Before our first trip with Vandejo to go camping some time ago, I decided that it would be nice to have the Koni shocks and Nokian tires on her.  The Nankang tires I had installed on Vandejo for the drive home after purchasing her, while proper in size, build, and load range, were not the best in regards to handling and tread design.  The shocks on Vandejo were pretty worn as well and didn’t help much in the ride or braking department.  With Buster stepping aside to let Vandejo take care of the camping and long hauls, I figured I would swap them.

Well, I got the tires swapped.  But the Koni shocks just weren’t coming off, yet.  I started to remove the front passenger side shock off Buster, and succeded in getting the top bolt undone.  But after removing the nut on the lower shock mount, the rubber appeared to have seized to the stud.  So, I could twist the shock forward and back, but the rubber would not break loose to let me slide it off the stud.  Also, there is a metal sleeve that slips inside the rubber bushing, and slides over the stud.  Perhaps I left that off by accident?  I couldn’t tell right off, but will investigate more.

A quick post to the type2.com mailing list provided various answers.  In the thread I asked if PB Blaster would do any good, or if it would just eat up the rubber and destroy it.  Some said they had to torch, chisel, and gouge the old rubber bushing to get it loose.  Well, my next question was where to buy replacement bushings, in case I have to go caveman on the bushings.  I’ve found no direct place to buy them yet, but have sent Koni NA an email to see if they can help out.  I’ll keep you posted.

***UPDATE 2009.01.22 @ 0731***

While I’ve not heard back from Koni NA yet, a friend of a friend gave me the line on another site that seems to specialize in bushings of various types.  The site is Prothane.com, and I’ve sent them a message as well to see if they have anything that will work.  If all of this falls through, I’ll have to suck it up and send the shocks to Koni and have them do the warranty work on them.

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