Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1998 15:18:24 -0400
Reply-To: Derek Drew <drew@INTERPORT.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: Derek Drew <drew@INTERPORT.NET>
Subject: Upgraded CV joints (was $80 taps)
In-Reply-To: <199804141836.PAA18217@mailserv.unb.ca>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
At 03:36 PM 4/14/98 -0300, you wrote:
>>Ok, then you'll need this:
>
>
>Oh no I won't..... Went at lunch to leave them $10, had them verify what it
>was I wanted, and now they say it's not available. Made the guy search all
>his catalogues again, he must have done 1.25 last time! Very sorry, this is
>the best commercial supplier, and he went through major catalogues.
Well, we knew there was a possibility you would run into a problem on this
one.
>I'd say you'll need to try my self-made tap trick! To make the same tap a
It is funny, because I have often thought of self-making taps by the means
you outline so we have been thinking alike on this one. I wouldn't have
known about the plunge into oil part though.
>bit nmore permanent you can heat cherry red when done, then plunge into oil.
>Will harden it a bit, still not good enough for tapping fresh holes in thick
>steel, fine in <1/4" or in aluminium. Bit hard to get this kind of tap to
>'start' as the entire end should be tapered a bit to get into hole and start
>cutting. You can do that also with the bench grinder, try for a slight
>pencil tip. Then cut the main tapping section out.
>
>
>On a lighter note...... an outer font CV let go on me at lunch time
>(mudding it for 3/4hr. on way back from supplier) Been clicking gently in
>corners for a week, enough for me to note to repack it ASAP. Blew in tight
>corner trying to do a '3 pt' turn, in 10 pts or so. Fortunately it blew
>after I spun my way backwards out of a deep flooded section that the
>underside got bottomed/hung due to the ruts. Driving in sneakers, 40 feet
>of water either end of the van, above my knees, and about 2 miles offroad
>through some real slop. Good little van powered its way out, whew. Would not
I draw the line on deep water driving when my Oettinger Fogg lamps go dark
(turn signal height) and even then I don't like it.
>have made it back without the front locker, no power to that end with busted
>CV unless locked. Too much mud for Syncro-2WD. Give it any gas and the
>driven front tire would steer me hard to the right, letting off brought it
>back around. Great fun getting out.
Wow. I never had a CV joint go bad all of a sudden like that, and Dennis
Haynes scared me away from driving around with a clicker in the front,
saying that sometimes when a joint goes it can get stuck and rips the side
of your transmission out.
>So... questions, a tired joint? Castrol Syntec grease sucks? tall lugged
>tires need good equipment? Front locker? I think I've been running a tired
>joint, and with more tread on fronts than rears the fronts were loaded more
>than they should have been. One thing for sure, the VC is in good shape!
>Time for renewal.... and those $39.95 Lobros won't do it :(. Wonder if
>there is ANY cross reference to another VW/Audi product, or SAAB or....?
I can help you there.
By the way, what is wrong with the $39 lobros? These are the stock CVs right?
Anyway, here is what I have to help: Mr. Wheedle fellow was jumping up and
down on the phone with glee talking to me about a big pile of Porsche 930
CVs (I *think* it was 930) and that they were much stronger. I think he was
asking about $100 for these. I'd think of these first if I were looking at
an upgrade. They are listed in the back of a catalog I have around here
from him somewhere.
Also, note that I think our CVs are, like 90 mm or cm or whatever. But the
16" vans in Europe, according to my microfiche, can have factory 100 mm?
cm? CVs instead of the 90s. So if you want a stronger CV, you could just
order 16"/100s from Germany. I bet they have a Web site over there for
ordering by now or Helmut could do the job. For US parts I just send my
orders to Camelback, which now has a web site and takes orders by email.
If you want me to look up the part number of the factory 100 CV let me
know. I now have the fiche reader right on my desk here.
I wonder the problem you had and also with your wheel bearing could be
related to the wheels you chose (I hate to remind you of the offset issue
but I was wondering about this in context of your wheel bearing being bad).
Please report on your CV research/actions whatever you do.
>
>sorry about the tap, bye, Tim
>
>
>last question.... when you've submerged yours have you had any problems
>with the O2 sensor? After the dunking it started running extremely rich,
>enough to foul the plugs and miss on all cylinders! A black soot haze like
>a diesel visible in the mirrors no less, very very rich. Shut it of for a
>minute, restart is good for 2 minutes of normal performance, then rich
>again. Repeated this off/on cycle about 10 times before it cleared. You
>had anything like this?
>
_____________________________________________________
Derek Drew New York, NY & Washington DC
ConsumerSearch
drew@interport.net
212-580-6486 (W)
212-580-4459 (H)