Suspension Upgrade - Suggested Parts List?

[Wellington]

Burley has some great products, but I suggest you investigate those ball joints further.
Lemforder or Moog are the only ball joints that people have had a long life from.
Do a search here on the forum. The lower ball joints are a bear to install, you really only want to do them once.

[markswagen]

rubber bushings are a mistake, yes i agree 30 years ago they were made to last, these days, ha, nope they won't last.
my westy lucy, got a new rubber bushing front end a couple of weeks after our son was born, he's 5 now, 2 years ago i had to replace them, this time with powerflex, those rubber bushings were done and rubbish, in under 3 years and 20k miles.
i've had to change out 2 other front ends i originally did with rubber, i won't ever do another rubber bushing front end, i have one in a box, and that's where it's going to stay.
upgraded sway bars are no substitute for a worn out front end, start with the basic powerflex kit, upper and lower ball joints tie rods and tie rod ends.
less than that you are looking at more than one front end alignment.
the sway bar, shocks and springs won't have much to do with an alignment.
down the road, when funds allow look at shocks, springs and sway bar upgrades.
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markswagen {mobile mechanic} san diego area all early VW's cared for.

619 201 0310

[porterbrown]

[porterbrown]

[porterbrown]

Thinking more about my strategy here as the front-end rebuild is expensive and time-consuming when doing it all in one-shot.

With my priorities being to eliminate squeaking (which I believe is most-likely the UCA bushings) and improve shock and spring response, I believe that my efforts and money could be more focused on certain areas, rather than replacing EVERYTHING. Some folks pointed this out earlier in the thread.

From what I've learned, I believe that a good first-pass at fixing my issues would be to focus on the following parts:

-UCA Bushings
-Upper Ball Joints
-Shocks (Front and Rear)
-Springs (Front and Rear)
-Spring shims, etc..

It looks like the other aspects of the front end could be addressed down the road, as needed, without "undoing" the work listed above. That list includes:

-LCA Bushing
-Lower Ball Joints
-Radius Rod Bushings
-End Links
-Sway bar (bushings, etc...)

Thoughts on this approach? This thread has been a journey Thanks to those that have contributed.
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'90 Westfalia GL Automatic

[Wellington]

Just an opinion:
Upper control arm bushings
Sway bay bushings, all, but consider a HD sway bar and get appropriate hardware/bushings.
Steering rack bushings

All from T3

Get your ball joints assessed, no need to change out parts with no play.
Still got money left,
Do the springs and shocks, and now since you are that deep into it, replace the radius rod bushings, likely they are worn, and consider lower control arm bushings.

[porterbrown]

[porterbrown]

Trying to educate myself on the topic of bump stops, shock hardware and shims.

How does one know if a bump stop needs replacing?

Shock hardware - should I have this purchased and on-hand for the job? Important that I can knock the project out in a weekend (no time to wait on more parts to ship)

Shims - any suggestion for what it's going to take to level a westy (side-to-side) with a few bikes on a hitch mount (front-to-back)?

Thx!
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'90 Westfalia GL Automatic

[khughes]

[porterbrown]

UPDATE:

After ordering parts, moving to another state and pondering the work sequence (aka: over analyzing)....I completed the project today! Still need to take it in for an alignment, scheduled for next Monday.

I ended up replacing: rear shocks/springs (and lower spring pad), front shocks/springs, UCA bushings and upper ball joints. I used Schwenk springs and Koni reds. I added spring shims to the back and 1 to the front drivers side (westy lean)--all shims came from Schwenk. The lower spring pads came from Buslab. I used Moog ball joints and Nolathane urethane bushings and Bushing Snot (T3)

As thoroughly noted in other threads, the rear was a breeze. I didn't have a helper to push the control arm down to get the spring out, so I wedged my small bottle jack between the edge of the upper spring perch and control arm to pry it open. Wasn't sure about this technique, but I did it slowly and never suspected anything negative happening. Something I did have to adapt to was that the Koni mounts are larger/wider than the stock receivers, so you have to pry them open to accept the Koni mounts.

The front took me 3 days total because I'm slow, and I overthink things. I'm also terrified of the van falling, so I use multiple jacks and jack stands. I did the drivers side first, and it took me 2 days; lots learned on that side, and the passenger side was completed in less than 5 hours on the 3rd day.

I packed the hell out of the UCA bushings with Bushing Snot, so crossing my fingers that takes care of any squeaking like some others have experienced with urethane.

One regret: I wish that I would've planned to replace the lower drop link bushing as I had to disengage the link to get the lower control arm low enough to remove/install the spring. The bushings were completely out at one point so it would've made sense to replace them (a "do it while you're in there" move).

Next: CV joints. Not looking forward to it.
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'90 Westfalia GL Automatic

[fleetwood41]

Hey Porter,

How did those CVs go?

And just as importantly, how are all of those suspension upgrades holding up? I'm about to go through this exercise myself, was doing research, and came across this thread. You did quite a bit of research so I wonder if you've got any more "lessons learned" points for someone about to embark on this big project. ??

Thanks!
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1987 2WD w/ 2.5 Subi & Poptop Conversion

[therastavan]

I would do:

Koni shocks (waaaaay better than the GoWesty XHD Bilsteins)
T3 Technique steering rack stiffener + front anti roll bar
Powerflex UCA bushings
Powerflex steering bushings
Powerflex upper shock absorber bushing

This will give you much better handling and great stability during highway driving.

[0to60in6min]

@ therastavan

I agree with you... very good advice...

all my 2WD have Koni shocks... the Syncros have Old man EMU shocks...

[fleetwood41]