[T3] Abnormal Maintenance

[Jim Adney]

On 5 Aug 2018 at 21:06, Soren Jacobsen wrote:

> 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.

For the '71 and earlier ball joints that have the plastic plug in the ends, the 
thing to do is to carefully remove the plug, install a zerk, add grease, remove 
the zerk, and reinstall the plastic plug. The right way to add grease is to 
squeeze the boot between a thumb and forefinger and pump in grease until 
you JUST begin to feel something happening inside the boot. Grease that 
comes in from this direction pushes the old grease out ahead of it and puts 
new grease into the working areas of the ball joint.

Grease is a mixture of oil and a thickener, where the only function of the 
thickener is to hold the oil and dispense it slowly into where it's needed. 
Putting grease in the boot area leaves it a long ways from where the oil is 
needed. It's probably better than leaving the joint dry, but it's a long way from 
ideal.

> > 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 :\

I gather that your cars have also been older/earlier than the ones I've had. 
Mine have all been from the FI era.

> 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.

Doing it that way certainly does no harm, as long as you don't overdo it, but 
I'm not sure how much good it does.

> 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.

Ah for the good old days, when everything had zerks. That would certainly 
be nice.

> > > 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.

> > 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

When I read your first post I was thinking about the shift COUPLING, not the 
bushing. You're right, the bushings wear out. I didn't realize currently 
available bushings were junk. Any chance of getting a better one thru your 
VW dealer?

Yes, I've replaced a couple of those, but I never felt that I had a good way of 
doing it. I reused the old steel ring, but still, getting the nylon part in place 
was an experience I'd rather not repeat. Got any advice?

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

Right

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Jim Adney, jadney at vwtype3.org
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
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