Date:         Sat, 5 Oct 1996 20:17:06 -0700
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Austin <austins@ix.netcom.com>
Subject:      Re: Vanagon rear wheel camber adjustment

At 02:15 AM 10/5/96 -0500, you wrote:
>Jeff:
>
>        I have experienced excessive wear on the inside of the tread
>on both rear wheels.  I had +40K miles on the tires. I tried to adjust
>the camber to the correct values, but the adjustment 'bottomed out'
>before the correct camber was achieved.
>
>        I was led to believe the coil springs have weakened over time, 
>and this produces an increasing negative camber to the rear wheels.
>The pivot axis for the trailing rear wheels is not perpendicular to the 
>longitudinal axis of  the vehicle, so when the coils begin to sag, the 
>camber just becomes more negative with time.
>
>        What I need to do, and probably you too, is to replace the coil
>springs.  New ones will undoubtedly be a fortune from VW.  Is there
>any point in looking for used ones at the auto wreckers, or is it very
>likely, they will have as much sag as my current ones? Does any
>one know of a manufacturer that has a generic coil spring that will
>do the job?

Might be worth a try to install a set of gas pressure shocks - I put on
Bilsteins ~80k miles ago & the bus is still riding over 1" higher than stock
(raised it about 2" initially - about the same as a Synchro);  the
pressurized gas acts as a spring, of course.

Austin