Itinerant Air-Cooled

1. I was taking a look at the Muir "Idiot's" book today and noticed that he claims that you must jack up the vehicle to allow for wheel movement when installing CV Joints.

Of course I noticed this after reinstalling my freshly packed driver's side shaft.

I didn't see this step (raising the wheel off the ground) in the Bentley, and the tutorial I read on Type2.com didn't mention it, either.

What do you think? Jack the bus, or leave it on the ground when reinstalling?

2. The Bentley says to remove the washer on the drive shaft, but I could have sworn I saw someone saying (in a post on this site) that doing so is a bad idea. I may have imagined this. I still have to reassemble my passenger side shaft.

Should these washers be discarded?

Is it worth my time to go back and put them on the driver's side shaft that I just put in (but did not tighten fully)?


Thanks!

-Dave

The bus must be jacked to reach alla the capscrews.
I'll betcha the washer removal was cost savings. Probably not critical either way, although I'm not sure.

And don,t you flip them for longer ware when repacking, not replacing?
Like rotating tires---sorta?
Colin helped on my last job, he will know, I can,t imagine not jacking up the bus?????

Thanks to both of you for the replies.

I did rotate them around for (hopefully) increased life.

My question about jacking it up is more about the necessity (or non-necessity) of the wheels having free movement when the joints are being attached. From your posts, it sounds like the S.O.P. is to jack it up, so I will do so.

Now, about those convex washers behind the CV joints...you guys leave yours on the driveshafts?

The Bentley says to ditch them, and I usually do what El Bento says, but I always defer to the wisdom and experience of the forum.

Thanks again.

I did it without jacking up the bus but the engine was out so I could sit on the ground in the engine bay and had pretty good access to everything. I think I had to roll the bus (back or forward) a bit to get a few of the screws in... it was a few years ago so I can't remember for sure. I know the bus was on the ground though.