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Post by Volktales on Jan 1, 2018 21:09:24 GMT -8
Now back onto the tank. I first wire wheeled the surface rusty areas, applied Rust Mort to neutralize remaining rust, used some primer over that, then finished the lot off with some undercoat. The new spigot and internal tank filter were installed but intentionally left loose at this stage. Note the thin sealing foam applied around the perimeter of the tank. You can get this at Rona cheaply. Now the tank is temporarily put in place to determine the ideal angle for the spigot to point to. Remove the tank, then tighten up that spigot. This area is finally completed. The front of the chassis was wire brushed, Rust Morted, and the black resprayed with semi-gloss paint. The master cylinder was installed, with new brake lines fabricated for each side. The wiring for the switches was repaired as necessary. Note that the original factory installed master cylinder was different to this one and contained three separate switches, two for the brake lights, one for the brake warning light. The original type cylinders are not available, so only the two switches for brake lights are used. The warning lamp will not work, but as has been mentioned in the past, are not of much use anyway... The fuel pump is in place, along with the original type filter and special bracket. As the pump is not the same type as the original, the routing of the hoses has been done carefully to avoid touching anything moving in this confined area. One part was intentionally left out, something known as the fuel damper. This small round metal container with two spigots originally attached near the fuel pump pressure outlet, between the pump and the main fuel line going to the engine. Its purpose was to dampen harmonics or pulses from the original type roller fuel pump. It is not needed with the modern turbine style fuel pump so was not reinstalled. This is good because it was rusty and gross inside anyway... I have not yet restored the rusty filler pipe yet, so the easiest way to get some fuel in there was right through the sender hole. No leaks were spotted, so onto the next step... My Dad had a large stash of old pressure gauges, and a nice one was found in his stash and rigged up... Then the moment of truth. The key was cycled multiple times to build pressure in the system. You could hear the fuel pump running and could hear air bubbling through the return line in the tank as air was purged out of the fuel lines and rails. A quick check of the gauge confirmed the necessary 30PSI. So it was time to see if she would start. A few cranks and nothing interesting happened. A couple of shots of fuel directly into the intake made it fire, but sounded like the timing was too retarded. A couple of tweaks to the distributor, and she fired up and stayed running! I could not run it very long, as I forgot to borrow an exhaust hose and didn't want to fill the shop with nasty fumes. It was idling fine, but was reluctant to rev smoothly. I will reinstall the proper distributor with the new Pertronix, and set the timing properly, before doing anything else. Then we will see if the automatic transmission is up for action...
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Post by PICTUP on Jan 3, 2018 19:58:46 GMT -8
Looking really good Russ. You are gonna have to get Brent over to record a movie once running to your satisfaction.
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Post by Volktales on Jan 4, 2018 20:30:26 GMT -8
Sooo, borrowed an exhaust hose from work, and tried to start it again. This time it started without assistance, but seemed sluggish. Turns out the timing was too retarded, and ran better once set to the original zero degrees. Idle was not too bad, but still seemed sluggish to accelerate to higher rpms. Pulling spark plug wires off the cap one by one revealed cylinder number one and two were weak. Poking the wire connectors to the right bank fuel injectors revealed poor contact. Tweaking the individual wire connectors cured the poor running and everything smoothed out. Then fingers were crossed and the transmission selector was moved to "D". The wheels turned in the correct direction, and reverse worked as well... So far, so good...
Next up was to install the new Pertronix into the original correct distributor. This went without issue and the engine started up just fine. The idle speed was much higher however, even once the timing was set. This turned out to be due to the differences in the distributor designs. The automatic distributor had noticeably weaker springs in the advance unit and was advancing at closed throttle. This was due to too much air being bypassed through the auxiliary air regulator. This will have to be removed and tweaked again. As previously mentioned, the AAR in this model should just allow enough air to stabilize the idle speed, not increase it... Still we are moving forward...
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Post by Brenticon on Jan 4, 2018 23:43:30 GMT -8
Gonna have to pop in soon gotta check this thing out .... oops, I mean notch, not thing
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Post by Volktales on Jan 11, 2018 19:32:36 GMT -8
Sooo, still at it. Wrapping up a few things in the engine compartment. The crankcase breather assembly uses an internal spring and valve assemble under that round plastic cap. It needed a good clean, but more importantly the housing was loose to the engine case. It attaches the same way Type 1 engines and early buses do; a large threaded flanged "bushing", in this case found under the plastic cap. A special tool (not shown) is the easiest way to remove it. I thought this gasket was the correct one and you can see that someone else once replaced it in this cars past. In reality that gasket was for something else, and I made up one that would fit and seal the breather housing up nice. It worked fine. Next up was adjusting the electric micro switch for the automatic transmission kickdown. The arm for the switch is just visible to the right and behind the oil pressure switch in this picture. When the throttle is fully opened, a tab on the linkage must engage that arm on the switch and press it up far enough to make the switch click. This causes the automatic transmission to shift down a gear for passing purposes. The problem was the tab on the linkage would not contact the arm correctly despite repeated adjustments. The solution was to extend the arm, the easiest way being using a piece of shrink tubing, strengthened with a cotter pin. In reality the cotter pin was not needed and later removed. The shrink tube was cut in such a way to just allow a bit of material to overhang the end of the metal arm. This was all that was needed to make the switch operate correctly. I also checked to make sure power was getting to the switch as well. In reality it was not, and this was traced to a crusty fuse. The fuse for this circuit is located in a separate holder near the ignition coil for these models... Now it SHOULD work, but I won't know until test drive time... So the pressure gauge was removed, the oil bath air filter cleaned and serviced, and things are basically complete in the engine compartment. Nice to get this part of the project done. Reagh's car still has its original sound deadening material in decent shape as well. I had to throw out the remains of the material in my Fastback, because it was way too nasty to reuse... Note that wire thing in the centre of the engine lid engages a tab on the body to hold the engine hatch open as shown in the previous picture. This is something found only on the Notchback versions... Unrolling the original trunk mat back to lay flat revealed way too much "patina" for me. Got out the scrub brush... Almost 50 years of grime disappeared. The rear trunk on these models is deceptive. Although not much height is available, the trunk is much longer then you might think. It would easily swallow several of the old fashioned suitcases that were in use at the time this car was designed. Think of how many pizzas you could carry in there and the engine would keep them warm too!
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Post by Volktales on Jan 11, 2018 20:15:41 GMT -8
Now onto some more brake work. First up is cleaning the rust off the rotors. An inspection revealed that these were Brembo replacements that show no wear whatsover. It appears this car had a front brake job not long before it's driving days ended. The pads showed over 80% remaining so were fit for reuse as well. After a good dose of wire-wheeling, things looked pretty good. So we can't let things go rusty again, can we. Time for some semi-gloss paint action. And there we are. The wheel bearings had clean looking grease, but I cleaned and replaced the grease anyway. The bearings were Japanese KOYO and were in nice shape. Cleaned and put some paint on the backing plates as well to stop the dreaded rust... The calipers needed some loving too. They actually were not seized up, but I needed to clean the ancient brake fluid out of them. Normally I used compressed air to pop out the pistons, but I don't have a compressor at home. So thought I would try the grease gun trick. Turned out the caliper would screw directly onto the grease gun tube via the brake hose inlet hole. And it worked very quickly and easily. The pistons popped out and were neither rusted or damaged. I suspect these calipers were also new (rebuilt) just before the car came off the road. Everything will be cleaned up and put back together and no new parts will be required. Other than the flex hoses themselves, which have already been replaced... One thing about using grease to pop the pistons. You MUST clean out the calipers properly after, and make sure you remove all the remaining grease. And for this you need compressed air. Duh.
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Post by Brenticon on Jan 11, 2018 20:46:21 GMT -8
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Post by CrazyBrit on Jan 12, 2018 11:17:48 GMT -8
EMPI 8's? So last century. Slam it over 17" Fuchs😛 It sounds great.
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Post by PICTUP on Jan 12, 2018 14:16:05 GMT -8
EMPI 8's? So last century. Well, he is a grandpa...... I think.... Hey Russ, have you ever thought of applying for a job writing for the on-line version of Practical Classics Magazine? I am sure they are looking for good technical writers with a portfolio and a specialty. I think your attention to detail goes beyond what the available VW magazines could handle. Good video Brent....where'd your "Anger bench" one go?
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Post by alltypes on Jan 12, 2018 18:00:48 GMT -8
Grandpa is gettin pretty excited...gotta take a nitro pill soon. I'm thinking turtlebacks for the wheel pimping. For now still crawling over cars and boxes trying to round up the chrome, new dash and back seat etc etc etc. Dropping off goodies sometime this weekend...after a nap of course.
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Post by alltypes on Jan 12, 2018 18:05:28 GMT -8
Not too much pimping, as I am the second owner. Originally purchased in Victoria and lived it's whole life there. Sadly an estate acquisition, so resto and care taking respectfully until next estate sale.
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Post by Brenticon on Jan 12, 2018 21:28:39 GMT -8
Re: anger bench My attempt at posting a pic, which of course, didn’t work and the vid wasn’t vw related, lol
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Post by Volktales on Jan 13, 2018 9:39:48 GMT -8
Continuing on with the brake work today. Brakes will be completed this weekend... Then time to make it look better!
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Post by Volktales on Jan 13, 2018 9:42:29 GMT -8
Not too much pimping, as I am the second owner. Originally purchased in Victoria and lived it's whole life there. Sadly an estate acquisition, so resto and care taking respectfully until next estate sale. Are we not all just "caretakers" of our VWs??? I am pretty sure all the original owners of my VWs are very likely long passed on...
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Post by busaddict on Jan 13, 2018 10:46:26 GMT -8
What's with all the fancy schmancy electronic stuff in that Notchback? I thought this was a simple air-cooled Volkswagen, it's not even carbureted. Amazing detail work Russ!
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