Date: Sun, 19 Jul 1998 15:05:58 -0400
Reply-To: Daniel J Burgos <dburgos@ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: Daniel J Burgos <dburgos@ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU>
Subject: Broken axle stub on '81 Westy
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Well, here's a quick run down of the situation:
[How it happened]
I was driving along about to come to a stop at a red light when the brake
pedal sunk to the floor. Luckily the van stopped. Less than ten seconds
later, the passenger side, rear of the van crashed down to the street. I
knew immediately that the wheel fell off (and wouldn't you know it...I was
stuck in the left hand lane of Main St. in Buffalo, NY!). Well, I jacked
up the vehicle to check the damage and all I noticed was that the brake
back plate was damaged from crashing into the street. You see, as I later
found out, the wheel fell off because the stub axle broke in half right at
the beginning of the thread for the axle nut. So there was my wheel,
lying there in the street with the axle nut still attached (with cotter
pin) to a little nub of the broken stub axle. The brake drum was stuck in
the wheel too. The tow truck came and now my VW rests on three legs...
[The repair job]
Well a month later and I'm still working on this job. I had trouble
getting the bolts off the CV joint/drive shaft with a 6mm Allen key. I
ended up stripping two bolts on the inner CV joint/drive shaft, but was
able to get them off with vise grips. The real trouble was getting at the
outer CV joint/drive shaft bolts as they are located in a recess in the
trailing arm. I ended up stripping three out of the six bolts there. So
know I thought I was really stuck because there was no way I was fitting
vise grips in that little recess.
I was eventually able to get the four bolts holding the wheel bearing
housing in place off. So now I just pulled the whole CV joint/drive shaft
-- wheel bearing housing assembly right out through the recess opening on
the outside facing side of the trailing arm. Unfortunately, I still
wasn't able to get those CV joint/drive shaft bolts off with vise grips,
they're just too tight!
[Suggestions]
Any helpful suggestions or advice for this job would be greatly
appreciated. I'm planning on replacing the CV boots, wheel bearings, and
grease seals since I have this whole thing taken apart. Is there anything
else that I might consider replacing while I'm in this situation? Also,
would anyone recommend where I should turn to for good quality parts for
this job?
Much gratitude,
Dan Burgos
1981 VW Vanagon L Camper Deluxe
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Visit my Web Site at:
http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~dburgos
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