Made some decent progress today, but before I report, here is an update that I have cut ‘n pasted direct from my good friend Alex who has been doing a super precision job on the king pin assemblies for me. This is what he posted.....
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Had a delivery of Andys King and link stub axles this week - managed to get onto them today
First job - press out link pin bushes
Followed by the Kingpin
All dismantled ready to press out kingpin bushes
Kingpin bushes out
All stripped
Then a quick clean up in the parts washer - get all the old gluey grease residue out
All clean - new bushes and Kingpin ready for reassembly
New bushes pressed in
Next job - reaming up the new bushes to fit the new kingpin - bushes are supplied oversize so you ream them with a pilot and guide reamer set to size them properly
Its a slow job - you have to gradually increase the reamers size until the kingpin is a snug fit - if you make it too slack then it will wear faster and you will have the same problem all ver again
Once reamed to size you have to file out the two slots that the metal cap slots into
Another scrub in the parts washer to get rid of any brass shavings
Old fibre friction washer
New fibre friction washer - bit thicker so should compensate for any wear
Thrust washer pin back in place
Thrust washer located on pin
Fibre friction washer next
Finally metal cap fitted
At which point normally you should be able to gently squeeze the whole assembly back into the carrier - however with Andys set they slotted in easily - far too easily !!
So - time to get the manual out
According to the manual - vw made oversize thrust washers to compensate for such wear
so with the carrier weighing in at
and the stub at
and with the current thrust washer at 3.52mm - the whole stub assembly being 56.45 mm we need an oversize thrust washer around the 3.7 - 3.8mm range
Over to you Andy - time for some NOS hunting again!!!
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I love a challenge, so scoured the world looking for some NOS thrust washers, and as luck would have it, found a full set of all the sizes in Germany, which once they arrived, I shipped the appropriate sizes straight to Alex for him to fit. Alex set to work, did the final assembly, then shipped them back to me. They arrived yesterday!
He really has done a perfect precision job, for which I am ever so grateful.
Before I got too excited assembling everything, I took the opportunity of them still being loose on the bench to install the bearing spacers which also act as the sealing surface for the front hub seals. Note the wear on the face of my originals......
I wasn’t happy with this, and not wanting to risk future leaks, invested in a set of genuine VW replacements. This is the sort of stuff that just keeps on ramping up the costs, but well worth it.
I polished the seal face to make sure there was a good surface for the hub seals...
...then as they are a tight press fit, I used some large pullers in reverse to pull them on to the spindles. The claws on the puller legs need something to grip on to, so I reversed an old spacer and used this to drive it on, which also saved damaging the front face of the new spacers. I ground out the inside diameter of the old spacer until it was a slip fit as there was no point trying to press them both on!
I then unpacked the new link pins and shims. At this point it became apparent that there was a small discrepancy..... New King and Link pin kits come with the later style (March ‘60) rubber seal and retainer cap which was not part of the original fitment of the car. These later kits use only 8 shims top and bottom instead of the pre ‘60 10 shims like I should have. To get around this, I mic’d up the best 4 original shims and added them to the new ones to allow me to set it up as per factory.
To set up the correct spacing to allow the link pins to seat correctly, it is important to measure the offset between the upper and lower trailing arms. The upper training arm should be 7mm further inboard that the lower training arm with an acceptable tolerance of +/-2mm. Any difference to the ideal 7mm is compensated for by moving the shims from one side of the steering knuckle to the other. There is a table in the manual that gives you all the numbers which was very useful...
To measure the trailing arm offset, the manual suggests running a straight edge off the lower trailing arm up towards the upper arm, them measuring the gap. I had a go at this but found the results a bit hit and miss, so decided to measure them a little more accurately, just to be certain I could get it absolutely perfect.
As they were both just a whisker under 7.5mm, only 1 shim displacement was required as per the table. It was nice to note that both sides are practically the same.
So, with all the shims in the correct place, I assembles the knuckles on the trailing arms, greased all the joints, cleaned everything down, then coated them with the sealing wax. I'll adjust the link pins properly when the beam is more stable, mounted to the car.
And this is how I left it for the day, ready to go back on the car, and much cleaner and better than when I took it off!
All that is left to do before hand is clean and protect the front inner wings and behind the spare wheel well, then I can bolt it all back together then fit the front brakes.
Getting there slowly!
I can supply...
25/36hp Crank-Flywheel shims - 3 sizes
NOS king pin thrust & fibre washers - all sizes
Cloth braided nitrile fuel hose safe for modern fuels
PM me for details...