Westrailia: (Ladybug Trailer company, San Juan Capistrano, Calif.) Bend, OR KG6RCR |
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