Re: A 1989 Vanwagon for your amusement
Posted: Tue Jan 07, 2014 11:17 pm
As for the bushing mount torque level; I would follow the factory specs. As you will note, it may pivot in the mount, and it would be possible to cause excess wear by over-tightening.
If you feel that the inner bushing sleeve is to big for the bolt and causing undesirable moments, then you may want to find a sleeve to fit inside
the original bushing inner sleeve to have a smaller gap. I would then coat all the pivot bolts and other sliding
contact surfaces with anti-seize before assembly.
But, you may also want to see if you can match up polyurethane graphite bushing to limit suspension member moments.
As mentioned before, not only is your ride height low, but also loose because you need to either
adjust the front torsion bars to the correct 45mm as in the above procedure, or replace them according the the FSM.
As for the stereo install, I have the pinouts to the stock unit, and figured out the correct wiring, so that the
radio turns on the stock sub-woofer amp only when the radio is on (to amp output line on radio, to 12+ on amp). I will see about posting them.
My rule is "thou shalt not cut into the wiring harness, unless absolutely necessary", so I also took the stock plug out of the original radio (desoldered) and used it with the new deck's plugs to make an adaptor (because I did not want to order one, because the stores here did not carry the adapter plugs I needed).
I am considering have the rear leaf springs upgraded as well now. There is a place here that will rebuild them, so I will compare that to ordering new ones (at this time).
If you feel that the inner bushing sleeve is to big for the bolt and causing undesirable moments, then you may want to find a sleeve to fit inside
the original bushing inner sleeve to have a smaller gap. I would then coat all the pivot bolts and other sliding
contact surfaces with anti-seize before assembly.
But, you may also want to see if you can match up polyurethane graphite bushing to limit suspension member moments.
As mentioned before, not only is your ride height low, but also loose because you need to either
adjust the front torsion bars to the correct 45mm as in the above procedure, or replace them according the the FSM.
As for the stereo install, I have the pinouts to the stock unit, and figured out the correct wiring, so that the
radio turns on the stock sub-woofer amp only when the radio is on (to amp output line on radio, to 12+ on amp). I will see about posting them.
My rule is "thou shalt not cut into the wiring harness, unless absolutely necessary", so I also took the stock plug out of the original radio (desoldered) and used it with the new deck's plugs to make an adaptor (because I did not want to order one, because the stores here did not carry the adapter plugs I needed).
I am considering have the rear leaf springs upgraded as well now. There is a place here that will rebuild them, so I will compare that to ordering new ones (at this time).