TheSamba.com :: View topic - SO-42 Westy table floor screw thingy

Wed Jul 02, 2008 11:17 am

///Mink wrote: joe comfort wrote: Here I thought I was the only one with this issue!! I've been spraying Kroil on it for 3 months and it still wont budge, maybe I will fill a small container of Kroil and submerge it, maybe that will do the trick!! Limited choices to loosen when you have that vinyl coating to deal with. Post up some remedies if you get yours loosened. In the mean time I will keep my plate of food on my lap. :lol: :lol:

When did you acquire a table??

at least 3 months ago!

Wed Jul 02, 2008 11:24 am

crofty wrote: ///Mink wrote: joe comfort wrote: Here I thought I was the only one with this issue!! I've been spraying Kroil on it for 3 months and it still wont budge, maybe I will fill a small container of Kroil and submerge it, maybe that will do the trick!! Limited choices to loosen when you have that vinyl coating to deal with. Post up some remedies if you get yours loosened. In the mean time I will keep my plate of food on my lap. :lol: :lol:

When did you acquire a table??

at least 3 months ago!

:D

Wed Jul 02, 2008 4:14 pm

Barnabus wrote: Good luck woody. I have two and neither of them will rotate.

I cut some of my ribbed plastic back to try and work out what is going on.

In your pic right at the top of the ribbed plastic there is a groove. I think that is how they are assembled.

There is a stub with a groove that mounts to the table hinge. The leg slides over the stub and has a circular groove pressed in to retain it.

As you have already worked out it is rusted in place. Dont know how to free it up!

Wait a minute...the joint where it rotates is at the top of the ribbed vinyl? I thought the joint was at the spot where the diameter increases. At that point it appears to be one solid piece of metal--no wonder it won't rotate.

As to the vinyl twisting, I noticed that too. I clamped it very tight in my biggest vise with rubber jaw protectors and just reefed on it. It started to move so I stopped and twisted it back. I will cut the vinyl back a bit more and further inspect it. I am not giving up on it. I think it could be tack welded back shut with VERY good heat control, and then the rest of the slot could be filled with JB Weld. I will work on it more now!

Damn things. What a shitty design.

Wed Jul 02, 2008 8:22 pm

I dont think I was clear.

You are correct. It rotates where it gets wider.

I just think it is held in place by the groove at the top of the ribbing.

Keep in mind this is me speculating. I have not cut one open yet.

-O

Wed Jul 02, 2008 9:34 pm

I don't know if this image helps or not, mine defintely rotates inside the sleeve.

Thu Jul 03, 2008 11:18 pm

Does anyone have a picture of the mounting washer deal in an orignal or close to original bus? I'd like to see if its flush or just sits on top of the flooring. Thanks

Fri Jul 04, 2008 2:25 am

Hi,

don`t know if this helps you guys, i made a little video of the hinge:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqwfM8Xqi3s

Wolfgang

Fri Jul 04, 2008 5:55 am

///Mink wrote: I don't know if this image helps or not, mine defintely rotates inside the sleeve.

as does mine, thanks to this thread I can now mount the leg to the base it was meant to be ;)

Fri Jul 04, 2008 10:45 am

Wolfgang1 wrote: Hi,

don`t know if this helps you guys, i made a little video of the hinge:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqwfM8Xqi3s

Wolfgang

Yes, that helps. I now think I understand that the leg itself is tubular and that the upper pivot part is machined to fit inside it, and then once that was inserted, Westfalia crimped the tubing to prevent them coming apart.

Mine has been immersed in PB blaster now for 24 hours. I wish I knew how far into the tubing the inner part goes. I'm guessing it goes pretty far in. I wonder if the vinyl covering could just be removed intact. Then I could just fabricate a new one if I can't get this one unstuck.

STUPID design :x

Fri Jul 04, 2008 1:06 pm

Hold the pole and smack the solid top piece with a hammer often. The thing doesn't protrude way far down: maybe 1/2 inch? If you could put the whole thing in boiling water I bet the vinyl would come off. Make a trough from a florist's flower box lined with foil and pour in water? I'm thinking you'll get it except you crunched it a tad. That part doesn't show unless you tip your head under the table anyway.

Sat Jul 05, 2008 11:45 am

Ragman wrote: Does anyone have a picture of the mounting washer deal in an orignal or close to original bus? I'd like to see if its flush or just sits on top of the flooring. Thanks

I can take one in my all original '66.

Sun Jul 06, 2008 12:45 pm

Here it is:

http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/457103.jpg

Sun Jul 06, 2008 3:59 pm

Perfect! Thanks

Fri Jul 18, 2008 10:28 pm

SUCCESS!

Thank you all for your help.

What I did was soak it in an inch of Kroil for 48 hrs. Then using an xacto knife I neatly cut the top inch or so of the gray plastic ribbed cover off.
Using a tiny cutoff disc in my air grinder, I cut a slot in the tubing at the top of the leg where the stub goes in. This allowed the tubing to expand ever so slightly and also provided a place for the rusty and oily goo to go. Clamped the leg in a vise with padded jaws, grabbed the top of the leg pivot with vice grips and just started wiggling. After I detected the slightest amount of movement, I dripped some more Kroil into the slot I cut in the leg and kept wiggling. Finally I was able to rotate it just by wiggling gently more and more. It really didn't take all that much force. I just kept spinning it and adding Kroil and blowing the rusty goo out of that slot I had cut.
Once I got it rotating smoothly, I welded the slot shut again, using tack welds and compressed air to cool the steel so it wouldn't ruin the plastic covering. It worked.

I was able to metal-finish all my gouges and vice grip marks away, and it looks like new again, with the exception of the top inch of that gray plastic covering missing. I've repainted the hinge/pivot assembly gray again anyway, so the lack of the covering on the last inch is (in my mind) of no consequence--especially considering the fact that leg now rotates again.

Thank again to all of you for your help! WOOT!

Sun Jul 20, 2008 10:21 am

Cool. I was just wondering about this on Friday when I was sitting in the Westy and opened the table.