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OK, success!

OK, here is what cutting the caps off of the end of the center links looks like (This is the other side- I got a little carried away with this one, don't cut into the link this much)



This side went quite well-

The pin:



The nylon packings:



Tomorrow, I'm going to an ACE hardware store to see what they have...

I looked at the spare center link that is off the parts car, and it looks thrashed. No boots, rusty as hell. I'm regretting cutting this particular one off of the wagon up, because it is in really nice shape inside the ends. Oh well, I'm crossing my fingers that I'll be able to rebuild it. I need this car reassembled by next weekend.

Great News Uber on getting the center link apart!! Looks like VW nylon bushings like in the shifter cups of a vanagon! That stuff gets brittle! So is Ray talking about the bushings you see in the plumbing area for pipe connections? So how do you seal the back up again? Is Ray talking about cutting a groove in the case for a "c"clip and a washer with a hole for a grease fitting? I can see why they go bad and hold water and rust!
I'll bet just adding a grease fitting would be a big improvement! Man, I can see why you can get a lot of play in thoses peices with the parts needing to be solid but yet movable for steering! Hey, have you ever seen the control stainless arms they have on outboard motors for steering? They have a lot of stainless cup washers and bushings for movement! I wonder if that would be a place to look also?? I'm sure Ray's setup will be sweet! I guess you really aren't too worried about the rod coming out the top lip since it's held to the other component. That bottom cap process worries me though... Could you make the bushing outta that urethane material? Thanks again for the pics and post! bill

Well, it looks like closest ACE hardware was closed today. I think Ray mentioned using a snap ring holding in a cap made of stainless steel sheet to seal it up. That's a big question mark for me too- finding the right retaining ring with the limited resources here. The pin is held in place from coming out of the top end by a substantial lip- everything fits in from the bottom. As for the engineering that included the nylon parts to begin with, I can only assume it was to cushion any sudden stress on the road wheels from reaching the steering wheel as harshness. I don't think that polyurethane would be a good choice at all, you need something more rigid.

Sorry for the delay. Do not go further yet. I will send you the pics of the one I made for MGVW...so you can see what the finished parts look like. You have not really gone too far. You can cut you cross slots all the way through the ring groove with no adverse affects. There will need to be 4 pieces of brass made for each end. Ray

My mail server seems to be down at the moment, but I will look forward to receiving them. The reason I wanted the car done is that I am moving to Atlanta next weekend to the company headquarters and wanted to have it to drive out there! However, it doesn't look like that is going to be possible. The eccentric bolts I ordered and just received today aren't going to work, along with the whole wrong center link debacle. Really, the wagon will need periodic attention if it is daily driven, and I can't chance going too long without a car in a city like Atlanta. Since I sold my GTI VR6, as well as getting a pay raise, I am probably going to buy a newish truck this week. Probably a V8 Dodge Dakota. I've towed quite a bit with my parents' and it does fine with the V8, but is a little better on gas and easier to park than a full-size truck. The sedans are going into storage, I already have it arranged, and the wagon will have to sit in the garage at my house here until I have a permanent place out in Atlanta (I have a month or so of temporary housing paid by my company). The truck will enable me to tow the cars around without having to rent or borrow a truck, and give me something relatively reliable, but I hope to have several 412s driveable for better gas mileage and more fun- and maybe still that electric conversion I've been tossing around in the old melon since I started that thread awhile back...

Looks like more than one 412 is stuck in a garage now
Oh well, there's time for everything I guess.

Yeah, I read about the heads, bummer. Getting head work done is always a nail biter, at least for me. A lot of shops can't even work on the relatively conventional watercooled VW heads correctly. I suppose that it might be a good idea to have it done by one of those shops recommended on this forum? I will probably do that if and when the need arises, otherwise it seems like a crap shoot...

Yeah, ACVW head work is really tough to get done to factory standards nowadays locally. Even the "recommended places" need a good set of heads to start with (which I didn't have last year, but may have now if I'm lucky)...and the quality does vary over time even in those places as experienced machinists retire or move from place to place. Whatever happened to reasonable prices for stock-quality work? I don't want hi-po porting and polishing, etc., just a reliable job that'll last and make factory power. It's getting harder to find nowadays. Used to be almost every town had its ACVW guru, many were reasonably good, but as the demand in any one place dropped, they moved on, went out of business, or retired, leaving fewer capable machinists. And I'll bet at that most didn't do much valve work up to 10 (15?) years or so ago, since new heads from VW were still available. Maybe that's the problem, the heads floating around are mostly used, mostly rebuilt, with mostly variable quality that would be OK on a Ford V8, but not an ACVW. Who knows, maybe a set of AMC castings are in my future.

Hey Guys, any pics of the bronze peices or what they look like? Are they like the old nylon peices or more like a sleeve? What about that clip area? That seems like a another big issue that Ray has also accomplished!! Uber are you movig to Atlanta? Bet you will miss the old digs!! Thanks again for the great posts, bill

I'm running behind. I will send them right now. Ray

vwbill wrote:Hey Guys, any pics of the bronze peices or what they look like? Are they like the old nylon peices or more like a sleeve? What about that clip area? That seems like a another big issue that Ray has also accomplished!! Uber are you movig to Atlanta? Bet you will miss the old digs!! Thanks again for the great posts, bill

Yep, I'm moving to the Atlanta area. It sucks that I have to leave my awesome shop behind. I'm very disappointed, let me tell you. There really isn't much of an option, though. I'll just have to find or build something out there.

I got the pics, I'll post them soon...

Hey Guys, great pics of the rebuild parts! Can you describe the parts and what they are and how or if they were modified? So is the small hole in the one washer the place to grease the joint? Why is there a difference in the bottom of the assembled joints? It looks like one is cover totally with stainless and the other it looks like you can see the bottom of the joint stud and the retainer is a washer? It looks like in one picture of the side view of the assembled joint top that there is a bronze stepdown bushing then maybe a copper washer then maybe a stainless washer? Do you still put a boot on top to cover the joint? The assembled stud picture looks like there is a nylon washer but the parts layout looks like a tiewrap cut peice? Also, are the two thicker washers on both side modified with slots on the top and side for the gease to move? Any dimensions of the parts?
Ray sure has a great vision and creativity for rebuilding options! Thanks again for the post! Bill

The white strip...is .080 teflon. Its easy to get at most plastics places. Yes, the grooves are for grease to move and work great. Yes, the hole is for teh grease needle.
The shot where the pin is visible from the back...is just so you can see how the back washer fits around the back of the pin.

The one with a stainless cover is theame joint......just with teh cover in place. On the stock joint....the cover was structural. It was what held teh guts in. On this one....the snap ring holds all teh guts in. The cover is just a cover. It also took....ike 7 minutes to make both out of .015" stainless sheet bought from the hobby store. I cut a disc to drop in exactly....found a socket that fit just inside the perimeter of the edge..and gave it a light tap...and it perfectly shaped the dome. I reccommend then giving it a pump of grease, and a thin smear of silicone around teh edge and its water tight. I forgot to send a picture of the master cylinder boot i installed.

Each joint on ecah centerlink will have slightly different dimensions. A dremel tool and a couple needle files and sandpaper are required for this job. I was hoping to do one this weekend. It may be too cold to get the one off my car. I will take a full set of pictures of the next one....kind of an expose DYI. Ray