Reagh's "Crewvy" (Pictures now restored)

[Volktales]

Sooo, my basement garage has seen quite the share of Type II's this year. Dons' '70 single cab, '65 shortened single cab, Kevin's '71 Deluxe bus, and now Reagh's '68 Double cab have all been temporary residents.  Reagh's truck is in for primarily some brake work, as there have been some issues with pulling to one side. What do you think we might find???

First impressions of the rear brakes were on the yucky side.  Doesn't look like anyone has taken a peek in there in years.

This wins as the most dust build up inside a drum I have ever seen.  And I have seen ALOT of dusty brakes...  A closer look reveals some interesting facts.  Those worn shoes are riveted linings and are very likely original.  The leaking wheel cylinders were definitely original stamped VW parts.  Reagh's truck is 48 years old, so he did pretty well with components lasting...  Truck is low mileage too, and it shows.  In the above picture is a pin that is located in the shoe, just under the park-brake lever.  I have not seen this pin on other buses, and the replacement shoes do not come with this part.  Doesn't appear to actually do anything at all...

Drum had no shortage of dust in it either.  All the drums were in nice condition.

The star wheels for the brake adjusters were very seized in the backing plate.  Earlier VWs used these brass stars; later used steel ones.  The brass ones I assume were used to prevent seizure, but in reality are often seized up as well as the steel ones...  One way to deal with them is to unscrew the part that engages the shoe, and install a regular 10 mm bolt.  As you thread it in, it will pop out the opposite star wheel.  Then you can use a punch and drift out the remaining star wheel and bolt.  Once you have removed and cleaned the components, lubricate them generously on re-assembly.  Brake grease, anti-seize grease, both work well for this application.  Make sure the hole where the star wheel sits is well cleaned and greased, and then seizure will be a thing of the past...

The front brakes had a few issues too.  A leaking wheel cylinder (two per side on the front brakes), has soaked into the lining causing it to separate from the shoe.  Not good.  At least the front brakes and cylinders had been replaced in the past, unlike the rear.  Incidentally getting the wheel off was quite difficult.  I seems the last time the wheels were off, "someone" tightened  the lug nuts to what seemed like 250 foot pounds!!!  Use that torque wrench next time...

More to come...

[Volktales]

So Reagh had a huge stash of parts saved up for his truck. He supplied four new wheel cylinders for the front, NOS shoes both front and rear, and later came up with some new wheel cylinders for the rears as well. With any hydraulic parts that have been sitting around, it is good practice to take them apart for inspection, and lubrication. In this case the fronts where fine, but one of the rear cylinders had some moisture damage. Fortunately the pitting in the cylinder was not in an area the seals of the piston travel in, so it should still be serviceable. The new cylinders were then installed along with the shoes and some new hardware as well. The front wheel bearings were cleaned and serviced with fresh grease. Reagh did not have new flex hoses in his stash, so new ones were ordered and installed. All the flex hoses were original and deteriorating. After almost fifty years old, they need to be replaced even if they look OK on the outside. All this work was strait forward. Then came the brake lines...

To be continued...

[Volktales]

So the rear steel brake lines had seen better days and were rusty enough to warrant replacement.






Here are some of the tools needed to do the job.  A pipe cutter is required along with a file.  Obviously some new brake line is required, and 3/16 inch line is the size that is used.  Some new fittings are a good idea as well..





A close up of the old line reveals it is just too thin in places to trust.  The other side line broke into three pieces while removing it!





Now here is the actual flaring tool.  This well used Imperial brand tool is designed to make the European style "bubble" flare as found on our VWs.  This is a single stage process, unlike the "double" flares used in US and Japanese vehicles.  The tool is clamped in the vice, the brake line is inserted into the correct hole, flush with the surface of the tool, then the tool halves are tightened.  Note the fitting is already on the brake line.  Most people forget to do this at least once...





This is the other part of the tool.  That centre pin fits into the end of the tube clamped in the vise.  Note that the end of the tube was filed flat with the file and the hole cleaned out with the pointy end of the file as well.






And here is the tool installed and tightened.  Tightening the screw mechanism distorts the end of the brake line into the correct shape.





And there you go.  It will look a little different then a "factory formed" line, but it will work properly once installed.






Now to start forming the line.  I like to bend it by hand, although there are pipe benders available.  For really tight bends, you may find it easier to not follow the original exactly, but slightly exaggerate the bends as shown here.  I like to tape the new line to the old at several intervals, which allows you to follow the original very closely.





Continue on until you get to the end.  The new line is taped to the old in this picture.





Now you can determine exactly how and where to cut the line to the correct length.  Just mark the line beyond the end of the old line fitting, allowing for the "squish" factor.






Now make the other flare on the other end.  You did remember to put the other fitting on the line, didn't you???  And the end result is a new line, ready to install.  If you made it accurately, it should install easily...





And here it is in place.  An unusual design, the line goes through a hole in the trailing arm, so accuracy is a must in this situation.





This grommet was carefully pried out when the old line was removed, and reinstalled as original.  Then a new line was made for the other side in exactly the same way.  Some other metal brake lines had already been replaced on this VW earlier in its life.  The last remaining one was inspected and looked to be in fine condition.  Or was it?






The first attempt at bleeding the brakes resulted in this. You guessed it, the last original brake line failed while bleeding! As it turned out, the line ruptured behind a hidden clamp behind the shock mount on the front end. Replacing the brake hose earlier must have tweaked it enough to weaken it. Bummer, but at least I had enough line remaining to make another replacement... Old VWs can be quite fun sometimes...


So the brakes bled ok in the end, with Victor reluctantly helping with the pumping duties.  I thought it wise to have a peek around the rest of the truck to see what else might need attention.  One tie rod end boot was torn, and not surprisingly the joint is worn out.  Got a new right tie rod assembly in your stash, Reagh???


Too be continued...

[Wongai]

Nice!
I'm glad that Reagh is getting this DC ready for selling it to me (I wish). Much appreciated guys!

Looking forward to seeing this completed project. Any plans for the body work?

BUTE!
B

[alltypes]

Morning Russ, I don't have any rod ends in the stash, could you please order whatever is needed. Very much appreciated.
Looking forward to next spring cruising with new functioning brakes. Can't say thanks enough for the care and attention to Crewvy!
Body work will be next years project Byron...even if it won't be for sale, haha. Besides, I think Don still has first dibs.

[Wongai]

Don's shop is full, no room. Unless he shortens it I guess. :-)

Love this truck Reagh. Enjoy the resto!
B

[PICTUP]

Oct 17, 2016 8:14:15 GMT -8 alltypes said:

Besides, I think Don still has first dibs.

Awww, thanks Reagh!

Oct 17, 2016 8:19:36 GMT -8 Wongai said:

Don's shop is full, no room. Unless he shortens it I guess. :-)

B

Hey! Keep your eyes on your own shop, LOL!….but you are right!…for the moment…...





PS Nice work Russ! OCM….Obsessive compulsive mechanical(or is that mechanic?)

[Volktales]

Test drive time tomorrow!

[Volktales]

Hmmm. Things did not go exactly to plan today... To be continued...

[Volktales]

Soooo, haven't forgotten about Reagh's double cab... Just been busy with some other things for a bit...

The right side tie rod assembly was duly ordered and readied for installation.  The right side tie rod assembly on these type II's are originally one piece and not adjustable, unlike pretty much any other vehicle in the world.  The replacements however, may or may not be adjustable.  The one sent up turned out to be an adjustable version, so was set up to the same length as the original.  It was then I noticed it actually had smaller tapers on the tie rod ends and would not fit anyway...  Turns out I had been sent a tie rod for a split window era bus by mistake.  Oh well, reorder again and I had no shortage of other work to do...

I knew the generator was acting up as the charge light would not go off unless the engine was revved up first.  A quick look at the brushes revealed they were very much past their prime.  You can see how badly worn they are, so thought I would just change them out and see if things would improve...

Hard to see in this picture, but the working surface of the brush looks a little "burnt" looking.  A quick look at the commutator showed some roughness, but thought it would be worth a try to install the brushes.

This is very fiddly to do with the generator installed.  This picture was taken in a small mirror to show how to change the bottom brush (which was also changed via the mirror).  I would not make a good dentist...

So naturally when I fired up the engine, the light went out right away.  Err, no it didn't, time for plan B.  Reagh had an impressive stash of parts under the back seat including a boxed voltage regulator.  Once opened it looked suspiciously used, but as swapping the regulator is quite easy on this model, it was worth a shot.  Once again no dice, as this regulator was obviously damaged as the dash warning light lit up without the key even in the ignition.  So I dug through my stuff and eventually found a "known good" regulator.  Did it work?  Nope...  Given that the wiring relative to the generator and regulator looked fine, it was likely going to be the nasty generator itself.  Not wanting to deal with that yet, I went on to more fun stuff...

[Volktales]

So I decided to put off the generator problem for a bit, and moved onto something else.  When testing the generator, the truck didn't want to start very well from cold. So when your vintage VW won't start or run very well, what should be the first thing you check???

Why the ignition points of course.  These are by far the number one cause of poor running on these engines.  And sure enough, the points in Reagh's distributor were partially closed up and featured a very prominent pit as well.  Again a new set of Beru points were found under the back seat...

They were not the correct type however...  The ones on the left are the common 1971 and later style points that are likely  stashed in a million gloveboxes.  The early style is on the right, and the only difference is the direction the wire is attached to the point and the terminal style on the end.  In this case I carefully removed the wire from the burnt points and installed it on the replacement...  Given that there have been many problems with Bosch points and condenser quality lately,  I elected not to replace the old German condenser.  The vacuum can was checked and verified to be good as well.

The carb required a bit of fiddling as well.  The accelerator pump was not squirting properly; in the picture you can sort of see it squirting off to once side.  In reality it was erratic in operation as something was intermittently blocking the discharge nozzle.  This gold U-shaped tube in the picture was removed and backflushed which was successful.  The float chamber and jets were cleaned at the same time.  On this model, the pilot jet is the electromagnetic type, and early ones like this can be disassembled and cleaned.  This was done as well.  The sparkplugs were checked and were older German versions with no wear, so they were reinstalled.  The valves were adjusted too, but I did not take any pictures of this procedure.  I think the adjustment had not been done in some time as the exhaust valve clearance was basically non-existent!!!  Anyway the engine started much nicer after this work and will be adjusted once outside.  The oil was changed as well so nothing else should be required for awhile.  And I also replaced all the fuel lines and relocated the fuel filter by the transmission as is all the rage nowadays. 

About that fuel filter...  When these VWs were new, they did not have the familiar clear plastic fuel filter found dangling above the distributor.  There is an internal filter in the fuel pump on these models, as well as a screen in the tank.  Pretty much EVERY VW acquired  a fuel filter between the pump and carburetor as a retrofit.  This was done at dealerships all the time, and was considered normal and desirable then, so why not now???  Age and poor quality fuel hose are the problems today.  Modern fuels can and do soften fuel hose causing leaks.  The age factor brings out another problem...  Current school of thought is the added weight of the fuel filter can cause the brass fuel connection spigots found on the carburetor and fuel pump to vibrate right out of the alloy castings causing a catastrophic leak beside that splendid source of sparks known as the distributor.  While removing Reagh's old fuel filter, the spigot popped right out of the fuel pump like nothing!   Some locktite made sure this would not reoccur, but be forewarned about this...

[Volktales]

Now onto some electrical issues...

When Reagh dropped off his truck, I was concerned about the red generator light not going off when it should.  But I was also worried about the green oil pressure light which was so dim, that you could barely see it.  Warning lights are not much good if they don't really work...  So first thing was to remove the wire from the oil pressure sender at the engine, and attach that wire to ground.  The light was still dim, so the sender was not to blame.  I did suspect the bulb holders on the back of the speedometer might not be grounded well.  Access to the bulb holders is a pain.  On this 1968 VW, the fuse box has to be unscrewed as it is right in the way.  VW kept moving the fuse box around on these early baywindows, and can be found in a few different locations.  Once the fuse box was positioned off to one side, it was just possible to access the individual bulb holders for the various warning lights.  Each bulb holder has little tangs that need tweaking and cleaning to make good contact with the back of the cluster assembly.  Was fiddly, but the end result was successful...

 

That is better...  I also noticed the turn signals flashed erratically as well.  VW used the dreaded nine pin relay in this era, which was a big relay that combined flasher and hazard function into one unit.  Actually they are quite reliable, but do suffer from one particular problem.  They are attached to the body with only one screw, and that screw also must ground the unit.  If the screw loosens off, they stop working correctly.  The screw was indeed loose, and tightening it restored proper function.  Was really fun to get at that screw too.  VW finally figured this out and made the later baywindows MUCH easier to access the under dash electrical system...

 

One of my pet peeves in life, is holes on dashboards where something has gone AWOL.  There should be a warning light there for the dual brake master cylinder system.  Reagh's truck had minimal alterations to the wiring, but someone couldn't help themselves and buggered with this warning light.  The wiring was tapped up under the dash, but was fortunately not butchered.  Luckily I had a spare 1968 cluster in my stash, and the warning light was still intact...

And the wiring still worked fine.  No idea why the light had disappeared...  The backup lights didn't work either, but for reasons unknown, someone had simply unplugged the wiring to the fuse holder.  Amazingly the fuse holder was still attached to its bracket on the engine, just below the coil.  Very easy fix...

Continued...

[Volktales]

And now back to the dreaded generator...

By this stage, I convinced myself the generator itself was at fault.  Bentley lists what generator should have been installed, and originally it would have been a 38 Amp version.  At first Reaghs' generator looked like it may have been the wrong one, but the numbers stamped on it read 38 Amp.  In comparison, the much more common Beetle generators are 30 Amps.  I was dimly aware that the overall lengths of the two generators were different as well.  In the end I found a proper bus 38 Amp generator in my stash, which looked different then the one in Reagh's VW.  But first it was time to remove that generator...  And the very first thing you do is go after the big 36 MM nut securing the fan to the generator.  It is tricky, but possible to undo that nut which is located on the far side of the fanhousing that you can't see in front of you.  If you cannot get that nut off, then removing the engine is you only option...  Once the nut is removed, you then need to remove the carb for access, and then take off the small bolts holding the backing plate to the fan shroud.  The lower ones are kinda fun...

It is tight, but the generator will clear the housing and the fan is left behind.  Make sure you do not loose any shims from the back of the fan hub while doing this...

Looks kind of funky like that, isn't it.  The fan can also be removed and inspected as well.  Don't forget to place it back inside the housing first, before installing the replacement generator...

Now back to the generator itself.  The 38 Amp bus generator housing is physically longer then the much more common 30 Amp Beetle version by 13mm.  To accommodate this added length, the backing plates are different, the fan hub is different, and the belt pulley is different as well.  This is all necessary to allow the belt pulleys to line up correctly.

The above picture shows the differences in the back plates.  The 30 Amp on the left features an "outie" backing plate, while the longer 38 Amp features an "innie" backing plate on the right.  This allows the generator to sit farther "into" the fan housing.

The hubs for the fan are very different as well.  Left is the 30 Amp, right is the 38 Amp.  The 38 Amp uses several thick spacers below the 36 MM nut as well.  Not shown is the different pulley.  It is actually cast iron, unlike all the other stamped steel versions.   All these specific 38 Amp parts must be installed to allow the crank and generator pulley to align correctly.   Get it wrong, and chewed up belts will be your future.  Indeed that is what  happened to Reagh's VW.  It turns out he had the correct 38 Amp generator  itself, but none of the other parts were present.  Guess what?, the belt was very poorly aligned and several badly worn belts were hiding in different parts of his truck...

All this has been corrected now.  Here is how I tightened up the big 36 MM nut holding the fan on.  That 20 MM wrench sat perfectly there to allow me to tighten the nut behind the shroud to the correct 43 foot pounds torque.  (Getting that nut off from the old generator was much more difficult do to the different designed pulley on the old one.  Don had to help for that...)

This messy picture illustrates the procedure known as polarizing a generator.  The purpose of this is to establish correct residual magnetism so the generator will charge correctly.  Basically the regulator is disconnected from the generator, which is connected to a battery.  The D+ terminal is connected to positive, the DF terminal and generator body are grounded.  This will cause the generator to run as an electric motor as well which is kind of cool.  The replacement spun a lot quicker then the old one did as well.  Then it was time for a test start...  Would the charge light finally go out  when it should???  YES!  And it is nice to know things are back as VW intended...  Now where is that damn tie rod???

[Brenticon]

Lovin this thread, thanks Reagh, fir your lack of maintenance, lol
Kidding, great documentation Russ!

[Wongai]

Awesome write up and photo session man! Thanks for taking the time to offer this lesson. Nice to know Crewvy will be more reliable in the new year!
Well done fellas!
B