interesting. i've had a few where it looked like they'd never been greased and there was noticable sideways play.
Ah, well if there's no grease! I honestly haven't ever seen one completely dried up, normally the job of replacing the kit has been done but who has a M12 x 1 (I think) tap for the idler arm? You have to really crush the assembly together to the max to get the bolt in by hand and anything else means bolt gets damaged and never tightens the clamp fully. In my experience. Having muffed up on the driveway at home doing the job I see everyone else has the same problem! Logically, if the bearings had a whole mm of wear, the tie-rod part of the arm still shouldn't move vertically more than a mm or 2 at the very most, If it does I look to check for bush wear but unless it's flapping about it can only be the clamp loose, even if the bolt appears to have been wrenched up with a whammy bar! Since working that out I have found every single one to be like this. The arm hole and pin don't seem to suffer any wear from the rocking about and once the thread cleaned up they have always clamped on tight eliminating the up and down play of the arm. Blimey, that took some writing, I hope it made sense.
I realised the same thing after I forced the bolt through when I did my first one and ruined it. I've got a big set of pump pliers to compress the spring washer.
I use trolley jack under the pin head and a nail bar, you sound more organised. The point I was trying to make is it's very easy to assume you have it clamped enough and the difficulty is the thread, or assume that although stiff to turn, if you keep winding it in and it goes tight and looks right, it is right, when in reality it isn't. For the record I'm just putting my experience out there for anyone reading, not lecturing @brothernumberone who obviously knows what he's doing - he's wrote a book donchaknow.
I didn't think you were mate The problem with writing a book is that no one knows everything or even the best way to do things, least not me, so I'm waiting for the inevitable day when someone says 'on page 143 you said this and it's actually like this...' I thought you had me with your middle sill the other day
Send me a copy and I'll pick holes if I can find any. There are frequently different ways of achieving the required results so it'll probably be a case of agreeing to disagree anyway. It would be a bugger if it ended up with a moniker like the Haynes book of lies. Soz!
just had the steering pin changed the bushes were worn away and pin worn as well http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=274893&highlight=adjustable reamer (this is almost the same as a late bay)
I had a drag link about to pop off on one MOT fail...also scary. And I had the link pin done professionally but found that there was still excessive play. When I took it apart I found the bushes and the pin were good but the clamp bolt was slightly bent and the thread was chewed in the clamp. I eventually cleaned the thread by winding a bolt from the wrong end and spent probably an hour making sure the notch in the pin lined up with the bolt hole and the jack under the pin holding up the front of the bus. Much better now. And coilover shocks instead of a noisy speedhump smashing antiroll bar...
