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I fixed the top part of my suspension. Found top needle bearings so corroded that the needle rollers looked like very small peices of crooked wood on one bearing. The other bearing was so bad that several rollers seemed to have disappeared, the others fell out of the bearing when I washed it in solvent. The roller bearing retainer was almost all gone. The two arms were so bad that the bearing area looked bumpy with a deep bumpy groove. The bushing race area on these arms are shiney and not bad at all, very weird. All of the corrosion happend to the area closest to the outside. The thrust bushings did not really exist, no more plastic raised area was present. The swaybar had that very bad long hole instead of little round hole. The inner bushing was very visible after i drove in a rag with solvent many times. With a flashlight i could see that it was smooth without any grooves or visible signs of wear. The bushing was made of metal, kind of looked like an engine bearing. The fix from used parts: Good shiney arms nice bearings that looked new and two very good bushings. I had to step drill the long hole on the swaybar, the set screw is very snug now. I placed a good deal of teflon tape on the bar ends to make up for the loose fit. These are now tight. The 'new' outer seals do look new and the older ones looked roughly ground up by scaly rust. Lastly I used synthetic grease for the 'new' assembly. The ride : I did not know that a road can feel so smooth and the steering so responsive. I feel less bumps on the road. I thought that the feel before was normal for an aircooled, this is my first one. The fixed suspension makes my car feel newer somehow. The lower ball joints are so shot that you can probably mesure the play with a regular ruler. That will be my next fix as soon as I get the parts. I am almost afraid to disassemble my lower torsion suspension because I believe I would see more horror. But the arms look tight but I will not know until it comes apart. These horrors came from the last four owners who probably did not grease the suspension for 30 years and I have all of their maintainence records, I guess their mechanics did not not know the top greasers existed so the two arms rotted away as they were lubricated with rust and water. Sugestions and possible replacements: Everyone must grease their suspensions. These things should last forever. I will see if the arms can be rebuilt at an industrial machine shop that can place chrome sleeves on them or be rechromed if the sleeves do not have the correct chrome at a gunsmith that recromes the inside of barrels. The outer seals can be replaced by right size 'o' rings and the thrust bushings can be replaced with brass ones made by a machine shop with a good lathe. The inner bushings Can be replaced with newly made brass ones from a machineshop. Bearings, I will try to find replacement and report these to the list, this may be the only action I will actually take. If I only had a machine shop, The parts I would make, and the money ! Driving more pleasurable now. LEON MARTINEZ 1969 SQUAREBACK EFI/AUTO SAN DIEGO AND TIJUANA ------------------------------------------------------------------- Too much? Digest! mailto:type3-d-request@vwtype3.org Subj=subscribe