Club 80-90 Forums

Have just finished the replacement of all front suspension and steering bushes with polys where possible, all ball joints, new front brake lines, refurbed calipers and replaced the vc (took out the diff to do it as seemed easier and only another 19 bolts also be careful doing ti in situ as a dowel/spring pin slipped out and into the housing and wouldn't have been to easy to spot under a van) and the two front wheel bearings and one of the outer cv joints so been busy. Thank god for the Bentley, wiki and various posts on the syncro page. Took some photos and will post them up when i bring up my dads camera to my computer. Some went well some was very hard work , just waiting on a top wishbone bolt which will get from cj or if its quicker will repair the old one and put it on (stripped the threads on it in one place trying to take it off was rusted in but am able to put it in temporarily to test it) and get it the alignment done. In the meantime took it up the road to see how it was and went fine but have a rubbing noise on right turns and a bit on the left ones thought it was originally the back bearing especially on the right as was there previously however the front right wheel bearing was to blame i think and also replaced the back bearings last year with Baxters finest. So am putting it down to the alignment as the toe is way out and possibly the caster due to the new bushes, pulls to the left a lot, anyone else experienced this?. However when checking the back bearings today there was a small amount of play is this normal ?

small amount of play fairly normal, you could try tightening to next split pin castellation, with someone stamping on the brake and a fat bloke on a long bar on the 46mm nut

I sometimes get a rubbing clunking sort of a noise, on full lock, usually on a hill as well. Dont know if that is what you mean? But all my dubs have done it, and it doesnt sound very good. Me and syncroswede are about to embark on the front end rebuild, I would like to see some photos, especially of the ball joint removal. We have got access to a hydraulic press, but have yet to see if we can find the correct pressing tools. Did you press out the stub axle, or use the big hammer method??

think the rears are ok and if they have abit of play normally its probably it a local guy who does commercials also concurred don't think the castle nuts will go any tighter but will give them a try just got to find a really fat bloke and a longer bar tried pressing a lot of the stuff out but it wouldn't move although we had only a 7 tonne press so resorted to the sledge hammer method. We generally found that most stuff required a good shock to get it moving as it was quite comfortable where it sitting plus rust after 20 years. have a good supply of new nuts and bolts and do as much as you can while your down there and what you can afford. Be prepred for stuff shearing off and also stripped threads and stuck upper wishbone bolts(the left drop link arm sheared off and also upper wishbone bolt that controls the camber refsed to move had to make up a mini press to get it out ftom a bolt and spacer eventually freed with abang )have replacements coming from cj. Also left hand side shock refused to go back in due to the new bushes altho eventually went in eventually) Drench everything in wd40 for weeks also used this stuff in halfords called shock and unlock its a freezing compond with penetrating oil which i would reccomend for loosening stuff up.Give it a really good wash underneath before you start it really helps there was still some dirt there even afterwards. Didn't have access to a sand blaster or powder coater but a selection of wire brushes on the small angle grinder and electric drill and a tin of hammerite did the job. Also don't forget the copperslip when putting it all back. Will try and put the pics up before the end of the week although it sonds like a bit of amare its actually not that bad just be patient regular cups of tea help and never give up good luck paul

i have just done most of this to my own vehicle, i had to use the burning gear to heat most of the bushes to get them out, and had to give the bottom ball joints a good heating to get them out, we have a garage next door who have got a big press but it was a lot of effort to get it to hold things so i could get the bushes out, so used the large vice in my own workshop, it worked a treat, i have still to put things back together and just got all the parts back from the powdercoaters today.

I know it's not local but I have the correct vw press tools for all the bushes etc here, but it is possible to fit rubber ones without the tools, just a whole lot harder. Obviously polybushes are a lot easier to do.
Top tip is get another set of metal from CJ and restore and prep that and have all the new fittings to hand and it's possible to do the whole job in a day single handed on a ramp, I did mine late last year, all new parts
I have a complete early set from my van if required, I upgraded to late cast lca etc..
oh and I'll be down sw very soon dropping off gearboxes and picking stuff up.....

sorry guys finally got round to uploading photos on the web but now at work and blocked from that site but will try and get them up tomorrow

Did you change the front tie-rod rubber bushes... that set the caster on the threaded rods?
They also set the front/rear position of the wheel and if there's rubbing going on, small chance they are responsible

mark prop

undo these

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preferrec to do it on the bench

nose off

old vc with spacer on top

dont the spacer when putting in new hold in nose with grease

vc out
sorry submited the last lot before could add to them, dont know if its any use, and sorry no action shots of balljoints but if you follow the bently and replace press out with belt hard you should be ok
yep replaced all the front bushesso would say every thinkg is off will get it all done on wednesday the guy there said its probaly it aswell thanks guys will le you know how it goes

What are you going to paint the front diff with ?

it was painted black with a rattle can as didn't want to effect the cooling with anything heavier. Also gave the chassis and any places up there that were showing rust a wire brushing when it was out and hammerited. Although wasn't that bad. Would definately reccomend taking out the diff to do the vc much easier and cleaner than lying under a van also disconected the speedo, breather, and vacumn lines (mark them otherwise if connnected wrongly lock will be off when on and vica versa)and connection for diff lock

got it tracked but had to bring it back after first time as rubbed turning right the guy who did it said he couldn't do it on the 14 or 16 specs so used the specs off a taro (see link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_Taro" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) as it was the only thing close that had 15" wheels and adapted them to the syncro but ended up having to retrack it again to stop the rubbing because of the bigger wheels. Although I have mudflaps in the wheel arches so may be down to this see garage pics. He gave me the original specs so will put them up and will try and find out what he did when down that way again. But set it up to fit so not standard took him two hours to do it the second time owe him a few beers i think I am running mefros with BFG all terrains

Taro is a completely different kind of vehicle.
You will find that you have to extrapolate some of the specs to drop into line as what is written in Autodata etc just doesn't cover the vehicle.
Correct wheel alignment is a necessity on these vehicles, if you get it wrong they are dangerous.
I have messed around with settings to see what happens, and the results are not pretty, I ended up with a truck I couldn't keep in a straight line.
I would get it done with the right data, or at least measure the trim height (distance from wheel centre to wheel arch) and I will extrapolate for you.

Rubbing noise probably is the tyres on the mud flaps.

I tend to sand blast rusty fixings instead of wire brushing, give the fixing some nice clean threads to run over.
I don't have a gas axe, so I do what I can.

I find the easiest way to do the upper wishbone bushes is to break the bush in pieces, hack saw the wide end, knock out the centre bush, rubber and nylon sleeve, then cut through the remainder of the metal case, then tap it out.
I find pressing them just makes a mess, doesn't work properly and takes ages.

I also find that Larry the 4lb lump hammer with a foot long shaft moves more than a hydraulic press does, and is a damn site quicker.

Why would you use the data of a Taro? Its a Hilux in disguise .....