Getting the syncro back on the road

[Jadewombat]

Dunno, my friend tried drilling a set for his rabbit with a handheld drill. Didn't go so well. The wheels would go thwop, thwop, thwop, down the road like the car had no shocks at all.

[ajdenette]

I have yet to drill out the wheels though I do plan to if I can ever get the van driveable but I did consult this thread http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=410931 before purchasing the drill bit and plan to purchase new lug nuts from http://t3technique.com/ that will make sure the wheels bolt up correctly and the other key with the Vanagon at least there is an 11 or 12 mm bolt to bolt the drum to the hub that some times needs to be removed to get a wheel to sit flat.

[fusername]

Those biolts are for good luck anyways. You could probably countersink em and throw a screw in instead, but id just as soon leave them out

[ajdenette]

well it is time to pull the engine and put in the other one I have built up just need to finish a few small jobs on it oil pump and cover, rear main seal, front main seal, and a distributor o-ring. I have an intake I cleaned up for it, I ordered new plenum hoses because most of mine are pretty bad and will be reusing some parts from the current engine, such as the fly wheel and newer clutch this engine has a 42 designs oil pressure relocation kit with a digital oil pressure gauge sender as it was reported to periodically have an oil pressure light but the wiring was bad as well as the oil leaks were pretty severe. the engine is a Boston Bob rebuild with about 60,000 miles on it that I resealed a crusty looking top end it had AMC heads on it and I will be making sure all pipes are in good condition before it goes into the van currently the under the pulley pipes are VERY Crusty it was a free engine that the only money I would have into it that could not be taken right off will be the gaskets everything else going into it will be parts that can be pulled off and installed on another engine if this engine turns out to be a real lemon and not have good oil pressure I will have to re do the engine I am pulling out. grrr I would like to just drive my van and not work on it all the time. Hopefully come spring I will have a running Vanagon with heat to drive.

[fusername]

oh hey I think there was a guy on CL w/ a bunch of nice vanagon engine parts, or maybe it was samba. either way it was local, found it by accident looking for somethign else. every one needs junk!

PS I now offer seat grinding on my list of machine work that I can perform, as well as aluminum welding, should you desire to go crazy fixing a seal surface. It feels nice to have tools!

[ajdenette]

Well I have been working on the Boston Bob engine I got for free hopefully fixing the major leak from the crank pulley, and resealing all the possible oil leaks new Oil Pressure sensors with new wires hopefully this will be an engine I can drive for a while we will see if I can reseal the Head I believe to be the issue with the engine in the van

Here is the engine painted up with new water pump, new oil cooler and a bunch of cleaned parts ended up grabbing a different pulley as the one on the engine had a groove that reduced theseal area diameter more thanIwascomfortable withonan engine that was already leaking.



Also got some new swag to show what forum I support:

[fusername]

well?

[ajdenette]

well unfortunately we have tooo many cars we put a lot of miles on that occasionally need work and that has eaten up the last 2 weekends along with actually getting some things done around my parents house such as finishing woodwork. I started at 8 two weeks ago and did not finish the line of cars until 7 that evening only because my brother in law was there to help most of the day. I did get the crank pulley mounted but I ended up having to grab one off another engine as the one on there was pretty grooved and leaking badly. I just got in the clutch, new thermostat housing as most of mine are rather corroded, and some tune up stuff. Probably wont get to swapping the engine until after Christmas hopefully in the then heated garage. one of the projects was building a mount and mounting the 2 modines we have in the garage now they just need to be plumed.

Edit (here are the pics of the new parts)

these are the next round of parts to install

[fusername]

Well i saw you doing some harness work on fb, but i wasnt sure for what car. If it is a vw i almost definatly have the crimp connectors to freshen up the ends. If non vw just pull one connector from its plug and show me a pic, I'll let you know if i have em. I am making some rebuilt harnesses this weekend, vanagon fi, bus fi, and gas heaters.

[ajdenette]

That Harness is a Subaru Harness being modified for use in a VW mostly picked it up because it was free and for a 2000 Legacy which I have a manifold and some other parts from our Subaru Work that would get us most of the way there to a conversion

What I started out with:


unwrapped and starting to remove the excess:


what has been removed so far:


where it is at right now:


This is the start, I was able to get some good factory manual off the internet that should get me just what I need to cut out from pictures of the plugs to the pin out on the ECU plus what I have learned working on all of our Subaru's at home.

[fusername]

Cool. What you gonna use to heatshrink or wrap it up when you are done? If i find some gheap stuff, like i said, i am probably gonna build one or two harness from scratch for me, spare, and unload a couple on TOS.

[fusername]

man rims are a PITA, I am almost tempted to say screw it and pay gowesty's crazy prices. it would net me some 16s...
I thought I found some cheap drop in replacements, but the center bore was too small, and they want a 12mm stud. if I could find longer studs to fit our giant hubs I'd be all set to run the rims I have on spacers, but so for no luck.

[Piledriver]

One of our regulars was almost giving away a nice set of 16" Merc wheels very recently, 14mm stud type too.
(nearly new, $250/set, only used for AX, was selling tires too, but tires sold)

Darned if I can find it now, but swear I looked at it ~last night...

(It was Jadewombat, and they sold for $200 on the 10th)
viewtopic.php?f=30&t=136244

[fusername]

yeah, they were 400 or so when I first commented in there. I think I had just gotten a "free" set, which I am now half kicking myself for letting slide. they were super thick so they needed aftermarket studs to bolt on, AND the offset wasn't enough so they needed spacers, so they would need even LONGER studs, at which point I would be out some serious $$. the knurl on bus studs are quite large, so not many studs fit. I might need to buy bigger dia studs and a drill, as there are about 4 commercial studs w/ the right shoulder, and they are shorter than stock.

[ajdenette]

Fuser try http://www.t3technique.com/ he is the guy to talk to about wheels he is primarily a Vanagon guy but you should be able to get him the information he needs to help you out as well. this is also why I went for the Mercedes wheels I did as they were a good price and except for enlarging the lug holes are a direct bolt on to a Syncro.