[T3] Abnormal Maintenance

Soren Jacobsen snj at blef.org
Sun Aug 5 21:06:06 PDT 2018


On 07/29 18:00, Jim Adney wrote:
> 
> For ball joints, ball joints up thru '71 have holes in the shafts that
> you can install zerk fittings in to lube them. The problem with this
> is that once that zerk is in there, someone will come along and fill
> the boot with grease. A short drive later the boot will be shredded
> and you need a new ball joint.

Yeah, this is what I was alluding to with my "Don't overdo it!" comment.
VW specifies that you shouldn't put enough grease in there to make the
boot bulge.  The best way to deal with this is to pull the boot, clean
everything out, and re-grease.  I wouldn't expect anyone to do that as
preventative maintenance, though.

> I have NEVER had to replace an original ball joint, except those that
> had zerk fittings fitted. The lesson is that if you leave them alone,
> they are really good quality and don't need extra care. The Bentley
> manual shows what you need to do to check them. If you check yours,
> you'll probably find that they are only half worn out.

Really?  I must be unlucky.  It's an admittedly small sample size of
four, but three out of four type 3 beams I've had in my possession have
had toasted ball joints.  Part of that is probably that I'm so late to
the game when it comes to these cars, and I have yet to obtain a nice
low mileage vehicle.  "Affordable" has been the name of the game for me,
although that really only applies the initial cost of acquisition :\

> For tie rod ends, there's no good way to lube them. Unless the boot is
> broken, they will be fine. Once the boot is broken there's no point in
> lubrication, you need to replace them.
> 
> I don't like the idea of poking a needle thru either boot to squirt in
> even a small amount of grease. I don't care how small the needle is, I
> suspect this will introduce a weak spot in the boot that will result
> in a torn boot and consequent replacement of the joint. Plus, it
> doesn't put grease where it is likely to be useful.  

No, definitely don't go poking holes in your boots.  It's easy enough to
squirt a bit of grease in without puncturing anything, though.  You
simply slide the needle through the small end of the boot where it makes
contact with the part of the tie rod end that connects to the steering
arm or knuckle.

As for "doesn't put grease where it is likely to be useful," I've
resuscitated a stuck tie rod end by greasing it and working the joint
with a vice and pliers.  Perhaps the same result could've been achieved
sans grease, though.  I only know that it worked that one time.  I
suppose this would be a fairly uncommon scenario to encounter in a
running car, though, so it wouldn't even fit under "abnormal
maintenance" but rather "things do to when trying to get a car on the
road after 30 years of sitting in a field."

I've encountered lots of very sloppy original VW tie rod ends, though.
The exception?  My family's oval window Bug, which my grandfather bought
new in 1957.  The original tie rod ends are still going strong after
several generations of drivers put several hundred thousand miles on the
car.  What's different?  They've got zerks from the factory.

> On 28 Jul 2018 at 1:19, Soren Jacobsen wrote:
> 
> > Clean out gunk from the channels at the bottom of your fenders.
> 
> Not sure where you mean here, but it's always good to get rid of
> accumulated gunk before it starts things to rust, .

There's a little lip where the bottom edge of the fender rolls inward
toward the center of the car.  The fronts are primarily what I was
thinking of here.  I do a lot of hiking and the dirt/gravel roads I
travel on to get to trailheads leave me with tons of material piled up
there.

> > Lubricate lock cylinders.
> 
> Graphite only. The rest of the mechanism can use oil or grease.

I've never bothered greasing the rest of the mechanism, but that's a
good idea.

> > Inspect, grease, and probably replace your shift rod bushing.  If
> > you haven't ever done this, it's probably worn out.  Replacements
> > don't last as long as the originals, so you'll be doing this again
> > in a few years ;)
> 
> My shift bushings have not failed. Is this really a problem? (But I
> only have 1 MT car, and it hasn't seen much use in the past decade.)

Definitely a problem.  I've owned two cars where a bushing failure
that went unadressed by previous owners required the replacement of the
whole metal shift rod hanger!  This isn't nitpicky obsessive stuff,
either: the metal hanger actually wore down so far in one case that it
could no longer hold the shift rod up -- it just fell straight to the
floor.  I wish I'd taken pictures of it.

And then there's this gem: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/1146831.jpg

That's a new bushing sitting next to the pieces of a bushing that I had
installed 7 years prior.  That car sees a _lot_ of stop and go / city
driving, but still, it's pretty pathetic that the bushing had such a
short life.  Once again, original VW parts prove vastly superior to the
junk produced today :(

> > Check your fuel line grommet at the front engine tin.
> 
> Yeah, on FI engines, it's usually damaged or removed when larger fuel
> hose is used. With carbs, I think Hoover had a recommendation to use a
> lamp bushing with copper or steel tubing soldered into it, to keep the
> line from getting cut by the sharp edge of the tin.

I've seen his passthrough instructions before, and while I'm sure it
works great, I find it to be a bit overkill.  It's not difficult to
simply check in on a grommet and replace it if necessary.

Here's one more item for the maintenance list: grease the connection
points on your carburetor linkage.

Soren



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