The "great-life-lesson-on-limits-and-not-cheapening-out" Syncro

[4Gears4Tires]

Thank you Samba for this tip on supporting cargo loads, it may have been Dan or Sodo. Either way I felt a lot safer about the dirt bike on the back of the van with the soft straps around the tail gate hinge. The rack/bike did not sway or rock. It was very very steady the entire trip, even with this cheap $90 rack. I drove down to a meet up with a friend in Pisgah NF for a weekend of dirt biking.

First thing I did when I found a free dispersed site was park the van and get the dirt bike out!

Vanagons are such wonderful base camps. I was starting to get annoyed at all the little things I need to fix on the Syncro and this weekend made me appreciate the van all over again. We had a dispersed site on the forest service road to the trailhead, so we were able to ride straight out of the camp site into the trails. It was awesome to ride for a few hours, come back for lunch and a nap, and then go back out to ride some more.

BRRAAAPPPPPP

Headed out. It felt so awesome to see the dirt bike on the back of the van. Honestly, I don't even know why that felt so cool but it did.

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'87 Syncro Ferric Oxyhydroxide Superleggera Edition
'85 Westy Sciuridae Domus Edition

[jimf909]

Sad face because he’s thinking “I wish I had a van and didn’t have to sleep in a tent”.

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- Jim

[4Gears4Tires]

He actually said something close to those lines.
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'87 Syncro Ferric Oxyhydroxide Superleggera Edition
'85 Westy Sciuridae Domus Edition

[dobryan]

[4Gears4Tires]

Back up in Maryland I wanted to put the Syncro on the lift to take a look at a few things. The steering wheel was pretty heavy sideways when it drove straight and the tires were dancing around a bit. But, the rally e30 was on the lift with a blown head gasket, too much boost! Once that was taken care of, I got the Syncro on there.

The nut was completely loose, it was on by just a few threads. Add that to my "check torque when changing oil" routine now. I wonder if the bushing cracked and it changed the tension on the nut? It should be hard up against the metal sleeve though.

My speedometer/odometer stopped working a bit back. I read about the gears sliding out of place, so I wanted to see if I could spin the gears after pushing the little gears back in. This worked to spin the odometer, but unfortunately a dremel spins backwards to how it should. So while I confirmed my odometer now works (it went from 0 to 997), the speedo didn't move. The cable fits perfectly though. Maybe I can chuck it in a drill.

Then I wanted to check my drivetrain alignment again. Last I did this it was off, but over time I suspected maybe it was a me issue. Anyway, it sure doesn't seem off now. This has to be about as as well aligned as reasonably expected.

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'87 Syncro Ferric Oxyhydroxide Superleggera Edition
'85 Westy Sciuridae Domus Edition

[dobryan]

That radius rod bushing has a metal sleeve inside it. The nuts on either side get tightened to fully compress the dished washers upon the metal sleeve. The bushing does not actually hold the torque for the nuts.
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Dave O
'87 Westy w/ 2010 Subaru EJ25 (Vanaru) and Peloquin TBD

"To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive." Robert Louis Stevenson

MD>Canada>AK>WA>OR>CA>AZ>UT>WY>SD
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=620646

Building a bus for travel in Europe (euroBus)
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=695371

The Western Syncro build
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=746794

[4Gears4Tires]

Yep. The bushing failing was the only thing I could think of, but yeah, that shouldn't have affected it. Not sure why it came loose.
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'87 Syncro Ferric Oxyhydroxide Superleggera Edition
'85 Westy Sciuridae Domus Edition