What did you do to your volkswagen today?

laith wrote:

59 Euro Rag wrote:got my airkewld spark plug tube today, ive now completed my engine clean up, and it will be revealed at the cheeseburger in paradise meet, also bought a rabbit.

So tell us about the rabbit.

http://forum.georgiadubs.com/70-s-vw-s-f24/sily-rabit-t1852.htm

Found out the rail i bought from bryce, is a "952 Berrien Sand Rail". Also doing working on it now.

Edit 1:25pm :

took apart the motor i blew up the day before YUBuggin (the reason i didn't make that show ). turns out that was NOT a rod bearing that started knocking. Turns out when the oil pump broke apart, a piece of it got jammed between the case and cam shaft, causing it to grind up the face of the cam gear. so i'll prolly buy a new cam (engle 110?) and straight cut gears. the crank looks pretty good, and so do the bearings. i'll prolly take the crank to be polished, or maybe turned. If for some reason its bad, i'll prolly just buy a mild stroker crank (74mm), and drop it in. And since i'll have to buy new pistons and cylinders (reused them, for the turbo bug), i might go with big bore slip in's. I plan to use this motor for the rail.

I'll post up some pics of the carnage later.

Put my freshly turned drums back on. (thanks Gary! ) Brakes are alot better now. Still get a little vibration on a hard stop, so the plan is to do the backs as well. Hoping this will hold me over until I can get discs.

Bugman114 wrote:took apart the motor i blew up the day before YUBuggin (the reason i didn't make that show ). turns out that was NOT a rod bearing that started knocking. Turns out when the oil pump broke apart, a piece of it got jammed between the case and cam shaft, causing it to grind up the face of the cam gear. so i'll prolly buy a new cam (engle 110?) and straight cut gears. the crank looks pretty good, and so do the bearings. i'll prolly take the crank to be polished, or maybe turned. If for some reason its bad, i'll prolly just buy a mild stroker crank (74mm), and drop it in. And since i'll have to buy new pistons and cylinders (reused them, for the turbo bug), i might go with big bore slip in's. I plan to use this motor for the rail.

Wasn't that the case we were going to do some trading?

lol, nope, don't worry. this was my 1600dp that i blew up the day before YUbuggin. You wanted the 1500 sp case. i also did work on the 1500 case, but got bored with cleaning all the gunk and dirt off the 1500 case, and decided to tear apart the nice clean case i blew up, since it would be much faster and easier, lol. i work ALL DAY tomorrow (11am-9:30pm), and pretty busy thursday, but i might be able to finish tearing it down thrus, and let you know if its any good.
-mike

started to take my exhaust off but i cant get to the top bolt on the right side.
Blocked by the heater box-

I dont remember having this problem last time i took it off.
Maybe i need to wait until its light out.
I was trying to do it in the dark by feel cause my shop light blew out.

Anybody have any tips on how to get to that one? Its a stale air 40 hp

The Turbo bug died today . It seems the webber carb float busted, and was dumping gas in the motor. it foulded up the plugs. looks like i'll have to remove the turbo, and go with a stock set-up for a while . atleast i'll have my loud exhaust again

replaced my passenger side window regulator.and afterward,touched up all the door paint that i scrated while doing it .
then i figured that i had done enough harm for one day and went on break for the rest of the day.

Tore all the turbo stuff off my motor today. Got the motor pretty much all back together, just need a few parts (fuel lines, alt pulley key (always loose that damn thing), the little jumper wire that goes from the coil that goes to the idle cut off thing, intake boots, etc.). Should have it back on tha road tomorrow.

debating weather or not to sell my current turbo set up, or just modify it the way i want it. i want the turbo over the alternator. we'll see.
-Mike

Sad news.....
had to call for a towbar rescue today. Was cruising to NC, didn't even make it to Augusta. (Kinda glad for that aspect) Pulled over because I was getting a 'missing' kinda feeling. It started at first when I 'accidently' was cruising at 80/85 mph. I backed off to 70/75 where I wanted to be, but it got worse. Valve adjust on 3 cylinders were way to loose, readjusted them (#1,4 and 3), checked timing (ok). Sounded better at start up, but still rough under load- after about 2500 rpm in all gears.
Glad to be back home, thanks to a good friend. VW people Rock! :Rockit:
Gonna check pushrod travel, and lengths too, but worrying about the 'guts' (cam/lifters). I think Steve gets back to ProFlow on Saturday, but I'm not sure I can afford the bad news right now.

Damn, sounds alot like what was happening to me the other day. But my problem was the carb dumping gas, and foulded the plugs. it came on like you said, at first i could feel a miss, and it was getting worse and worse. had the guys at IAS do my valves, and it seemed to help a little, but i kept driving it like a dumbass, and got so bad that it would not run anymore. I kinda knew it was gonna die on me, but i was so pissed off because i threw almost $100 at it, thinking it was other things (condensor, cap, rotor, plugs, valve adjustment, etc.). it started getting worse and worse, but i said screw it, and floored it. got it up to 65 on forest parkway. started going slower and slower till it just died (plugs fouled up too bad to run).

I hadn't thought to check the plugs- there was a lot of smoke in the exhaust when I stopped the first time too. (Hmmmmm). Considering the valve adjustment issue though, I don't think that was the real issue, it might be a symptom of the rough accelleration, and what is going on internally.
I'm glad I didn't "go till it stopped" though, I can't afford repairs due to stubborness.

I pulled the motor in the waterbug to find out why the clutch was slipping also to find the oil leak. (Or leaks)

The good news...it has a 200 mm clutch...but it's saturated in trans dope because the front trans seal was leaking.

Why was it leaking you ask? Because the PO did not have a pilot bearing in the end of the crankshaft. I can not for the life of me understand why someone would attempt to try and run it that way.

I bumped into Billie at Autozone last night and he said maybe it was and automatic Jetta and there isn't a pilot bearing available and that is the reason there wasn't one. Even if there isn't one stock to install a person could get a machinist to turn one out of bronze. It measures 21mm in the crank hole and the end of the trans input shaft is 15 mm and it needs to be 20 mm deep.

I cleaned the bell housing with two cans of brake clean. (Super nasty) I'm going to replace the motor's rear main seal while I'm at it.

Checking further I found another oil leak where the oil cooler attaches to the block...fixing that too while I'm at it.

Normally I would replace the pressure plate, throwout bearing and resurface the flywheel but I swear it all looks brand new because everything has been flooded in trans dope since installed. I'll just replace the oil soaked clutch disc.

I pulled the trans adaptor and it was made by KEP (Kennedy Engineering Products) The flywheel, clutch and pressure plate look like a stock 200 mm setup.

I'm going to clean up any and everything I can while the motor's out...brackets etc....

got everything together on tha super. all the turbo stuff is off, and all the stock stuff is on. spent close to $200 in brand new stuff for it (brosol fuel pump, bosch points condensor cap rotor, bosch copper plugs, intake boots, valve cover gaskets, etc.). also $30 of that, in 6 feet of fuel line. i bought the special blue silicone fuel line thats wrapped (like turbo hose), and resistant to pretty much any kind of liquid (gas, ethonal, acid, oil, etc). expensive as hell, but lasts a really long time.

But here's the funny thing. It runs absolutely perfect. it has never run that good before, even before the turbo ewhen it was stock. very awsome. not sure why, but its simply amazing. if i tap the gas it revs up very quick (like idle to 5krpm in like 1/2 a second). also when its cold, it starts up the second i hit the starter button. the only thing i did differently then the last time, was i eyeballed the point gap, and used SAE 50 (instead of 20-50) valvoline racing oil with zinc. not sure if it was the oil or points gap, but i can tell you it runs MUCH smoother then it ever did. definately not as much power as the turbo set-up but WAY smoother. i'm running a bare header as the exhaust, with no stinger, and can definately feel a little bit more power on the top end, versus a stinger. Its loud as hell, but sounds like a V8. i've already set-off two car alarms today at a kroger parking lot, and i wasn't even in the parking lot, i was just passing by,

EDIT. i checked the points gap to see if it was right, and it was dead on. so i'm thinking its the straight 50 weight oil then??? perhaps it make it run much smoother. i had actually used two quarts of 50 weight and one quart of 20-50. i was afraid the 50 weight by itself might be a little too thick, so i wanted to thin it out a bit with a quart of 20-50. seems way smoother then before.

I sand blasted my header for the waterbug and found a pin hole. I took it to Billie at Stockornaut and he stopped what he was doing and welded it up right away. Thanks Billie. I took it from there to the powder-coating place and it will be high temp black by this afternoon.

I'm also going to replace the throw out bearing. Billie is holding one for me. After thinking about it I believe it would be cheap insurance while the motor's out.

I sand blasted, the A/C, alternator mount, as well the the rear motor mount bracket back to the original aluminum finish.

I replaced the "O" ring on the oil cooler and the crush gasket where the assembly bolts to the block.

I bought a Sachs clutch disc from Parts South. It is way heavy duty compared to what came off of the car. The old disc looked like a toy.

I went to Robinson Racing and Harry Robinson made me a custom oil light bronze pilot bearing while I waited on his lathe. I gave him the specs on the bearing...21 mm outside...15 mm inside and 18 mm deep. (18 mm deep instead of my original measurement of 20 mm since I had to have one made I rechecked the depth) He sat down and converted those numbers to inches and in about 20 minutes I had a custom pilot bearing for $45.00. I've already installed it and it fits perfectly. If you ever need a custom part made for a reasonable price go to Robinson Racing in Cumming, GA.

I added the missing stud to the motor that PO left out. There were only three bolts in the bell housing.

Just a few more details and the motor goes back in.

Drove it!! Finally started driving the westy a few days back. Threw the kayak in it and went looking for a place to put in. Well all the usuall parks are closed from the flooding so did about an 80 mile trip looking for a place to put in. It ran GREAT!!! Wow so nice having a fresh drivetrain in a vdub. Was a bit odd driving with the high roof on one, could definatly tell when the wind blew, but such a nice ride even though I did not make it into the water!!!!! Nothing but smiles the whole trip....

Finished welding the inner wheel well area, patched a couple more rust spots, ground the welds and beat the panel back into shape with the old hammer and dolly. Got the "new" door mounted (thanks, DiggerD ) and the old door gutted so I can convert the new one back to two-piece windows. Picked up some new outer door seals, hood seal, fender beading, and trim clips from Samba vendor "Viande".

I can only put about 2 hrs a day into it, so it seems like it takes me forever to get anything accomplished.



Now I need to track down some good glass for the new door. Mine is covered in deep scratches. The vent window and related trim look good, though.

Glad to see those doors finally getting used, they have set idle for way too long!! Keep it up, now that you are started on it again, you should be finished before year-end!!

DiggerD wrote:Glad to see those doors finally getting used, they have set idle for way too long!! Keep it up, now that you are started on it again, you should be finished before year-end!!

I was going to swap both of them out so they'd match, but the wife prefers the vent windows so I'm just going to leave the driver's door the way it is and convert the new one back to two-piece glass so they match. I still have to cut a hole on the driver's side R qtr. and dig out the foam so I can weld a plate over the rear vent hole without setting the car on fire. Simple job that shouldn't take very long, if all goes well.

I'd really like to get the bodywork don't and a coat of primer on it before it gets too cold. My garage isn't heated, and the filler doesn't set up well unless it's kept warm.

found this really kewl mirror,adapted it to fit my mirror mount,painted it and put it on my bug

and yes,that is a bottle opener mounted on the side by the door hinge.

69panel...just curious about your thoughts on the motor mount set up on your waterbug.

laith wrote:69panel...just curious about your thoughts on the motor mount set up on your waterbug.

What are you curious about?

I'll assume you mean....

The water motor mounts to the air cooled trans-axle with four studs on the Kennedy Engineering Products adaptor. The original Jetta front mount is now on the drivers side in the rear and the stock Jetta rubber motor mount mounts on a bar that runs between the left and right rear fender and it bolts on either end to the existing rear bumper bracket holes. So actually it has more support than a stock air cooled motor.

Any more questions? I'll try to answer them.

I had seen the car when the original builder had it and liked the look of the mounts. Just was wondering what you thought of how they were built.

laith wrote:I had seen the car when the original builder had it and liked the look of the mounts. Just was wondering what you thought of how they were built.

The design is spot on. The welds are a little gnarly looking but it functions great. I believe the PO told me it was a kit from Fat Man's in CA
but I can't find anything about a kit from them. The aluminum adaptor is definitely Kennedy's (KEP) design.