For f**cks sake -long story

[tsunamivw]

I have a 69 west now with a stock beam and dropped spindles, which is great. But it drifts to the left as you steer, pulls to the right/left/right if you anchor on and fells like it's wafting around if the camber if the road is a bit off. So we've changed the brake cylinders because they were leaking, swapped the drums which appeared to move the spearing to the other side, had the tracking checked three times and no result. I've been sorting it with friends and not managing to sort it so decided to bite the bullet and take it to a VW 'specialist' who muttered about geometry and said leave it with him, 8 hours later i picked it up an I'm fairly sure it hasn't been moved, they said nothing we can do. So any ideas?

 

[gvee]

Checked the camber is even?

Also, when you fiddled with the brakes, did you bleed them? Is so did you do all of them? If memory serves correctly you should bleed them in order of furthest from the master cylinder to closest.

 

[tsunamivw]

Cheers for the reply gvee, we have bleed the brakes but only the fronts and when we changed the pipes, do you think that could be the break issue? Haven't looked at the camber nuts yet because I haven't a clue how to adjust it, the garage were very confusing. How would you adjust them?

Cheers

 

[ozziedog]

If it is your camber on the front, there is a conical offset sleeve inside. If you look very closely at the six flats on the nut / adjusting bit, you`ll notice a small rectangular marking / indent. For a rough guide, both of these (left and right) need to be facing to the front and the mark is about the size of a matchstick, that`s the rough idea and then finer adjustment can be done after. There is a thread on here somewhere on how to get it spot on. If those marks are there or there abouts, I think you can rule it out. I don`t think there is much point in bleeding brakes unless you bleed the lot and it`s a piece of P155 with a Gunson kit, did you change the shoes after they been leaked on ?? And it sounds more like a jammed or stiff joint somewhere or possibly the box. So get a rough idea of your camber, think about your shoes, check your flexis, and maybe have a good look at your joints and box.

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,, :mrgreen:

 

[gvee]

Good point regarding the flexi hoses Oz - standard ones can work on dropped spindles, but shorter ones are apparently preferred... Yes, I have kept my standard ones

I may have made that bit up about bleeding the lot of them, but I must have heard or read it somewhere, right? Either way, it couldn't hurt to do them all again if you're having braking issues But yeah, you need a proper bit of kit really for the job. I know I'm not exactly that close (Leeds) but if you want to give it a go and can't find one local you are more than welcome to borrow mine.

I don't know what the proper setting for the camber nuts is, but when I put my dropped spindles on I faced both marks forward but this wasn't enough to clear the lower arm so wound them both round evenly until I was clear. You gotta have the van in the air for this so you can check the clearance on lock each direction. Again, I have the correct size spanner (i.e. girt big :lol: ) knocking about that you can borrow if needed.

Now I'm thinking about it, are you nose up at all? I've heard that this can make steering a bit more interesting too... but I've maybe made this one up too

 

[nora]

my bus is stock height with maybe a bit of sag at the rear. If i have weight or people in the back then the steering wanders a lot more than it usually does.

 

[lhu128l]

i took mine to a non vw place that specialise in all wheel alignment , and 4x4 alignment cost about 70 quid but they set all the camber and tracking , look in yellow pages

 

[Graham L]

Not being funny but did you put the tie rods in the right way and did you fit two adjustable tie rods?, if not the tracking will be well out and impossible to correct. With regards to the brake hoses the stock ones do fit with dropped spindles but it works better if you make the loop in the hose at the top not the bottom as normal, hope thats of some help?

 

[tsunamivw]

Thanks for all the replies, definitely given me some avenues to explore, wish me luck

 

[tsunamivw]

Thanks for all the advice, the good news is that 99% of the issues are gone!
Thanks to Ric's sterling work, it was a knackerd bolt holding the idler pin and seriously out of whack tracking, two garages claimed to have set the tracking, one supposedly checked it twice. The world is full of bullshitters, but fortunately there are a few good guys to - thanks Ric