@Alan Merklin posted:On a couple of past speedster projects I found a loose castle nut ( not to torque specs) on the rear stub axle caused wandering.
I redid the entire brake system when I replaced my master cylinder. I’ll double check the rear castle nuts along with the rest of the rear suspension.
@Ewatub posted:Dittos to edsnova & Alan Merklin. Urethane non oem rag joint failed. Fortunately, while I was backing out of my garage.
To Alan's post, changed rear to wide 5 rotors, had a senior moment, missed appropriate torque on stub axle nuts. I would describe the sensation like the tires were mushy. I knew where to look since no changes were made to the front.
These clown cars can be insidious.
Installed an OEM German rag joint.
Had a funny conversation with Pat Downs, Anand Rajani, and Teby this morning. I texted them to tell them I replaced the “rag joint”. Pat D asked what a rag joint was and Anand told him that’s what the steering coupler was called because it was made of rubber and woven fiber. Pat asked why I just didn’t call it a steering coupler. I told him that was the term I knew. Later I sent a photo of the torn part and said, “Here’s the torn coupler.”. Pat D responded back, “That’s a rag joint.”. He was on fire this morning with his humor.
This week has been car fix week at my house. I've had to move between my daughter's older model Saturn Aura that I'm getting ready to sell for her and my Speedster. Today was Speedster day again and after I took the dog out for his daily walk I jacked up the rear of the car. I grabbed hold of the wheel and gave it a shake. It moved a little. WTF?!!! I checked the opposite side and it also moved just a little.
When I replaced the axle seals, pads, and drums I know I torqued those axle nuts something fierce. In addition to the breaker bar I used the 4' handle from my floor jack as an extension. I also used all of my 230 lbs to apply pressure on the end of the bar which is well over 300 foot pounds.
Something must not have seated all of the way when I reassembled everything during the previous repair but I have torqued everything again and reinstalled new cotter pins so all should be good. I'll double check after each of the next few runs to be sure.
230 ft-lbs to like 270 is good. 300 max.
If you put 230 lbs out on the end of a 4-foot breaker you torqued it to 900 ft-lbs. I wouldn't do that.
@Robert M posted:This week has been car fix week at my house. I've had to move between my daughter's older model Saturn Aura that I'm getting ready to sell for her and my Speedster. Today was Speedster day again and after I took the dog out for his daily walk I jacked up the rear of the car. I grabbed hold of the wheel and gave it a shake. It moved a little. WTF?!!! I checked the opposite side and it also moved just a little.
When I replaced the axle seals, pads, and drums I know I torqued those axle nuts something fierce. In addition to the breaker bar I used the 4' handle from my floor jack as an extension. I also used all of my 230 lbs to apply pressure on the end of the bar which is well over 300 foot pounds.
Something must not have seated all of the way when I reassembled everything during the previous repair but I have torqued everything again and reinstalled new cotter pins so all should be good. I'll double check after each of the next few runs to be sure.
I've had some long conversations wrt: brakes over the last week. After hearing that he never used anything but German drums from my local air-cooled guru, I had a good chat with the tech at Wolfagang International about various drums. He said avoid the Brazilian and Chinese ones, but that the Italian drums are almost as good as the German ones. And cheaper and easier to get.
The salient point here is what he told me about keeping the axle from wallowing out your drums: torque it to spec, tighten it until the castle nut lines up with the next hole. Drive it for a few minutes, tighten it to the next hole, drive it again, tighten it to the next hole and put the pin in it.
@dlearl476 posted:I've had some long conversations wrt: brakes over the last week. After hearing that he never used anything but German drums from my local air-cooled guru, I had a good chat with the tech at Wolfagang International about various drums. He said avoid the Brazilian and Chinese ones, but that the Italian drums are almost as good as the German ones. And cheaper and easier to get.
The salient point here is what he told me about keeping the axle from wallowing out your drums: torque it to spec, tighten it until the castle nut lines up with the next hole. Drive it for a few minutes, tighten it to the next hole, drive it again, tighten it to the next hole and put the pin in it.
Now I find out. I went driving today and when I got back I told Teby I’d check the axle nuts every drive until I know is they’re absolutely good.
@edsnova posted:230 ft-lbs to like 270 is good. 300 max.
If you put 230 lbs out on the end of a 4-foot breaker you torqued it to 900 ft-lbs. I wouldn't do that.
I didn’t get ALL my weight on it and I wasn’t at the very end. I am confident I got 300 ft lbs out of it. I’ll go visit my brother and get his torque wrench so I can be 100% sure though. Didn’t feel like spending that much for something I hardly ever use. Although it might be faster if I got to AutoZone and borrow one. They have a tool loaner program.
Ah, I misunderstood your description of your process. You did it no harm then.
Question for the experts-
i recently ordered and received a German manufactured steering coupler from one of our trusted VW parts sources. This Febi Bilstein coupler manufactured in Germany came in a sealed Manufacturer box, but upon unboxing the part number and VW markings had been ground off. Ref picture.
When I contacted the seller they explained that the German manufacturer had lost its VW licensing agreement and all German parts the OEM part builder now sell come with the VW / part number markings crapped off.
does this story ring any bells? Has anyone who has ordered German manufactured parts experienced this? Does the grinding introduce fail points in the coupler now? Is using such a part safe?
question to the builders who deal with parts on a more regular basis? @chines1 @Vintage Motorcars Inc @Vintage Speedsters @VSpyder—- is this something you are familiar with? would you put such a part in your cars?
sorry to bother you guys with such a trivial question.... but safety first, right?
Good question Luis.
It sounds like the "VW Parts Polizei" are very much in lock-step similarity with those pesky "Porsche Marque Polizei" hovering over replica ads posted on eBay. 
I did hear back from other VW part retailers who sell the same Made in Germany Febi part...
They cracked a couple boxes open and confirmed they also had the VW logs/par number scraped off. They do stock another German OEM part manufacturer who apparently does not scrape the VW logo off... probably because they have an active license to produce the part in place with VW/ Audi . pricing is 2x.
question now is... is this Febi part safe to use/ recommended for use? Or should I scrap and get another German part?
better safe than sorry...
thoughts??
It is not unusual for parts suppliers (in a lot of industries) to go in and out of supply contracts as an OEM (original equipment manufacturer), meaning that they supply authorized parts to someone else for a while, then another someone else underbids them and they lose the contract for a while and maybe later on it flips back (usually because the second supplier wasn't making enough of a margin on his low bid).
Supplier #1 still has the tooling and left over raw materials on hand and can still produce parts, but they're no longer under license so they have to remove any reference to the "Mother Company". They may even have finished product that they produced in anticipation of a continued contract that didn't happen and can do whatever they want with it once the reference logo to the buying company is removed. I used to deal with this from time to time with our (totally unrelated) products.
It would have been much cooler if Supplier #1 had modified their rubber casting tool to eliminate the logo, but they may have had a bunch of finished product and someone (usually an inside sales person) said it was OK just to grind off the existing logo (I hope we have no "inside sales" people on here) and sell 'em as-is.
Now..... Would I use it if it was the sole link between my steering wheel and steering linkage?
Pro'bly not. You only live once.
Those deep cuts looks like damage. I would send it back.
I can see grinding off the VW logo. Giving the job to a guy who's only tool is a chain saw seems to indicate a lack of concern.
Well... the more I search for German made 111-415-419 parts, the more I realize most vendors do advertise the part with these horrible looking grind marks. I guess I was not paying close attention to the pictures they posted on their online shops... sample below... huh. Maybe time to buy UK made German Designe parts :-) who would have guessed.
We do not use this type of rag joint, so I cannot be of much help here, sorry.
The only thing I can tell you with 100% certainty is to avoid the urethane versions, they are a death trap and will separate eventually. Stick with OEM if you can.
EDIT: I did a quick search on eBay and there looks to be NOS round versions with the fiber reinforcement available out of Italy. I would also try Bug City in CT. They ave a ton of NOS parts and if they don't have it they generally know what quality each replacement part is. Don't be afraid to spend $50-60 on a higher quality version of this coupler vs. the aftermarket $10 part. It's pretty important in your application.
