hey all,
i just got back from the maiden voyage with my 87 syncro westy project.  i
drove from west fork MT to Bozeman MT round trip.  results were 500 total
miles, 18 average MPG (better then i thought it would get!) and she drove so
smooth through snow and mud and hummed beautifully on the highway. well,
once i reached bozeman i felt the binding of my rear wheels  on very tight
turns.  after reading derek drews posts on the syncro.org webpage i knew my
vc must be on its way out.  i let the van sit over night and the next day
she was fine on tight turns, that is until i drove home and after 4 hours of
highway driving, i finally made a tight turn into a gas station.  severe
binding or scrubbing occured.  fortunately i was pretty much home at this
point so no further driving was necessary.  i am guessing it has to be the
vc.  here is my thoughts, when i first bought this van to restore back in
august the cvs were the first thing i removed to inspect.  the rear cvs were
very badly damaged.  the cage in the cv's which hold the balls in place, was
cracked and ready to disinegrate.  i had no idea why.  well, now i know, the
PO must have been driving her on a bad vc and allowed the binding to occur
so much that it wrecked these cv joints.  is that normal for a bad vc to do
that?  well, i have since replaced those cv's but now when i felt the
binding, i had thought i could hear some popping or cracking going on back
there, could this be my cvs?
i am now going to take Derek Drew's advice and remove the center drive shaft
so i can atleast drive the van until i can afford a new vc.   can i still
use rear diif lock?
my question is this:  how do i get the bolts loose from the drive shaft?  i
can not get a wrench, or socket to seat in the bolt itself where it connects
to front diff. the nut i can get my socket wrench on, but only with a elbow
or univeral joint attached to the wrench.  well, with this tool setup i am
looking at potentially stripping something out.  it seems so easy but i can
not get the tools to work for me here. any special tools? any help?  who has
done this and has a fool proof method to give me before i strip something.
also, bentely says to loosen the front diff mounts, is this necessary?
TIA
jason
87 syncro westy project
90 gl 4 sale

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