my experience too..
on the grease staying in ..
and water or crud not getting in ...without the small ends being clamped.
'sometimes' I might ..but unless the van is going to be in real crude .I don't worry about it.

and I sure have not seen new boots cracking ..
and I'm sure quality has gone down with some brands.

one guy ..don't know where he got this ..
claimed that in Europe the government/s put pressure on the manufacturers and poarts makers  to not make parts for older cars..
to help get the older cars off the road there..
and that is why parts branded like 'meyle germany' ...............are not actually *made in* germany ...
but perhaps you know where else. 

a new reason why NOS ( new old stock ) parts are highly desireable.
I got some tires at my VW dealer ..the parts guy said they got them a year ago ..
they're made in Japan ..I thought ........'yes !' .........Pre-tsunami.  Bound to be better.  
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Jim Felder 
  To: Scott Daniel - Turbovans 
  Cc: vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com 
  Sent: Tuesday, August 30, 2011 8:16 AM
  Subject: Re: clamps for cv boots, ridged washers for cv bolts

  Johnson Foreign Auto, my local Vanagon gurus, does not use an inside clamp or tie. They claim, and I agree, that the grease should be clinging to the joint and not loose in the boot enough to come out onto the axle and that has been my experience in 21 years of vanagon ownership. 

  What concerns me is the splitting boots themselves, all of them crack within a year no matter where I get them from. I have asked my local shop to save me a pair of old ones so I can remove the rubber and experiment with sewing up some leather replacements.

  Jim

  On Mon, Aug 29, 2011 at 10:08 PM, Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@turbovans.com> wrote:

    good zip ties work fine.
    I have not seen that grease comes out,
    or water/crud gets in, even with no zip tie or clamp.

    Scott

    ----- Original Message -----
    From: "Tom Hargrave" <thargrav@HIWAAY.NET>
    To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>

    Sent: Monday, August 29, 2011 6:46 PM
    Subject: Re: clamps for cv boots, ridged washers for cv bolts

      Some of the VW replacement boots came with what look like large plastic
      ZIP
      ties - I've put them on several BUG axles and never had a problem with
      them.

      Thanks, Tom Hargrave
      www.stir-plate.com
      www.towercooler.com
      www.kegkits.com

      -----Original Message-----
      From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
      Mike South
      Sent: Monday, August 29, 2011 2:14 PM
      To: vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com
      Subject: clamps for cv boots, ridged washers for cv bolts

      Hi,

      I am happy to report that I have just placed my Zetec in my '85 Westy.
      Not
      even completely bolted in yet but soooo much better than "hanging on the
      hoist in the garage" stage I've been at for quite some time.

      Anyway--the cvs boots I have are the kind where the big end just bolts on.
      Anyone have a recommendation for the small end of the boot?  I had to
      switch axles because I'm also doing the AT->MT conversion on this van and
      the AT axels are different.  At least one of the 8 boots was on with a zip
      tie.  I didn't see any clamps specifically for this at my FLAPS so I
      thought
      I would ask the list.

      Also, the place I had do it when I first bought the van apparently didn't
      put the little washers on the cv bolts (the wide, two-per-bolt,
      washer-like
      things were there, however, I'm just talking about the circular ones).  I
      have only put a couple of bolts in on each side (just enough to determine
      the left-right placement of the engine in the van), using the washers
      scavenged from my MT donor van.  I noticed that the washers are
      specialized,
      with little diagonal grooves or ridges on them, which makes me wonder if
      they are important, and what the purpose of those grooves are.

      Anyone know?

      Thanks,

      mike
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