Sean,
Time to hit the junk yards.
It can be fun.
Are you ready for a short road trip.  Get some friends together and lets
roll. How about Chattanooga or Cades Cove this weekend?
Tazewell,
Kenneth Winter
1-800-264-6757

Linda Bartnik wrote:
>
> Hey all,
> You will not believe what happened today!
>
> I was working on the '81, I first raised the front and put it on
> jackstands, then let the front down and raised the rear.  I was giving the
> van a good inspection from the underside.  That creeper that my grandfather
> donated makes it much more enjoyable!
>
> Anyway, I had already let down the left rear.  I was letting the right rear
> down when all of a sudden, POP! and the van went down about an inch or two
> really quickly.
>
> "That can't be good" I thought.
>
> I peeked underneath and found no signs of anything broken, so then
> proceeded to crank the jack.  However, I noticed that my cranking was not
> being translated into downward motion on the jack.  Well, now I knew what
> broke.  I could also not crank the jack up.  Closer inspection revealed
> that the vertical screw which does the raising and lowering had broken up
> at the top, where it attaches to the gear that attaches to the other gear
> which you turn with the handle.
>
> So now I was stuck.  I had no way of cranking the jack down and I could not
> remove the jack as the van was not lowered all the way.
>
> I thought quickly and went to my place of employment (using my brother's
> car) and borrowed a hydraulic floor jack from them.  That did the trick, I
> was able to raise the van enough to get the damaged stock jack out.
>
> The stock jack is now scrap metal.  It's not repairable.
>
> So I need a Vanagon jack.  Be aware that the jack for a Bus will NOT work
> with a Vanagon.  The Bus has square jack ports while the Vanagon has round
> ones.  The Vanagon jack part number starts with 251.
>
> I'd like to get this ASAP, as I am now going to be paranoid about flat
> tires.  I have a good spare, I have a great lug wrench, but I don't have a
> jack!!
>
> Any help here would be greatly appreciated!
>
> Thanks,
> Sean