Date:         Mon, 23 Jan 1995 23:16:47 -0800
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         rrk@rahul.net (Bob R. Kenyon)
Subject:      Re: Steering work advice?

At 08:42 1/23/95, Steve Walker wrote:
>My 64 has a very worn bushing on the center kingpin. Not to be confused
>with the kingpins that the wheels are attached with. This is the one that
>goes through the center of the top torsion bar. I would like to remove it
>and replace the bushing without removing the entire front end. Is there
>an easy way to remove the ball joints from the tie rods? Any advice
>concerning these procedures would be greatly appreciated.

I've performed this very task on my '59 Pickup with my buddy Al. You most
definitely can do it with the beam in the bus. It's just not as easy as
having it on a bench, which is probably the way it's done at the shop.

The hardest part, we found, was driving out the old bushings. We made up a
tool that was basically an old socket placed on an extension. The socket
has to be bigger than the bushing, but smaller than the hole it fits in.
Then you take a hammer to it and push 'em out from the bottom.

After you've pressed in the new bushings, you need to ream them to the
correct size. This is also an interesting manuever when you're under the
bus.

We also found that completely dismantling the steering was unnecessary,
although removing the draglink would have been nice.

To figure out how to do it, we used a combination of Muir and some
nondescript manual called "Type II Transporter Series 1200-1600 Shop
Manual" which appears to be some sort of bootleg copy of an old English
manual. There is no copyright info in it anywhere.

Anyway, if you combine the two methodologies and some common sense, you
should have no problems. The only problem with doing this is when you're
done you will discover that your steering box is worn out too. And that
takes $250 to fix!

Good luck,
Bob

--
Bob R. Kenyon, Beautiful Downtown San Jose, CA
rrk@rahul.net