Handling the Handling (Shock Adjustment)

In my post about the drive to and from 4Peaks in August (See 4Peaks 2021 - Road Report), I mentioned the impact of the wind on the handling of the bus. Today's post covers my initial attempt to address it. I say "initial" because I have not 100% confirmed this is the end-all solution to the issue.

Identify Causes

It makes sense to start with what the possible causes could be for the wind to have such a dramatic, and newly so dramatic, impact. I have thought about this quite a bit, mostly while driving Hapy, and I have come to the conclusion that the root cause is one of 2 things.

My first thought is around a change I made to the bus. Back in Spring, I added a tow hitch. No big deal there, with regards to wind, but I think it looks really good (See Bus Tow Hitch). Starting with the trip to Leisureland I added one of those carrier platform things from Harbor Freight that go into the square trailer hitch thing. I also got the zippered bag that fits it and refer to the pair as "the Boot". I don't put much in the Boot, but it creates lots of room inside the bus... and it creates this little .6m (2 foot) high by .5m deep waggy-tail sticking out the back. I thought, with the loaf-of-bread broadside, that this addition would not have an impact. I could be wrong. If that is the cause, I would still like to keep using it so I need to improve the handling to compensate.

My next thought is around the adjustable Koni oil-filled shocks I installed years ago. I was part of the first group purchase that triggered Koni to start manufacturing them again. I didn't write that for kudos, rather to illustrate how long I have had them. That purchase was, like, 15 years ago. I didn't do anything with them other than pull them out of the box and install them. Now, so many years later, I realize that out-of-the-box they are set at their softest setting (face-palm). That setting might be great for an unloaded bus tooling around town, and when the shocks were new, maybe they even had a little stiffness in them as they broke in. Well, it's been many years and while I haven't driven Hapy around much (less than 20k miles total since I bought Hapy almost 20 years ago), the last few years would have definitely gotten them past the break-in period if he wasn't past it already. With all the camping gear, plus the Boot, I am asking much more of those shocks than when I used an empty Hapy to get to/from work back when I first installed them.

So, I figured I can start with stiffening the shocks.

Adjust Shocks

Koni 80-series shock

The 80-series Koni shocks were designed to be easily adjusted. Of course, I neglected to do anything with them after install. After doing some reading, I have found others with a similar vintage bus and similar need: better handling when loaded for camping. The consensus is to stiffen the ride. The lack of consensus is by how much. Because of the extra tail created by the Boot, I did a full turn in the rear and a 1/2 turn in the front. I expect, that with the heavy duty 7/8" anti-roll (sway) bar in the front, even the 1/2 turn is more than I need, but I would rather feel the bumps a little more and have the bus hold steady than the alternative. Shout out to RAtwell for his page on these shocks. It's an older page, and hasn't been updated in a while, but there is some great, still relevant, information in there.

Adjustment is relatively simple. The videos from Koni show the shocks uninstalled, and some of the verbiage seems to say opposing things. I don't want to remove the shock entirely from the bus to adjust them anyway, and I don't think anyone else does either. So, I did it like this:

Rear's first. With the bus on the ground, just crack both the top and bottom bolts enough to remove any torque (19mm). It may be too difficult to get to the top one, and it may not be 100% necessary. I didn't loosen the top bolt on the driver side, and it wasn't an issue. Regardless, completely remove the bolt from the bottom. Notice that there is a nut on the other side (wheel side) that requires a 17mm wrench while you work the ratchet from the inside. With both hands, push the lower end of the shock (you have them installed with the thicker section on top like the picture above/right, right?) up into the upper section. When you are just about bottomed out, start rotating the end of the shock you're holding a little bit. You are looking for a click to tell you that the adjuster has engaged. When you feel that click, you are ready to adjust ad you can completely bottom out the shock (but do it gently). I did not feel the click on all 4 shocks, but once fully compressed, I could only rotate the shock 2 full turns, so some (older) models may not have that satisfying click.

original image
from RAtwell.com

From below, rotating it clockwise will stiffen the rebound of the shock. Rotating it anti-clockwise will soften the rebound. That is the only adjustment you can make on these red 80-series oil-filled adjustable Koni shocks. You should be able to get 2 full turns from most soft to most stiff. Consider that you do not have to adjust in 1/2 turn increments. So, you can really dial in your rebound, if you have the time. Once you have the setting where you want it, let the shock out a little bit to release the adjuster. Now, you can orient the bolt hole with the lower mounting hole. Slide the bolt through, finger-on the nut and torque it down.  Re-torque the top bolt, if you loosened it. Repeat on the other side to the same degree of rebound (same degree of turn from most-soft or most-firm). The rears should match each other and the fronts should match each other, but the fronts and rears do not need to be the same. Still, I would encourage you to keep them within the same ballpark. I mean, 100% soft fronts and 100% stiff rears could make for some unpredictable handling performance.

 

The front shocks mount a little differently. The lower mount is a stud that is part of the wheel assembly. So, I loosened the nut to release any pressure, and then removed the upper bolt instead. Unlike my rear's, the nut behind the upper mount point is 19mm. Otherwise, the process is the same (free one end, compress, adjust, de-compress, align, re-bolt).

Once I made the adjustment, I had a new challenge of finding a way to test whether it helped. I live a few miles from the nearest freeway, and if I'm not loaded for camping the test isn't really valid anyway. So, I delayed the loaded-for-camping, freeway test. I did execute the mostly-empty around-town test, though. Around town, the ride is definitely stiffer. I can feel more bumps, but the steering feels about the same. The true test, however, is loading the bus for a weekend of camping and hitting a freeway.

Hapy Birthday

pic from Bend: note
the Boot in the back

My first opportunity to perform a freeway loaded-for-camping test was for the celebration of Hapy's 50th birthday, the weekend of 3-September. I will post on that later, but suffice to say, we had fun. The drive to and from our destination was a perfect test. We hosted multiple camp sites at LL Stub Stewart State Park, which is about 40 minutes west of the greater Portland metro area, between Manning and Vernonia. Access is from Oregon state route 47, by way of US-26. US-26 pre-dates the interstate system, but it is a multi-lane highway that passes through the open farm country between the western suburbs and the coast mountain range. A perfect test. There was definitely a wind, and I could see the greenery bending to it and feel it pushing on Hapy, but he held the road. I needed both hands on the wheel, but it was not the white-knuckle experience I had on I-5 nor US-26 east of Mount Hood on the 4Peaks return. I could not tell what angle the wind was coming from, but it was partially head-on, pushing Hapy's temperature up. Still, the handling was much better. Boo drove a chase car and reported that Hapy did not appear from behind to be all over the road. The return drive was even easier (tailwind on-angle), so I think, at least for now, the suspension can handle the road. I hope for another run down to Eugene or Liesureland before the very end of the decent weather, for one more test, on the road that started it all (I-5) to prove the suspension before winter.

That's it for today. Thanks, as always, for following along-

MGB - Front Suspension Refresh (Part 4)

This post finishes up the front end rebuild I started in Parts 1 (See MGB - Front Suspension Refresh Part 1), 2 (See MGB - Front Suspension Refresh Part 2) and 3 (See MGB - Front Suspension Refresh Part 3). At this point, the front beam is back in the car. The front shocks (and upper control arms) and lower control arms are installed with the spring pans. Today we will get the springs in, the swivels mounted and the front sway bar attached to the lower arms. By the end, the car could go back on the ground. The how-to for the springs I lightly touch on because it is pretty well documented around the internet. Not so much with the sway bar, so that's a little long.

Spring Thing
Back in Part 1, I described the concerns about how the springs were under load when the lower control arm was to be removed and that some level of care was needed to prevent it from launching across the garage. That concern returns as we approach the install. I followed the exact same routine: zip-tie the upper end of the spring to the top of the beam. Getting the zip-ties in the right spot may take a few tries with the jack (during the Jack Be Nimble step), but for now, just get the spring all the way up in the beam pocket and zip tie them so they are mostly in the right spot. Once the springs are suspended from the beam, we move on to the swivels. I did one side at a time, but I don't think there's a compelling reason to other than I confuse easily.

Swivels, bottom mount
The swivels are really nicely balanced lumps of steel, when they are mounted to the suspension. When you are holding them in your hands, or trying to attach them, however, they feel unwieldy. So, to protect yourself from, uh, yourself, put something soft under the end of the beam to catch the swivel when it inevitably topples over. It will topple. Since I had a bunch of things shipped, I took a larger flat box and filled it with the crumpled newspaper and air-filled bags that arrived with the parts. I highly recommend it. The alternative is a damaged swivel. Anyway, take the swivel for the side you're working on (caliper is on the rear), and fit the lower mount into the lower control arm. Thread the bolt from the kit from the front to the rear, minding the order of the washers (nut - washer - rear arm/bushing - swivel - front arm/bushing - washer - bolt head). Once you thread the castle nut on, you may feel driven to crank it on tight. Don't do that yet. Get is on pretty well, though; finger tight.

Jack Be Nimble
With the swivel attached at the bottom, it will want to fall over, especially when you start lifting the lower control arm with your jack. To prevent that, I looped a stretch of bailing wire around the top of the swivel and then around the shock absorber. This loosely held it upright, but didn't restrict movement. Now the fun part begins. Lift the lower control arm under the spring and set the inner edge of the spring inside the spring cup. Now, set your jack as we did in Part 1, on the outer edge of the underside of the spring cup. Slowly start raising the jack. I did it in spurts and then wiggled or rubber-mallet'd the bottom of the spring so it would shift in the spring cup. My thinking was that the cup was rotating 90* so the spring would be under weird tension as is was set into place, putting more pressure on the inner edge than the outer edge of the spring. I don't think it did much other than create more danger of the spring flying out, so consider that optional.

As I got closer to fully-installed, I found that the spring tension was greater than the weight of the car. I mean that the car started lifting off the jackstand before the top of the swivel was within an inch of the holes lining up. If you have a friend, not even a very heavy friend, have him or her sit on the wing over the wheel well. I was flying solo, so I stacked tires on the wing instead. Yes, that actually worked.

Swivels, top mount
As I alluded to in Jack Be Nimble, most of the top mount work is getting the jack positioned right, and raising the swivel while keeping the car solid on the stands. Once the holes in the upper control arm / shock absorber align with the hole in the top of the swivel, it's easy. I found that getting the top of the swivel to sit in the arms wasn't simple though. I needed to loosen the bolts that hold the top arms together a little bit so the swivel top could fit. You may need to do that same, just don't forget to torque them back down when you're firming up all of your fasteners.

Now do that again for the other side. I found that the first one took at least twice as long as the second side. Ironically, I had more spring slippage on the second side, but that didn't slow me down as much of the fear of that happening on the first side slowed me. Interesting.

Anti-Sway Bar
With the rest of the suspension put together, all that's left is the front (anti-) sway bar. In my searches around the internet, all of the articles I found about replacing the sway bar had the classic "install is the reverse". That is not helpful, so I'm documenting what I did that worked. If you're using your original bar, clean it up and paint where it's been chipped when you're doing your other parts. It is so much nicer, and the bushings go on much easier. We start with those bushings. The graphite-poly bushings are a solid trapezoid, so you will need to cut along the seam so it will wrap around the arm. I tried sliding it on from either end, including removing an arm-end, but that doesn't work. You have to cut it parallel to the path the arm would take through it.

Get the bushing onto the bar. This can be hard, but with some window cleaner (or plain water) as a lubricant, and a little force, it pops on. Use the little locks on the bar as a guide for where they should be located (just to the outside of the lock/clamp). Now test fit the bar with the new brackets. For the MG, there are 2 small black pieces of steel that hold an air deflector that need to fit between the bracket and the frame. Just test fit that it will roughly fit and that the bar is pointing the right way (ends pointing rearward).

With the brackets now removed you're ready to start the install for real. Hold the bar in the rough spot where it was during the test fit and wiggle one end of the bar into the lower control arm. Since nothing is preventing complete movement, this should be relatively easy. If the sway bar end is not making it through the hole no matter what you do, you could be experiencing a manufacturing defect in the arm. I had this happen: the rearward hole was too small for the sway rm end to pass through. I had to widen it with a drill.

Once the first one is through both holes so a bunch of threading can be seen/felt on the rear side of the control arm, switch to the other side. You may need to work kind of hard to get the second side in. I did. Lots of pulling and pushing before the bolt passed through both holes. Set the ends all the way in with a couple of whacks with a hammer. Place on the lack-washer and the 3/4" nut, but don't tighten it all the way down. Now shift to the brackets, the metal thing, and the bushings. Thread in the 2 pairs of 1/2" bolts, but again, don't tighten. Now, push/pull on the bar left and right to makes sure it is centered and there isn't any torque holding it out of center. Now, tighten the bolts and nuts down. Again, I recommend new fasteners.

Now, we can lower the car. I set the jack under the rear edge of the front beam, lift the car just enough to get the stands out and set the car down. After so many months of the front being in the air, it really looks kind of weird. Really low. For fun, I jumped up and down on the front bumper. Where there used to be considerable bouncing both on the initial jump, but in aftershocks as well... the MG barely responded to my jump and didn't bounce. It just returned to it's ride height. So tight. Once I get back on the road, it is going to hold the road like a brand new (or better) MGB.

That's it for today. This has been an incredible marathon, but feeling the difference bouncing on the front bumper tells what it will be worth. The front end should be in solid operating shape for another 40 years. Thanks, as always, for following along. I will get the festival review, the bus improvements, another road story, etc. posted as I can get to finishing the stories.

MGB - Front Suspension Refresh (Part 3)

I'm continuing the front end rebuild I started in Parts 1 (See MGB - Front Suspension Refresh Part 1) and 2 (See MGB - Front Suspension Refresh Part 2). At this point, the front beam is stripped and removed from the car. We've evaluated the parts, and made determinations about which to keep and which to replace. Today starts the work of putting it all back together again. WooHoo!

Pivot on the Swivels
There some things really are best left to a shop. I want to do as much as I possibly can myself, but it's not a religion. It's just a strong preference because I want to learn and because I find it fun. I read through the process for removing and replacing the king pins and bushings within the swivels (wheel assemblies). This requires a shop press, which I don't have nor do I have the space for, and a trained eye for determining the viability of the wheel assembly as a whole. So, I contracted the fine folks at British Auto Works to do it. Like so many things, I expanded the job from just swapping the king pins and bushings to also include replacing and grease-packing the wheel bearings. Doing the wheel bearings didn't really increase the cost, and it gave me the peace of mind that the entire front end had been updated. British Auto Works completely strips, and then chem-tanks all of the wheel assembly. after testing and measuring everything, they assemble the wheel and finishes the job with fresh paint. All told, it took them three days, and most of that was because they wanted extra time in the chem-tank. The finished product looks fantastic and delivered that piece-of-mind that they were properly done.

Paint

While the swivels were at British Auto Works, I started working on the beam. For being exposed to the elements, and road debris for almost 40 years, I would have expected more damage or rust. In truth, it was in pretty good shape. So, I cleaned it up, first with a power washer, then by hand with Simple Green. Once cleaned, I could see a few scratches, but it was in really fine shape. I threaded the rusty old bolts which held the front shocks back in. I did that so paint wouldn't gum up the threads. Then I sanded it, wiped it down with mineral spirits and shot it with high-gloss black paint. Since I had the time, I let the paint cure for a week, light sanded it, wiped it down and shot another coat. At this point, I removed the old shock bolts so the paint would cure without them. While I had the materials out, I cleaned up the spring pans and springs, sanded and painted them too. Truth be told, I had lots of other parts around that I intend to re-install, so I cleaned them up, sanded, wiped and shot them too. I'll share some of the tear-down and re-assembly of those things in other posts. Everything got high-gloss black except the springs. Those I shot burnt orange which from afar looks like the vermilion on the body, but its not an exact match. I decided it wasn't a deal-breaker so I also sanded, wiped and shot the underside of the frame where the front beam mounts to it. I figured I wouldn't have that exposed again any time soon so why not?

Beam Me Up

Once the paint has been shot and cured, I was able to start assembling things. First, was the re-install of the bare beam. Since I was working on this by myself, this was a great deal harder than the removal. Why? The beam is held on with 4 bolts. Each bolt has a nut on both ends, and it passes through 2 poly/graphite (or rubber of simply poly) bushings, one on either side of the beam. The drawing on the side, here, with parts labelled 1 through 7 show the front bolt. The rear is similar. Note the orientation of the bolt in the drawing: the lump is on the bottom. This is important since the thinner stretch of the bolt runs up into the frame. If you try to send the lump up, it will not make it through the frame. Yes, I did try it that way. If you're doing this on your own, I fumbled my way into a process that works:

Get the beam onto your jack, and roll it under your front bumper. Looking from above, roughly align the rear of the beam with the rear frame holes, but still a few inches below it.
Pick a side. It doesn't matter which. Take the shorter, rear bolt, and load the bolt, stacking from the bottom: nut, plate, bushing. twist the nut onto the bolt a few turns. Slide the bolt up through the rear hole from the bottom of the beam, placing the top bushing onto the bolt. I found that these bushings sort of held the bolt in place.

With the bolt held in with friction, get more precise with your alignment, but just worry about that one hole and bolt. Raise the jack and re-check. Repeat until you have the bolt and hole lined up. Then, while holding the bolt to the beam, raise the jack, pressing the bolt into the frame. Once the bolt peers through the top of the frame, put the top nut on. Again, thread the nut on just a few turns so the bolt can hold the beam, but there is still a couple of inches between the top of the beam and the bottom of the frame.
The one bolt creates a pivot point so you can align another hole. I did the other rear bolt, following the same routine. With the rear bolts loosely in, the fronts are much easier. Stack the front bolts again from the bottom: nut, plate and bushing. Set the upper bushing, and set the bolt through the frame hole. Thread on the top bolt.
Now you can start tightening the nuts. On all 8 nuts you want some threads to peek out from the nut. If you don't see threads, you may not have enough bite on the nut to withstand the pressures during intense driving. Then, torque to spec (54 to 56 ft/lbs).

Shock Me

Once I had the beam in, I shifted to installing the front shocks. If you remember, the removal was only difficult for the rear bolts because of how close they are to the wheel well. The install is also challenged by this. If you painted your beam, did you paint with the bolts out? I accidentally left one out: the one I took to the hardware store. That bolt hole was a real pain to get a bolt into at this stage. The others just took a little windex on the bolt, and it threaded right in. Once finger tight, it doesn't take much to torque it down... except getting a torque wrench in there is impossible. You'll need to feel it, as you're aiming for 43 to 45 ft/lbs. I actually came back and torqued after I did the lower control arms because the torque settings are so close, I got a good feel for what 45ft/lbs is supposed to feel like.

Lower Control Arm
Now for the fun part. Whether you bought new arms or cleaned up your originals, there are two different arm shapes: one for the rear and one for the front. The "front" has a hole specifically for the sway bar that's reinforced. Pick a side. Grab a spring pan, three sets of spring pan fasteners (1/2" nut-washer-bolt combinations) and your lower control arm bushings. If you got the fender washers like I did, grab them too. You don't need the lower trunnion kit nor the spring yet. On each arm, press in the bushing. If you got the poly bushings, this may require a press. The rubber and poly/graphite fit in without much difficulty.

Slide a fender washer onto each front-back side of the pivot (the thing on the beam that the lower arms attach to). Then fit the rear and front arms on that same side, making sure to have them pointing towards each other and making sure you're using a front and a rear arm in the right spots (rear on rear, front on front). Yeah, that sounds obvious and all, but once you get on the ground all those arms start to look the same. Consider that the flat side on the arm faces the pan (see the picture).

Let the arms hang down and grab the spring pan and one set of fasteners. Holding the pan with the dish facing towards you, lightly thread the bolt through from the outside of the arm through to the pan. Set a washer on the bolt and then finger a nut onto the bolt. Do not tighten yet. Do the other 2 fastener set the same way: 2 on the rear, one on the front. With the spring pan loosely held to the arms, slide the other fender washers on and follow with the castle nuts. Once everything is on, but loose, start tightening things, moving from castle nuts to spring pan fasteners so no bolt gets hung up because it has been left untouched for too long. When everything is snug, torque to spec: 22 ft/lbs for the spring pan fasteners and 45 ft/lbs for the castle nuts.

For the castle nuts, align the castle with the cotter-pin hole and put in the cotter pin (or bailing wire, if you're like me). Better to torque a little too much than not enough, IMHO, but you shouldn't need to go higher than 50 ft/lbs. If you do, re-check your work. Maybe something is hanging up.

That's it for this time. I should be able to finish this up in just one more post. I'll get the swivels and springs on, and then the major efforts are completed. Thanks for following along. This has been an incredibly rewarding effort.

MGB - Front Suspension Refresh (Part 2)

Continuing from my last post, I'm focusing this group of posts on the rebuild of the MGB front end. Today, we get down to the beam, and get it removed from the car. I'll evaluate parts, and talk about replacement bushing options. Part I can be found here.

Shocking
While the beam is in, and you have access to your front shocks is the best time to evaluate them. On the right side, the shock responded relatively well to my efforts to move the arm up and down. It resisted in both directions, but not as much as I would have liked. Still, I probably could have left it alone. The shock on the left (driver) side, however, offered virtually no resistance to my attempts to move it. In fact, I could push it to the top of it's motion and it would slowly drop down. That shock is shot. Suspension shops usually recommend replacing both fronts and/or both rears at the same time. For a front-end like this one, where the shock absorber is also playing the part of the upper control arm, it is all the more important. These are held in place by 4 bolts. The two against the inner wheel well can be difficult to get to, but you can address them with the most basic spanners and ratchet/sockets. Similar to the engine mount replacement (see MGB - engine mounts), a good supply patience is welcomed here.

Set the shocks aside with the lower arms and pans. To protect the threaded holes, finger the old bolts back into the holes. I took one with me to Orchards and found replacement grade 8 stainless steel ones for the reassembly. I strongly recommend replacing fasteners with stainless steel or zinc coated to reduce the rusted-on effect.

Beam Down

image swiped from 'net,
but that's a stock beam

Now, the front beam should only be connected to the car by 4 bolts. Nothing else should be tying them together. No brake lines, steering bits, etc. but it never hurts to stupid-check (so-called for those moments when you don't check, something bad happens and call yourself stupid for not checking).

I used an ATV / transmission jack, but a more standard wheeled floor jack should work; it will just take more patience with balance. The ATV / transmission jack is nice in that it has two long arms to spread the weight, and improve the balance. Still, with the front end way in the air, and the rear on the ground, the bottom of the beam is not parallel to the floor. So, I slid a 2x4 under the front of the beam when the ATV / transmission jack reached the underside of the beam to make uniform contact. Raise the jack until it is holding some weight, but not much. You want the car stable on it's jack stands.

Relieve the torque on the 4 bolts by cracking the 4 bolts on top. you shouldn't need to hold the bottom nuts at all for this. I used the breaker bar with an assortment of extensions. Once cracked, do the same on the bottom nuts, just so they are not rusted in place. Whether you remove the nuts on top or the bottom or a mixture doesn't really matter. In the end, all 4 bolts need to be un-nutted on both ends. You would think that once the nuts have been removed from the bolts, they would just fall out. Fat chance. How about lowering the jack a little bit? Nope. To free the bolts, the top nut needs to be removed. Then, using a socket extension so you can address the bolt, rap the bolt from above with a rubber mallet. When this doesn't work, use a framing hammer, but be very careful with those bolts. They are not normal and if the threads are damaged, you'll need to order new ones.

Once the bolts fall out, either through banging or playing with your jack or maybe you got lucky and they just fell out... you'll see that these bolts are 2 different lengths and that the longer bolts (that fell out of the front) have a lump in the middle like a poorly rolled spliff. I retained all of this hardware, choosing to not try to find replacements, though I thought about it. Simply lower the jack, and the beam will lower with it. Pull out the front under the radiator and bumper.

Parts and More Parts
At this point, I was pretty spent. From the start of the prior posting to the beam on the ground was at least 2 days. Now that I've done it once, though, I could do it again in 1/3 of the time or faster. As I set with a beer, I looked at the pile of parts and the zip-lock baggies of fasteners. The fasteners were all bare steel, and they had plenty of rust on them. I chose to replace all of them except the beam-to-frame nuts and bolts. I added 4 fender washers to fit between the beam and the lower control arms. I felt this would help the bushings last longer. The fasteners probably put me back $50. Then, I turned to the pile of parts:

front shock absorber /
upper control arm

Front Shock Absorbers (2) New, these are crazy expensive. Moss has them for over $330 each. Instead, I found World Wide Auto Parts in Madison, WI who rebuilds originals. After some research I bought a pair from them at $99 each plus core which was returned when I sent my old ones back to them. They really look great, and if they work as well as they look, I just may go back for replacements of the rears instead of doing the swap-out for non-MGB rear shocks that so many folks do. The paint chips off without much effort, so if you're going for a show-car experience, I'd recommend repainting them.

Lower Control Arms (4) These looked okay, but without tight tolerance measuring tools, I couldn't tell if any of the important holes on the ends were out of round. Replacements for all 4 was $70 with OEM British steel, and the originals could have been worn from the bad seals, so I coughed up the $70.

lower control arms

Spring Pans (2) Like the arms, I couldn't tell for sure if the mounting holes were out of round, but on very close examination none of the holes looked oval. Since no pivoting happens with these pan holes, even a little out of round probably wouldn't matter so I chose to keep the spring pans, and just clean them up instead. New-steel replacements are $32 each at Moss, so they're a little steep cost-wise compared to some of the other bits. Still, if the spring pan won't firmly attach to the arms, your suspension won't be safe, so spend the $64. In the end, there was 0 play after everything was put back together, so my assessment was correct.

Front End Rebuild Kit (1) This was the whole point of this work. I found a few different suppliers for this kit, and resolved to buy from British Parts Northwest for $120. While their return policy is crap, their price is $35 less than Moss. These kits include:
- king-pin set and bushings. These run vertically between the arms and through your swivels
- upper control arm nut/bolts. They call them "fulcrum pin and hardware" and they attach the top of the swivel to the control arm / front shock absorber.
- upper control arm bushings (rubber or all-poly). These pair with the upper control arm nut/bolts to complete the set. I ended up swapping out the kit-supplied ones with some Poly/Graphite bushings I got from a new friend, Basil, in California ($6)

- lower control arm to swivel bolt/nut and bushings. They call these "Lower Trunnion Kits".
- lower control arm to beam ("A-Arm") bushings and bolts (rubber or all-poly). Again, I went with Poly/Graphite ($20) from Basil instead of the kit-supplied ones.

To do the front end rebuild, that's really all you need. I decided, though, that as long as its open, replace the beam-to-frame bushings.... and the sway bar bushings. Again, I sourced these from my friend in California. frame bushings ran $23 and the sway bar bushes were $10. When I consider there was no extra labor for the beam bushings, and very little on the sway bars, this was a very low cost to get the front end as rock-solid stable as possible.

Rubber, Poly and Poly/Graphite
Just for an aside, I wanted to touch on the differences between these three types of bushing. As a general rule, it's best that you pick one and stick with it through the front end. Since they behave a little differently from each other, the front end could be less predictable if your lowers and uppers are not the same material and respond to stresses differently.

Rubber - this is what you had originally. When squeezed between two pieces of steel which want to twist, the rubber twists with it. This smooths out the twisting motion, giving an easy, forgiving ride. For a cruiser, this is great material.

beam to frame bushings

Poly - this is the more common "upgraded" bushing. Unlike the rubber, the poly does not twist with the steel; it resists the twisting motion. This resistance reduces the degree of the twist, allowing more of the force through to the ride. This is a much less forgiving ride, but gives you a much stronger "sense of the road". Installing these bushings can be very difficult, requiring water-based lube or other tricks, maybe the use of a shop press. Once installed, most owners report loving them.

Poly/Graphite - this is in-between the Poly and Rubber in terms of road feel and difficulty of install. Basil described this far better than I could, so I will quote: They look like black plastic that has some give to them. You can put one between your thumb and forefinger and feel it give a little. The polyurethane matrix has a slippery substance called "graphite" (a crystalline form of carbon) in the polymer matrix so a slippery bit is always exposed and thus self-lubricating the bushing. No special install efforts needed.

This post got long again, so I'll continue in another post. At this point, we have the front beam completely torn down, our parts are ordered, and fasteners sourced at the local hardware store. We'll start next time with some painting and then assembly. Thanks, as always, for following along...

Installing torsion arms - Part III

If you’re following along from parts I and II, the bus is still in the air, but we’ve made some progress. The lower torsion arms and the sway bar are on. The ball joints are attached to the steering knuckles and the brake backing plates are on. If you were fortunate enough to have a handy friend around, and you were able to convince them to do step 8, or if you’re just going to re-use your bearings as they are, you can skip step 8. Like the other torsion arm posts, here's the reference picture. Lets get to it.

8) perform optional wheel bearing maintenance.
This is an optional step that I took, and I recommend others taking. At this point, you’re pretty deep into your front end, and if you’re like me, you don’t want to have it in so many pieces again anytime soon. The front wheel bearings are supposed to be re-packed with grease every 30,000 miles. Odds are pretty good that yours are overdue if you haven’t been keeping track.
Anyway, the outer bearing probably fell out when you pulled the hub off the spindle or when you separated the hub and rotor. If you’re putting in fresh new bearings, you’ll just want to find it so the neighborhood dog doesn’t choke on it later. If you’re planning on keeping the old bearings, you better track that outer bearing down. Judging the quality of old bearings is totally your call. Look for marks or obvious wear on the bearings or the races. If you’re not sure, use new ones or find someone that can qualify them for you.
Assuming you’re replacing with new bearings, the bearing races need to be driven out. Don’t waste time trying to get the grease seal for the inner bearing out by itself beforehand. I did, and in the end, I gave up and the seal popped out while I was driving out the bearing races. I was able to drive each race out of the hub with a simple hammer and chisel, hitting one side and then the other. If you’re like me, you’re probably not too comfortable banging on your vehicle. Once the race starts to move, you’ll see that you’re not hurting it and you will work with greater confidence. There are some good pictures on this page.
The bearings don’t come pre-greased, so you need to force grease into the bearings. Drive the new inner race into the hub until you hear the change in the way the metal-on-metal rings. Then plunk the well-greased inner bearings into the race. Replace the grease seal. Repeat for the inner race and bearings. Don’t use the hammer and chisel method to drive in the new races, use a large diameter socket.
Now, slobber grease inside the hub between the races. Press it deep into the hub, and keep pressing it in there until there’s only enough room to slip your finger through end to end. Now you’re ready for step 9 and you have 30,000 miles before you need to do it again.

9) put the hubs on the spindles.
It seemed like no matter how much grease I put inside the hubs, I could have put more. I got the hubs on the spindles, pulled the outer bearings, and shot more grease in there with a gun. I tightened the clamp nut down, then removed the hub and put it back on. This seemed to force the air pockets out so I could get a little more grease in. Torque the clamp nut down by rotating the hub while tightening the nut. There is no published ft-lb for the clamp nut, but the bolt in the clamp nut needs to be torqued down to 11-14 ft. lbs. This is important as the clamp nut and bolt are what prevents your wheel from falling off!

10) grease front end.
As long as the front end is in the air, and you've opened the torsion arms, you probably need more grease in there. I cranked a good 25 times on the gun on each fitting. This also gives you a chance to see if your fittings (aka zerks) are good. I needed to replace a couple, which might explain some of the front end noise I heard before the clunking started.

- Wipe down your tools, and change your gloves. This ends the greasy portion of the job. Reward yourself with a snack! -

12) Put rotors (brake disks) on.
This should be pretty straightforward. The rotor will only fit on the hub one way and it bolts on with 2 6mm allen head bolt. Torque to 14-18 ft. lbs.

13) attach brake calipers.
Carefully thread the brake hose through the holder that you put on in step 6. There’s a steel/brass ring that protects the rubber line from rubbing against the holder. Its this ring that needs to be in the holder. Check the reference picture at the top for orientation. Thread the 2 mounting bolts through. Depending on the year of the bus, the torque value changes. For the first 2 years of disk brakes (1971/2), torque to 72 ft lbs. For all other years (1973/9) torque the bolts to 116 ft lbs. using a 19mm socket.

14) brake pad retaining plates, pads, retaining clips, pins
If you have the pad backing plates, slip them in first. I don't have them, like most folks, and I haven't noticed anything unusual it. Some think these are a really big deal. I’ve heard these plates have an effect on how much your brakes squeal. If you have them, use them. BusDepot had them on back-order, so I didn't put them in during this step myself. But then, my brakes squeal in the morning, so maybe I should follow up on this myself. Anyway, press the pistons away from the disk with either your fingers or something non-metallic (like, wood, dude) and slide the brake pads in. If you got new ones, great! Don’t forget to make note of the mileage so you’ll know when you need to replace them again. Put in the release spring thing and drive the pins in with a framing hammer from the inside. Once the pins are in, you just have to drive the locking clips into the brake line holder. The clip is oriented correctly when the bend is on the upside (like a hill not like a valley). Hold it firm with a pair of needle-nose pliers and whack it with the side of your hammer.

15) put wheels back on.
Torque to no more than 94 ft lbs. You'll have to take the bus off the stands for the final torquing, but you're done with it in the air at this point anyway. Don't hook up the air tools to get these nuts on like they do at the tire shops. Oftentimes, they over-torque these nuts, and that just makes it impossible to get them off when you're roadside.

16) install upper snubbers.
Others have said to put the snubbers on much earlier in the process. You could, but its more work. Once the wheels are on the ground, the upper torsion arm rises off of the steel bar and the upper snubber can easily set into place. You have to get on your back and all, but slipping it between the torsion arm and the steel bar thing is easy. Slide the stop clips as far as you can, and drive them in with whatever is handy. I used the side of the head of my framing hammer and it worked dandy. You'll have to whack it, though, just wiggling with pliers won't cut it. If you didn't get new stop clips, you'll realize about now why you should have. I broke one at this point and had to wait for mine to ship from Canada. Grrr..

17) install shock absorbers.
Slide the lower end on first, then push the bolt through on the upper mount. The nut for the upper mount goes behind, so you'll be working blind, but setting a vice-grip or crescent wrench onto the nut works for torquing. Use a 19mm socket for both upper and lower. Once the upper is torqued down (36 ft lbs), do the lower (18-25 ft lbs). I don't know why the torque settings are different, but the VW engineers must have had their reasons.

18) hubcaps, test drive.
Hammer on the hubcaps with a rubber mallet and take a test spin in a relatively confined area. Remember, you just had your steering completely changed, so the handling will be different, and potentially unpredictable. If the bus wants to go careening in one direction or another, and pointing the bus in the right direction is more of an effort than it used to be, take it (or have it towed) to an alignment shop, and get the alignment done. If you've followed the steps above, the only issue is with the eccentric bushing not pointing straight forward. Alignment shops have the right wrench to set the alignment. If you can't actually turn the wheels from stop to stop, check the brake lines to make sure that they are connected properly and not hanging up on something.
When I test drove mine around my neighborhood, and it was like taking victory laps. By the time I got to this point, everyone knew what I had been doing, and most of them had dropped by to lean and watch a bit. The test drive was like being in a one-bus parade with the waving and the shouting. Fortunately, everything worked as it was expected, and I got to the end of the parade route (my beer fridge) without any issues.

Almost 6 months after I’ve completed this work, Hapy's front end is still nice and smooth. I haven't had to take it in to get aligned either. I just drove through some really gusty conditions, and Hapy handled it very well.... better than I did. I should probably put those backing plates on and check the torque values on some things, though.

until next time ...