Date:         Tue, 4 Jun 96 13:58 CDT
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         bighouse@socomm.net (Ken Hooper)
Subject:      Rear Shock Hangers, Bay


>Has anyone tried to replace rear shocks on a 78 bus?  It seems =
>impossible to get any hind of tool to the back of the bolt.  Mine's =
>loose, and rattles like crazy!   Any help is appreciated!

That very thing happened to me. Some PO had backed to bolt out some, then
rounded the nut off on the inside, then left it to rattle.

It's hard to get a tool back there even if the nut has points, so it was a
pretty vexatious problem. Since there's sheet metal right behind the nut,
and a gas tank on the other side of the sheet metal, in the end I decided
the wise and prudent thing to do would be to cut the head off the bolt off
with a hacksaw and then whang on it with a small sledge. ;)

The hole in the mount was loose around the bolt (either it came that way or
it was wallered out from all that rattling) and what was left of the bolt
came out pretty easily. Scratched the undercoating but didn't punch through
to the petroleum supply; it was able to angle itself out diagonally. YMMV.

If that hadn't worked I expect I'd have tried to cut the nut off with a
hacksaw blade or something, moving it back and forth a half-inch at a time
like an inmate in the penitentiary. ;) There's probably a better solution
than that but I'm too dumb to think of it.

--Ken
  68 Westy, 71 Bus