Date: Thu, 3 Aug 2006 12:47:01 -0700
Reply-To: Jake de Villiers <crescentbeachguitar@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Jake de Villiers <crescentbeachguitar@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: alko shock report
In-Reply-To: <78EA0FBA-1431-4769-B01A-874BAE18A08D@uvic.ca>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
There are three sets of ALKOs in front of our house, one, two and three
years old respectively. The oldest ones are on my daily driver work van and
are still performing well.
YMMV, Jake
On 8/3/06, Alistair Bell <albell@uvic.ca> wrote:
>
> Oh great!
> sheesh, why can't life be more simple... take old shocks off, put new
> ones on :)
>
> I did think to myself that i would be happy if the new shocks lasted
> half as long as the old ones (which are at least 145K miles old).
>
> Alistair
>
>
> On 3-Aug-06, at 5:32 AM, Brien Dews wrote:
>
> keep an eye on them Alko's. I have a buddy who installed them and
> within a year they were leaking.
>
>
> On 8/3/06, Alistair Bell <albell@uvic.ca> wrote:
> Last Thursday I replaced the front shocks on my '82 westy. have had
> the van for 13 years and hadn't replaced any of the shocks. I don' t
> know if the previous owner had (i purchased van with 82 k miles on it).
>
> I had been unhappy with the van's susceptibility to cross winds, and
> with good tires, steering linkage check, and a complete front ball
> joint replacement last year, I thought new shocks were in order.
> Doing the old bounce test on the van did not indicate I needed new
> shocks, FWIW.
>
> Tom Forhan's well described procedure was a great aid. The old shocks
> came off very easily, the nuts and bolts in very good (surprising)
> condition. The old shocks were Sachs original equipment and in hand,
> moved in and out fairly good. Not as stiff as the new Alkos but by no
> means completely worn out. However, one shock did have a wee bit of
> free play.
>
> The new ones were put on and next day we went on an extended weekend
> trip involving logging roads and some quite rough logging roads :)
>
> The shocks performed very well. Its hard to really quantify, but they
> "absorb" well without feeling harsh at all. On normal roads there is
> not much difference compared to the old shocks, but on logging roads
> they absorbed washboard and potholes very well.
>
> I haven't experienced severe crosswinds yet, but it seems that the
> Alkos have improved control quite a bit.
>
> I recommend them.
>
>
> Alistair
>
>
>
> '82 westy, diesel converted to gas in '94
> http://www.members.shaw.ca/albell/
>
>
>
> --
> Brien K Dews CC-AWCI
> www.busesbythebeach.com
> 84 Wolfsburg Westfalia
> 88 Vanagon 'Carrier'
> 89 Vanagon 'Bluestar'
>
--
Jake
1984 Vanagon GL
1986 Westy Weekender "Dixie"
www.crescentbeachguitar.com
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