Rear Shocks

I had a sticking rear shock on my 85 Jetta GL 1.8L, so I ordered up a
set of Sachs replacement shocks. They came without any rubber parts,
and I discovered this at 9 at night in a borrowed garage, so I
carefully removed the old shocks (a set of YKB's). This involved
removing three thin nuts on each shock, one on top of the cupped
washer that covered the top of the upper shock mount (small doughnut),
one underneath the lower cupped washer below that doughnut, and
another below that, above the lower shock mount. We had it all out by
about 10 p.m., and, after a lot of cleaning, reassembled the cups and
snubbers, dropped in the brass washers above the spring clips, and
pushed the shock and spring assemblies up through the chassis holes.
We let the weight back down and fought the shock shafts back up
through the bushings, got everything lined up, and tried to put one of
the thin nuts back on to discover, to our horror, that the Sachs
shocks had 1.0 pitch 10 mm threads, and the nuts (and the YKB shocks)
were 1.25 pitch!

It now being time for the shop owner to have us gone, we got out a
rethreading kit and cut two of the thin nuts to 1.0 pitch. Terrible
solution, but the car wasn't going anywhere without the shocks tied
down. We got away with it on one side, but the other nut spun free
after it got down to what seemed like bottom.

That let us put in the upper shock mounts, along with all the cupped
washers in what I'm pretty sure was the right order, and tighten down
the two self-locking nuts that came with the Sachs shocks until they
appeared to have bottomed out. It was late, and I didn't have the VW
tool, so I ran them down with a 3/8" air wrench fitted with a 17 mm
socket. I stopped when the air wrench appeared to have stopped
turning.

Dust covers back on, seat back in the car, jack it up again, and
tighten the lower mounting nuts to spec, pull out and clean the floor.

Clunk!!!

Clunk!!!

Both sides. Every time we hit the tiniest bump, all the way home.

I'm afraid to drive it until I figure out what's up. I've ordered all
new rubber parts (cups, snubbers, the pads inside the spring seats,
upper and lower doughnuts, and whatever else shows up in the Monroe
kits that are on their way ($100 more for all this good stuff!).

So, here's the question: did I just not get things tight enough? Or,
is it likely that all those rubber parts were worn out and removing
and replacing everything just finally revealed the amount of wear? The
car has about 250,000 miles on it, BTW (odometer quit turning last
spring - again).

The only visible wear was on the shock snubbers and the spring seats.
Both are chewed up and half gone, but I thought the snubbers only came
into play if you bottomed. This clunking happens on the smallest bumps.

On Sep 6, 4:30 am, Madesio > wrote:
> On Thu, 06 Sep 2007 06:59:11 -0000, Pat > wrote:
> >I had a sticking rear shock on my 85 Jetta GL 1.8L, so I ordered up a
> >set of Sachs replacement shocks. They came without any rubber parts,
> >and I discovered this at 9 at night in a borrowed garage, so I
> >carefully removed the old shocks (a set of YKB's). This involved
> >removing three thin nuts on each shock, one on top of the cupped
> >washer that covered the top of the upper shock mount (small doughnut),
> >one underneath the lower cupped washer below that doughnut, and
> >another below that, above the lower shock mount. We had it all out by
> >about 10 p.m., and, after a lot of cleaning, reassembled the cups and
> >snubbers, dropped in the brass washers above the spring clips, and
> >pushed the shock and spring assemblies up through the chassis holes.
> >We let the weight back down and fought the shock shafts back up
> >through the bushings, got everything lined up, and tried to put one of
> >the thin nuts back on to discover, to our horror, that the Sachs
> >shocks had 1.0 pitch 10 mm threads, and the nuts (and the YKB shocks)
> >were 1.25 pitch!
>
> >It now being time for the shop owner to have us gone, we got out a
> >rethreading kit and cut two of the thin nuts to 1.0 pitch. Terrible
> >solution, but the car wasn't going anywhere without the shocks tied
> >down. We got away with it on one side, but the other nut spun free
> >after it got down to what seemed like bottom.
>
> >That let us put in the upper shock mounts, along with all the cupped
> >washers in what I'm pretty sure was the right order, and tighten down
> >the two self-locking nuts that came with the Sachs shocks until they
> >appeared to have bottomed out. It was late, and I didn't have the VW
> >tool, so I ran them down with a 3/8" air wrench fitted with a 17 mm
> >socket. I stopped when the air wrench appeared to have stopped
> >turning.
>
> >Dust covers back on, seat back in the car, jack it up again, and
> >tighten the lower mounting nuts to spec, pull out and clean the floor.
>
> >Clunk!!!
>
> >Clunk!!!
>
> >Both sides. Every time we hit the tiniest bump, all the way home.
>
> >I'm afraid to drive it until I figure out what's up. I've ordered all
> >new rubber parts (cups, snubbers, the pads inside the spring seats,
> >upper and lower doughnuts, and whatever else shows up in the Monroe
> >kits that are on their way ($100 more for all this good stuff!).
>
> >So, here's the question: did I just not get things tight enough? Or,
> >is it likely that all those rubber parts were worn out and removing
> >and replacing everything just finally revealed the amount of wear? The
> >car has about 250,000 miles on it, BTW (odometer quit turning last
> >spring - again).
>
> >The only visible wear was on the shock snubbers and the spring seats.
> >Both are chewed up and half gone, but I thought the snubbers only came
> >into play if you bottomed. This clunking happens on the smallest bumps.
>
> The new shocks are almost always supplied with new nuts for the
> different thread pitch. Sound to me you may have stripped the shock
> shaft and/or installed the parts incorrectly.
>
> IIRC here's the order of installation:
> lower spring seat
> spring
> protective sleeve
> support washer <-forgetting this will cause the noise you described.
> upper spring seat
> cylindrical spacer
> nut
> lower rubber mount
> cover/washer
> upper rubber mount
> larger washer
> nut- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

Could also be that one of the old re-used rubber parts simply crapped
out the moment they saw pressure.

Your new "correct" parts should solve it.

Peter Wieck
Wyncote, PA

> Could also be that one of the old re-used rubber parts simply crapped
> out the moment they saw pressure.
>
> Your new "correct" parts should solve it.
>
> Peter Wieck
> Wyncote, PA

Indeed, replacing everything with new stuff did the job. Judging from
the feel of the upper and lower rubber doughnut mounts, they were so
far gone that they had no "oomph" left. BTW, Monroe sells a nice kit
that has everything in it. Your list was most helpful during the
reassembly - Thanks.

Pat