Swing lever pin install

[wholmes]

Bought this adjustable hand reamer from Amazon for $36. Got it delivered to NC within 24 hours. Worked great. Started reaming with the reamer adjusted just a little undersize. Made multiple passes, each time increasing the size just slightly until the pin just fit into the bushings.

https://www.amazon.com/HHIP-2006-0085-16-1-1-Adjus...ullets-btf

[xavi_242]

[Campy]

I have a bushing driver set and one of the the last bushings that I installed, a while ago, had a slight lip on the inside from the driver banging against the edge. The reamer cleans it out.

[rusbus]

[polo]

WW rents a reamer for $25, but as I noted above: it WILL NOT ream both bushings at once, in their correct placement with the beam in the bus. It's not long enough in the final blade dia to catch both bushings installed in their final location.

With the WW reamer, you either have to take the beam out and ream from above then from below, OR with the beam in the bus install the bushings tight against each other at the bottom, ream them and then remove them and re-install to the correct positions.
_________________
Michael P.
1965 Kombi
1989 Jetta GL (R.I.P.)
2004 New Beetle Convertible GLS 1.8T

[xavi_242]

[commercial air]

VW spec'd it with the beam removed back in the day. Labour was cheap then.

It's really no big deal to ream them. I guess the only hard part may be finding a reamer.

Let me know if you need one.

Chris
_________________
Northern United Transporter Society
www.nuts.commercial-air.com

[eh0s]

How much do they compress? It seems to me the biggest problem is the 'reaming' to get the new pin installed.

Otherwise it seems like a straightforward R&R. Shouldn't it 'compress' the same exact amount all the time?

Considering there are so many buses with 'loose' center pins, this procedure seems complicated for no reason. (A local VW shop wanted 4 shop hours to do it!)
_________________
Cootra

[xavi_242]

[commercial air]

The new bushings compress slightly once installed. They have to be reamed to 24mm for the new pin to fit.

Chris
_________________
Northern United Transporter Society
www.nuts.commercial-air.com

[eh0s]

I'm about to do this..
Just curious, why is the reamer used AFTER the new bushings are installed? Can't they be reamed beforehand?
(I don't have the kit in front of me).

Is the plan to make the new pin fit with the new bushes?
_________________
Cootra

[xavi_242]

[Campy]

I removed bushings from three old frontends, lately, and I, too, noticed that they all had a different groove than the replacement bushings.
That was a real nice, step-by-step instruction. I've never done it with a frontend still in the bus.

[xavi_242]

hey guys!

here you have my job of this weekend... Like an amateur I am it takes me about 5 hours to complete the job that people that have right tools and lots of experiencie do in 2. I did with the beam in the bus... so a dirty and hard job.

0. Read the largest amount of how to's you can. Bentley is correct for the procedure, John Muir for tips but not for procedure as he recommend machine bushings before and then install... Read all related threads and the vintagebus procedure.
1. Prepare tools needed... It's not funny when you need the 17mm wrench that lays on the table and you are under the bus
2. Jack and put the bus on stands (saftety first!)
3. Remove splash pan (to an easier access) and shifter rod (necessary to let the reamer pass through)
4. remove shaft, washers, seals (remember order) and greasing nipple
5. Extract old bushings with proper extractor (If you don't have one it's easy to do a cheap one with pipe and some washers and bolts...) This is a hard job, especially when lower and upper bushing are togrther.
6. Install bushings with proper tool. If you don't have correct tool it's a VERY HARD job. I installed first lower from bottom and then upper from top. DON'T hammer to get bushings in, you can use sand paper to make bushing edge a bit more conical (a bit), then bushes come in easily. Note that upper bushing should protube 1.4-1.7mm.
7. Ream bushes until proper fitting (24mm) with an adjustable reamer. People talk about sandpaper... after doing it with a reamer I can't understand how can one remove that amount of material using sandpaper... I passed through the reamer at least 5 or 6 times (3 last times same size...) until the shaft enter tight but NOT overtight. Note you cannot do it with the shifter rod in place.
8. Clean bushings and use some iron wool. Grease assy properly.
9. Install pin and washer.
10. Install top washer, seal 'O' ring and cover. Check if the old small 'O' ring is not in the swing lever arm, mine was there and nearly I didn't see...
11. Align notch with swing lever arm. Install swing lever arm.
12. Use a 'C' clamp to compress the assy and drive the bolt. That was the last hard part of the job... Secure it with the locktab.
13. Install splashpan, shifter rod, remove stands and lower the bus.

After that experience my steering play is less than before (of course)

Some shots...

the home made extractor... :p

note wear on the old one

installing lower bushing

reamer in action

'C' clamp in action... it's important to align the holes of the swing lever arm if you want to screw the 17mm bolt...

Done!

Note old bushing groove style, not a spiral through the bushing
_________________
1967 Split SO-42 Dormobile

[polo]

"Write a note to the list telling everyone what a stud you are."

LoL.

Nice write up.

I should have taken pictures.

Another thing I didn't mention;
I fashioned a puller from: 8" all thread carriage bolt, a socket (I think 30mm as you suggest in your write up) a few different sized and THICK washers, a cast iron 1-1/2" close nipple (plumbing supply) with a cast iron cap with a hole drilled through it for the carriage bolt and several nuts.

I worked it by using a nut and washer at the top end with the socket below that pressing the bushings down, and a nut and washer under the cast iron piece that cupped over the bottom of the shaft opening and was long enough to take both bushings as they dropped out. I used the top nut to adjust the placement of the bolt so I could always keep a vise grip on the head to hold it from spinning. A hex head all threaded bolt would work too if you had a socket long enough to drop into the shaft and hold it as it got down to the last bit of the last bushing. (Would need to be about a 4" long socket.


Oh... and remove the shift rod early on, you'll need to do it anyway once you go to ream and it being out of the way will make the whole bushing removal much easier.
_________________
Michael P.
1965 Kombi
1989 Jetta GL (R.I.P.)
2004 New Beetle Convertible GLS 1.8T

[thom]

Here's a writeup I did on this several years ago

http://vintagebus.com/howto/pivot.html
_________________
-Thom
1956 Single Cab
1957 Porsche 356A Sunroof
1957 23-Window Deluxe
1957 Mercedes Westfalia single cab
1963 Unimog 404
1965 E-Type

[polo]

Thanks all for the help, it was invaluable, really. Just completed the job successfully.

Two points of note:
1) The WW reamer I was sent is NOT designed to do the job with the beam in the vehicle. The length of the final cutting blades is insufficient to ream both bushings in place at their correct locations. And WW was not clear about this when I asked before renting it. They were cool about helping me through it once I'd reamed and discovered the problem, but be aware. If the final cut blades dont' have at least 4" long cutting surfaces, it won't catch both bushings in one ream.

FYI one CAN use this reamer to do the job with the beam in the car, but its twice the work. You install the new bushings, but push the top one down tight to the bottom one, ream them, then pull them back out, and re-install to the specified bushing separation distance. I can't say it'll work every time, as the reamed bushings may not align when re-installed, but in my case they did.

Thanks to Master Clay's efforts from afar, the Force was in fact with me.

2) When on the final step, with the C clamp having pressed down the swing lever, aligning the notch in the pin is obviously necessary to get the locking bolt in. I found two ways to do this, but both involved a large adjustable pipe wrench gripping the bottom pin head (watch out! Don't grab the new spacer above it, its slightly large dia.) At first I couldn't rotate the pin with the wrench, but could hold it in place while pushing the tires to turn. Once the pin loosened up a bit in the swing lever this way, I could then turn the pin with the wrench while peering into the locking bolt hole to look for the alignment.
_________________
Michael P.
1965 Kombi
1989 Jetta GL (R.I.P.)
2004 New Beetle Convertible GLS 1.8T

[xavi_242]

hi

my steering play is due to the swing lever shaft, not from the steeringbox.... so in the next weeks I will be under the front of my bus...

I'm always reading of using a reamer or sandpaper (!!)... isn't it? So the people that used the sandpaper can explain how they did to sand the bushings? I mean how they do to sand it in an equitative way...

thanks!
xavi
_________________
1967 Split SO-42 Dormobile

[jackcooper]

Is the Bentley the VW Shop Manual?

[polo]

Thank you!
_________________
Michael P.
1965 Kombi
1989 Jetta GL (R.I.P.)
2004 New Beetle Convertible GLS 1.8T