[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index] [New Search]
Welll... All I can say is I'm extremely happy I waited for the chance to visit Keith upstate to replace the lower ball joints on my squareback. Namely since he instantly noticed that my torsion arms were moving laterally about 1/8". Not only did I get a world of education as to what to watch out for - stuff that doesn't get addressed in the Bentley like how carefully you have to pull out the bolts that clamp the ball joint to the steering knuckle, but we also took out the torsion arms and discovered that my stabilizer bar wasn't broken, (Keith's main concern) but just that the torsion arms weren't properly set. And as we were nearing the end of a relatively straightforward procedure we hit a wall - the threads of the steering knuckle on the left side were so shot they rounded off the bolt threads any time we tried to get one in, and we could barley get one in at all. Had I been on my own at this point I would have been tearing my hair out in clumps. Thankfully, Keith had a world of patience with the problem and in between brief thundershowers, he finally got everything back in place. And the results? My God, I just thought it was the lightness of the car that made it wander all over the interstate lanes; I just thought I had to concentrate a little harder on driving since the car was old...all those years and NOW I finally have some idea of how well the car truly handles! And no rubbing on the right side on tight turns! I can't wait to see how it handles once I get it aligned. Now if I can only find a reliable shop to do that... Oh yeah, AND he noticed that my front axle ground strap wasn't bolted down - hence the reason my horn goes off at hard braking. Anyway, I figured that yet again I should make it public that Keith Park has saved more than his own Type 3s, and he's a great, funny guy to boot. It's a damn shame the world ain't populated with more guys like him. PS - looking for upper front end bump stops and an inner left tie rod boot. -- Mike Wodkowski 72 FI SQBK Brooklyn wodkowski@mac.com ------------------------------------------------ To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <type3-off@vwtype3.org> For more help, see http://vwtype3.org/list/