I would not say this is a poor design, it's the way most if not all carbs
and throttle bodies are designed. The aluminum housing is the "bushing". You
guys are just running them for more miles & time than the Bosch Engineers
considered when they designed the throttle body.

The shaft is much harder than the throttle body housing & it should have no
wear. This makes a shim a good solution. I've seen the same solution applied
to GM Quadrajet carburetors because they suffer from the same issue over
time for the same reason.

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

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM] On Behalf Of
Frank Condelli
Sent: Monday, August 19, 2013 5:02 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: throttle body rebuild

        There are no bushings.  The shaft rides directly in the aluminium
housing.  "Usually" the wear is not so bad and there are seals at both ends
that will take care of any leakage.  The throttle plate sticks because it
catches in the groove in the bottom of the throat of the throttle body made
by where the butterfly plate has been rubbing all its life.  Bad design !
I fix this with a shim.
<http://www.frankcondelli.com/staging1/store/index.php?route=product/product
&path=61_125&product_id=1003>

On 2013-08-15, at 12:33 PM, Automatic digest processor
<LISTSERV@GERRY.VANAGON.COM> wrote:

> Don't the bushings just wear out after some point?

Cheers,

Frank Condelli
Almonte, Ontario, Canada
'87 VW Westy, '00 Kawasaki 250 Sherpa, "98 Ducati 750 Monster & Lionel
Trains (Collection for sale) Frank Condelli & Associates - Vanagon/Vanagon
Westfalia Service in the Ottawa Valley BusFusion a VW Camper camping event,
Almonte, ON, June 06 ~ 09, 2013