Today (8/4/00) I got started on my front suspension. I had most all of the parts, so I just got right to it. BTW I purchased all my suspension stuff from www.aircooled.net I started unbolting things one-by-one. Right now, the front suspension is COMPLETELY apart. Here are a few pics of the process:
These are from about the middle of the day, when I was half way done with the front suspension.
In This pic, you can see I already removed the drums, backing plates (complete with the hardware still attached), stabilizer bar, and the rubber brake lines. All that is remaining, are the spindles, left and right tie rods, center tie rod, and the steering box.
Here are the parts I mentioned above: Backing plates, drums, and the front stabilizer bar.
Here's the view from underneath. As you can see I supported the car with very hefty jack stands, located by the rear of the frame head, about 2" in from the bolts. You can see the right spindle, and the lower control arms in this pic.
These pics were taken later tonight, when I was done disassembling the front suspension:
Here you can see how far I have gotten from the pics above. Notice there are no spindles, tie rods, or control arms on the car anymore :-)
As you can see, there is NOTHING left. That rusty thing you see on your right, with wiring, and tubing coming out of it, is the brake master cylinder; I have a replacement for it, so I guess I'll pull that one off tomorrow. By-the-way, if you are wondering why I haven't removed the struts, its because I have already rebuilt them, and put in new KYB-GR2 strut inserts, so there was no need to remove them.
Here you can see my "box-of-parts": In it are numerous bolts, washers, and nuts... Along with the left and right tie rods, the left and right control arms, the left and right spindles, and the steering damper.
Here's the rest of the parts... As you can see I removed the gas tank (to gain access to the steering shaft-which is in the lower right on the picture) you can also see the center tie rod has been added to the pile.
Here's the steering box, after I removed it. It was very dirty, and upon further inspection revealed that the oil seals were shot (and had been so for a long time), and I'm pretty sure there is NO oil inside. It also feels gritty when moving it. All these indicate that this steering box *may* not be rebuildable. I'm going to take it apart tomorrow, and find out.
Just another pic of the steering box, after I cleaned it a little. On the right you can see the steering tube (its what the steering column is in). I decided to remove it as well; mostly to clean the bearings) I also wanted to find out how the steering column grounds... I have been having intermittent problems with the horn, because it wasn't grounding out. I found out the VW designed it, so that the when you ground the horn (making it beep), its supposed to go through the steering column, through the steering shaft, down into the steering box, and then to the bolts that hold the steering box to the body. This is a fairly weird design. If the gears are worn in the box, or there is a bunch of oil or grease in the box, or the steering shaft, the horn will not work. I have a few ideas on how I'm going to fix this problem.
That's it for now, stay tuned for part #2
