I have recently begun driving my '70 bug after not driving it much for the last 6 years. (Short story: The brand new master cylinder that I used replace an old one 6 years ago turned out to be defective as well.)
My first question concerns the rubber boots & seals on the front end. It looks like the rubber seals on the torsion bars are crumbling. I guess that's to be expected on a car that's nearly 40 years old. I also noticed that the rubber boots on the ball joints & the outer tie-rods are cracking. When I grease the front end, I can see grease oozing from the corners of the rubber boots/seals. I know that these rubber parts will eventually need to be replaced. The question is: How *soon* do they need to be replaced? If I keep the front end well greased, can I put off replacing the various seals/boots until next spring?
My next question is related to an unusual squeal that happens when the car is slowing down to a stop. It sounds like a disc brake squeal except that my car doesn't have disc brakes. It doesn't seem to be related to braking so much as to the car moving forward for that split second before it completely comes to a stop. Any idea what might be causing this and where I might check first?
Any thoughts & clues would be greatly appreciated!