the idler arm rotates in a bushing arrangement thats a little like Shimano SIS upper derailleur pulleys (except the rubber part)...the through bolt carrying the arm is surrounded by a sintered steel sleeve that is surrounded by the large, chromed outer sleeve that is pressed into the body of the bracket. the rubber is there to act as a damper, but is unnecessary and deteriorates rapidly.
super beetles have a nearly identical part and have long suffered from front end shimmying caused by wasted idler arm bushings, and bronze replacements are available that are useable in the type 4 with just a little modification:
what i didnt realize when i first pulled the bolt out was that i was looking at the outer surface of that sintered sleeve, not the shaft of the bolt. with it placed on the bench resting on its head, you can just see where the two overlap. this little bastard has totally fused itself to the bolt:
all hope is not lost, however...above you can see that the liquid wrench is sweating through the pores, and there's even a tiny ring of moisture at the bottom. i've hit ti with my butane torch 4 or 5 times and let it sit like that for a couple days, hopefully it will come off. if not i'll just have to cut or grind it...dremel maybe...
to get the chromed outer sleeve out i used a variety of bicycle tools, actually. the press is a Bicycle Research BMX bearing cup press, the knurled steel cup is from an ancient VAR headset press (the small diameter was an exact match for the OD of the chromed sleeve), and the large aluminum shell is my personal favorite: its for removing the seal nut on a Lawwill Leader shock (!) ...probably the first/last time its ever been used...the best part was that it has a machined countersink on one face that perfectly matches the raised lip on the bracket and the other end's ID perfectly matches one of the steps on the bearing press cups; this kept the whole thing perfectly centered and rigid. i did run out of room on the VAR cup once it bottomed out(not enough depth to the small diameter), but by then i could use a socket and a nylon mallet...came right out:
a while back i bought a NOS centerlink when it showed up on ebay during one of my parts-hoarding episodes. there are many posts on the forum about the importance of rebuilding/modifying these to give good service life, so i started taking both my NOS and existing one apart when i noticed something odd: the NOS 'link is missing its nylon bushings.
this is the achilles heel of it, as the nylon absorbs moisture and deforms with age, so the permanent solution is to replace it with a precision, hardened steel bushing. from what i can tell, the nylon sleeve is like a top-hat shape and the rest of is captured inside the body of the centerlink end, and can only be extracted by cutting apart the backside (a relatively flimsy steel cap ) and pulling the whole pin out, complete with nylon guts.
so maybe theres no need for me to cut mine apart after all and i can just add the steel bushing and be done with it...dont know yet. i think i will take my existing one apart anyway, just to have a rebuilt one for spares, so maybe during that something will reveal itself to me...
next: control arm bushings, radius arm donuts, and centering rings...
