Date: Sun, 3 Jul 2016 21:26:40 -0700
Reply-To: Scott - IMAP <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Scott - IMAP <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Subject: Re: My van's home again!!!
In-Reply-To: <CAEwp_cRm9AwJ4E7FDtvVO02OxiGu9Zp_vdSbHD-yQuMZAPNHyg@mail.gmail.com>
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Awesome...
VW was right to recommend that tire pressure difference front-to-back.
You can even enhance the affect using higher load tires in the rear,
like D load 14's there,
and C load rating in the front.
( that's what the Syncro tire sticker calls for btw )
Or even wider rear rims ..
all modern performance cars have dedicated front and rear wheel/tire
setups. It's always 'more' in the rear.
goals are ...
1. good 'natural' straight line tracking ...no bouncing around or
changing directions on bumps ..no concentration needed to keep it
tracking where you want.
( stiffer front tires or too high front tire pressures are not helpful
for this goal )
2. Good 'turn-in' followed by neutral handling in steady state corners
..neither 'terminal pig understeer ( and some Vanagons do that badly )
nor any tendency to oversteer ...like loose at the back end feeling.
Mild understeer is fine and most cars are tuned that way for safety
reasons.
also ..those 'high in the front end' 85 Weekenders..until they get
'normal' front springs that aren't so tall, they understeer just
horribly in my experience. Regular GL springs usually fixes that in my
experience.
scott
On 7/3/2016 7:10 PM, Marc Perdue wrote:
> Scott,
>
> I adjusted the pressure in the tires according to your
> recommendations. I think that's why I'm all of a sudden feeling like
> I'm getting "turn-in" where I didn't used to. It's an odd, and
> welcome, sensation! I didn't know the Vanagon was capable of it!
>
> Thanks!
> Marc
>
> On Sun, Jul 3, 2016 at 6:32 PM, Scott - IMAP <scottdaniel@turbovans.com> wrote:
>> I think you compress the shock fully , then rotate 'clockwise' as a guess,
>> to firm them up.
>>
>> OR ..you could just ask the guy that softened them up which way to turn it,
>> or just look it up online.
>>
>> did you fiddle with your tire pressures to affect handling ?
>> has a huge affect !
>> I note that many of my vans quote 38 psi front, 48 rear.
>> or 30 front 40 rear , depending on which original type tires is fitted. ( 87
>> GL )
>>
>> on my 85 Adventurewagon with big load and non-original type wheels and
>> tires, it was happy at 38 front, 46 rear .
>> You always want at least 4 to 6 psi more in the rear tires.
>>
>> after doing a big tire/wheel switcharoo I noticed my van was a little
>> 'darty' on bumps ..
>> It just 'felt' to me like the fronts were toe'd out a little..and sure
>> enough they were, about 1/4 inch toe'd out, which insn't right of course.
>>
>> fixing that along with a whole 'new' 86 front end. Big job but should be
>> worth it in the end.
>>
>> Scott
>>
>>
>> On 7/3/2016 12:04 PM, Marc Perdue wrote:
>>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> My van is back home from the shop again!!! And finally I have some
>> good news to report! For those who have been following my saga, I had
>> to have my engine rebuilt and it was not running right during the
>> 500-mile break-in period. It was running rich, sometimes when I would
>> downshift on the highway to pass (auto), a bunch of smoke would go
>> billowing out the back, and when I would come off the highway, any
>> time the RPMs dropped below 2500, the oil buzzer would come on. The
>> builder had already verified that the engine had good oil pressure.
>>
>> I took the van in for its 500-mile post-break-in adjustments. He
>> replaced the oil pressure sender with one from the dealer. That
>> problem was solved, but it still wasn't running right. Long story
>> short, he swapped in a known good ECU and a known good AFM and
>> replaced the Temp II sensor and the engine's running like new!
>>
>> While it was there, I had him replace the shocks and upper control arm
>> bushings too and it's handling a lot differently now. That's going to
>> take some getting used to. It's funny how you adapt to a particular
>> way of handling over time and when your vehicle gets fixed and handles
>> correctly, it's like you have to learn how to drive it properly all
>> over again. Who knew my van was actually capable of turn-in?!?
>>
>> They did set the Koni shocks to a pretty soft setting and I think I
>> want to firm that up. Anybody know how to do that?
>>
>> I did make a shocking discovery about the speedo, but I'll cover that
>> in a separate post.
>>
>> Just overjoyed to have my van back home now!
>> Marc
>>
>>
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