77 Front Beam Rebuild

[Yarkle]

Cool..just did. PM'd you as well. thanks!!!!!
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Tilda the Mustard Tigress 1973 Squareback (o'''^'''o)

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=771024&highlight=

[Tcash]

I wonder if one of these pullers would work?
http://www.harborfreight.com/rear-axle-bearing-puller-set-66380.html

Good Luck
Tcash

[SGKent]

I lent him the pair of VW tools Dave sent to me from Australia and sent a spare good needle bearing. Randy and Foxmon are helping at that end. Yarkle should be good to go any moment now. He is really doing a great job on his beam with awesome attention to detail. When he gets done that bus should drive really well.
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“Most people don’t know what they’re doing, and a lot of them are really good at it.” - George Carlin

[Yarkle]

SGKENT You are very kind! Many things on the to do list after this phase..hope to be able to drive it to Acton, ME show in August, barrign that, Leb can drive it to homecoming in october.

Randy stopped by today..If any of you dont know Randy, you should! the guy is a HOOT! Super cool, super nice. Hes off to go and judge the litchfield show.

I ran into a snag today, the tool takes a 7/16 threaded rod, all i had was 1/2 and the slide hammer is 5/8. so, it was like this regular show episode:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1Q2fPKPI9s

watch the whole thing, or just scroll to 6:49 to & 7:05..it was like that..no lowes, home depot, ace, true value had 7/16 rod in stock, so Im going to go try NAPA tommrow or go further into new hmapshire..

That show can be super funny, the yeti drives a 13 window split bus.

Anyhoo, two more questions while im at home with no wheels:

1. how deep should i go into cleaning up the beam..I took the grease seal cup off to get the bearing pulled..holy crap it was nasty behind there. Should i just blast the beam with easy off, clean it up good, treat surface rust with ospho leave any stuck undercoating be--just scuff off any loose stuff and chassis black around it?

OR should i try and pull off the places where it still has factory undercoating (like on the sides by the grease cups and the mounting bolts)?

2. SGKENT I think ive got the tool figured out for removal...Im using the bigger one, right? flat side towards back of bearing..Once its out, i was going to put the new bearing in the freezer for a few hours, then put it in, this time the flat side of the tool goes to the front of the bearing (again, the big one?)..will it bottom out on the edges of the tube, thats how I know its in the right depth? The little one is for the inner bearing? which im staying away from....

anyhoo, This site's members have helped me out so much- Im going to try and pay it forward, ive just become a premium member to help keep this great site going, and ill be starting a build thread to give you guys a chance to hear the story behind the bus and track its progress..I tend to get distracted and over think things, so you all can keep me on course.
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Tilda the Mustard Tigress 1973 Squareback (o'''^'''o)

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=771024&highlight=

[SGKent]

I took a wooden yardstick and a spatula. Used super glue to glue the spatula handle to the yard stick and a staple thru the spatula so it didn't slide off the handle. Then used it to scoop out most of the grease. I then pushed a piece of string thru the tube and tied old rags to is and swabbed until most of the old grease and debris was gone. MAKE SURE you put the leaves back in the same way they came out as reversing can cause them to break. I wrapped them with tape and wrote on it like Top Driver side upwards etc.

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“Most people don’t know what they’re doing, and a lot of them are really good at it.” - George Carlin

[Yarkle]

Sorry, I meant the outside of the beam. We ended up doing what you did for the inside, but once the spatula wasnt bringing out much, Leb put a baby bottle brush on it, then put a sock over that..after a few swabs dry, he used some brake cleaner on it and then dry sock again, and now its super clean.

I meant on the outside of the whole beam assembly. Its mainly just greasy and caked on dirt, but there are a few surface rust spots. My main Q is how deep to go? should i heat up and scrape off the old undercoating and treat it, or jsut let it be and just clean, treat and paint the nasty parts. the undercoatign that is good is on there REAL good, so i was just thinking of bringing a little bit of that back to bare metal and treating it.

We just finished cleaning and re-greasing the leaves today. Sometimes i forget what a simple pleasure fresh new grease is after fighting with decades old grease for a few hours. What we did was wrapped one piece of wire around one side, to remember which was the "outside", then its pretty easy to tell what side is up based ont he cutouts for the grub screws (at least for me it was). What i did was pull off one leaf at a time, Caleb wiped it down, and I put it down on a trash bag upside down. Once all of them were cleaned, we reversed the process, hed wipe them down again , then spread on fresh grease as i held it, then Id flip it over and put it down on a new trash bag.

Many an old ratty washcloth mysteriously dissappeared from the bottom of the linen closet and were sacrificed to the VW god this week!
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Tilda the Mustard Tigress 1973 Squareback (o'''^'''o)

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=771024&highlight=

[Yarkle]

Thanks SGKENT!!

after another trip over the bridge, I finally found some 7/16 rod (what on earth is everyone buying it for? 8 different stores were completley sold out!), and we modified the slide hammer to pull it out..Im going to put more pics in the Weld Busler thread.

Had to stop until tommorow morning-

Looking at the Bentley, it says reinstall the bearings with the hardened face out..which side is the hardened face?

The depth is 7+.5mm..to measure that i was going to use a 7mm allen wrench with a .5mm allen wrench stuck to it? good idea? bad?

sorry for all of my dumbass questions, and thank you for answering them!
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Tilda the Mustard Tigress 1973 Squareback (o'''^'''o)

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=771024&highlight=

[Yarkle]

I think i overthought the install...It was kind of hard to get the bearing started, but once i got it so it wasnt creeping back and forth and left and right, I stopped using the rubber mallet and switched to the block of wood with the tool.

the spec is 7.5mm, and the tool is 8mm, so i think its designed so that once you cant feel it moving against the block of wood anymore, its where it needs to be.

The bentley measurement also goes form the outside of the tube to the edge of the bearing, its kind of "chamfered" there, so the 7mm allen key actually fits on the smooth part really tight.

Whats weird is there is a machined edge on the inside of the beam:

this is what the old bearing was originally resting against..I wonder why they didnt machine that so it just stops the bearing where it is supposed to be?

Writing on the bearing faces outside, BTW--I pulled off the lower grease cup to check it, and then used that to measure my progress.

the lower one(installed correctly)

the upper (just installed)

I dont think i can get it any closer than that...checking it with a caliper..it kind of hard because of where the edge is..Id say im at 7.25mm..I think if i try and bang it in further, im going to go too far, then ill end up pulling it back out...Is it worth it or am i good to go?

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Tilda the Mustard Tigress 1973 Squareback (o'''^'''o)

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=771024&highlight=

[Yarkle]

or is the 7 +.5mm a tolerance? e.g it cant be below 7, but it can be 7.5? i was just looking at the drift specs, and the actual dimension on the blueprint is 7mm for that "lip" , but then it says the tolerances are +-.25mm for the tool unless otherwise specified?
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Tilda the Mustard Tigress 1973 Squareback (o'''^'''o)

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=771024&highlight=

[Smurf]

[SGKent]

I sent a note to DS to see if he has better images for you.
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“Most people don’t know what they’re doing, and a lot of them are really good at it.” - George Carlin

[Smurf]

[pioneer1]

Wondering ...are the only thing holding the torsion arms to the bus a couple of grub screws fitting into an indentation in the bar assembly.? Seems kind of under engineered.
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"Always waiting for tomorrow ruined everything"

'85 Porsche 911 Targa

'76 Westfalia project

[Smurf]

A little ingenuity and I got 2 of the 4 needle bearings out before the tool snapped in half! The top bearings do not need this rigging to get them out but on the bottom there is nothing to support the tool

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1962 Beetle
1977 Westfalia (Subaru Conversion)

"Traveling in a fried-out Kombi
On a hippie trail head full of zombie"
-Men at Work

[Yarkle]

what did you use on the tops?
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Tilda the Mustard Tigress 1973 Squareback (o'''^'''o)

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=771024&highlight=

[Smurf]

[Smurf]

So everyone says not to damage the inner plastic sleeve when removing the inner metal bushing...what if I took the whole inner metal bushing & plastic sleeve out and had one spun down made of delrin? Could I then delete the metal bushing if the bushing is made of delrin? Thanks
_________________
1962 Beetle
1977 Westfalia (Subaru Conversion)

"Traveling in a fried-out Kombi
On a hippie trail head full of zombie"
-Men at Work