Date: Wed, 20 May 1998 11:02:11 -0400
Reply-To: Derek Drew <drew@INTERPORT.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: Derek Drew <drew@INTERPORT.NET>
Subject: Re: Syncro Alignment Spreadsheet
In-Reply-To: <C40168499D@msvu1.msvu.ca>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Glad to hear the stuff arrived.
You need only return the fiche, and you have, if you need it, more than a
few weeks to do so as I am not in a hurry to get it back, and will tell you
if I become so.
What *I* would do is take these steps:
1) Confirm in your own mind (and possibly with the list as well) that VW
provides different alignment specs depending on whether the vehicle is
empty or not. That is why they list differeing alignment specs for vehicles
"half laden," "due to the presence of optional equipment which cannot be
uninstalled" for the alignment, as they put it (I am actually
paraphrasing). They are thinking of the Ambulance vans with special
equipment, but I am thinking that this appllies to Westfalia as well.
(Consider writing or emailing Westfalia to confirm the wisdom of taking
this approach.)
2) Confirm in your own mind that a bone dry non-GL syncro weighs much less
than our vehicles (according to the vehicle weight information of various
models I sent you, and possibly also by weighing your van on a truck scale
to see what percent higher it is in weight than the empty non-GL Syncro or
pickups), and so our vehicles need to get a set of alignment specs which
are somewhere between "fully laden" and "unladen." Confirm in your own mind
that our vehicles should therefore be set to an alignment spec which is
possibly 30% laden rather than using the "unladen" spec provided in
Bentley. (You can confirm this by performing the wheel centerline to
wheelwell measurement given on page 443a of Bentley, and noticing that the
vehicle is already at the maximum given in that graph, meaning that it is
more laden than the VW designers expected it to be when they issued unladen
alignment specs.
3) Perform calculations designed to translate the published figures in the
Bentley manual to a partially laden spec. To perform these calculations,
you will need to translate the Bentley specs to the specs used by our
alignment mechanics on their machines so they can understand the paper we
give them. I used the standard translation tables I sent you in the mail,
but VW seems to have its own more specific translation tables in mind, the
tables present in the Microfiche I sent you, and which depend on wheel
diameter. So possibly my translations are off. There are two sets of
calculations to make: the calculations to match how laden the vehicle is,
and the calculations to translate degree, minites, etc.
Email me with any questions.
At 11:33 AM 5/20/98 -0400, you wrote:
>Just to let you know that your package arrived today and I will get
>to the 'reader' tomorrow and get the fiche back to you.
>
>Do you need the paper material back as well??
>
>I may have a few quesitons as I do this. I hope you'll be there to
>help :-)
>
>Thanks. Malcolm
>
_____________________________________________________
Derek Drew New York, NY & Washington DC
ConsumerSearch
drew@interport.net
212-580-6486 (W)
212-580-4459; 202-966-0938 (H)