Hey there!

I'm keen on borrowing my buddy's '71 camper for some travelling in a couple
of weeks, but we're both concerned about a wierd problem that it's having.
He was having some bad tread wear on the left front tire, so he took it in
to the shop to have an alignment done.  Turns out the ball joints are shot,
so they put in new ones all the way around and new Continental tires up
front.  Off he goes on a trip.  Well, the steering is screwy now.  The
steering wheel won't return and the bus feels strange in the turn, like
it's slow to start turning, then wants to turn "extra" in the turn, then
the wheel won't come back.  This wasn't happening before, in fact the bus
was tracking straight and turning fine.  So he's going to take it back to
the shop that did the work (a VW shop) but they've already told him that
"it sounds like the steering box."  I know these are expensive buggers and
my buddy doesn't want to be had.  He's already done the external adjustment
(the screw thingy) on the outside of the steering box, and that didn't fix
it.

Could new ball joints all around cause a new problem with the steering box?
What else could cause this kind of behavior?  Does he need to do the shim
adjustment to the steering box?  Anyone done this?

Cheers!
Bill

(could someone forward this to the vanagon/bus list for me?  I don't
subscribe to that one.  Thanks!)

William Claspy
wpc@po.cwru.edu   "Stay cool, calm, collected and crazy"- Wavy Gravy

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