'89 Blue Star Vanagon Project

[Leatherneck]

Love your thread!

Wait till he starts welding.

[turbobaja]

Love your thread!

Wait till he starts welding.

Thanks guys!

I drained the tranny fluid today and had a look up through the drain hole. What I could see was the pinoin bearing retaining ring moving back and forth with the pinion shaft/bearing. It's rotating about 5 or 10° and stopping in each direction. What little we've driven this thing, the trans has not exactly been quiet. By the look of the fluid and fuzz load on the magnet, plus the loose pinion bearing retainer...it seems like time for a rebuild and possibly a Weddle 4.57 R&P with some type of locker or limited slip to complimemt the EJ25 and "adventure" plans.

[Clonebug]

Love your thread!

Wait till he starts welding.

Thanks guys!

I drained the tranny fluid today and had a look up through the drain hole. What I could see was the pinoin bearing retaining ring moving back and forth with the pinion shaft/bearing. It's rotating about 5 or 10° and stopping in each direction. What little we've driven this thing, the trans has not exactly been quiet. By the look of the fluid and fuzz load on the magnet, plus the loose pinion bearing retainer...it seems like time for a rebuild and possibly a Weddle 4.57 R&P with some type of locker or limited slip to complimemt the EJ25 and "adventure" plans.

Nice Work Karl!!!!

As Always!!!

Mabe it's time for a Subie Trans swap......

[turbobaja]

Nice Work Karl!!!!

As Always!!!

Mabe it's time for a Subie Trans swap......

Thanks Art! I'm just gonna keep it simple on this one and rebuild the stock trans. I pulled it out last Sunday and dropped it off to be checked out Monday evening. Tuesday got a call with what it needs and we discussed what I want to do about it. Trans was built by Thursday and I picked it up Friday after work. Couldn't have asked for a better turn around. Went from a stock 4.86 R&P to a 4.57 and from .85 4th gear to a .77. Quite a few parts needed replacing, including the housing that had lost its press fit on the main bearing sleeve. I also replaced the stock 2 spider diff with a Peloquin torque biasing unit that should make the Van as capable as a 2wd rear engine machine can possibly be. NOT a cheap trans as it sits, but I'm realy looking forward to driving it now .

[Steve Arndt]

Aa or German trans?

[turbobaja]

Aa or German trans?

Gary Zink at Gary's Transaxles. Same guy who regeared the 091 in my baja. About 20 minutes from my house. Super nice guy. Would have gone with AA, but I know the guy I'd want building my trans there has passed away...

[turbobaja]

Got the trans back in and continued prepping the engine bay for the EJ25.



New throttle cable and modified Subaru pedal used to drive the fly-buy-wire throttle body.



Donaldson air filter assembly, should hook up easily to the factory fresh air snorkel.





Also got the fuel system plumbed with a regulating filter and single feed line.

[turbobaja]

Got the engine mounted to the trans and hung in place. The mustache bar gets shifted back and a new rear hole gets drilled on each side through the body seam. Bar also gets spaced about 1" down to help clear the upper plenum and intake boot from contacting the engine cover. The shortened oil pan is still the obvious weak link for ground clearance, skid plate is definitely happening.

[Steve Arndt]

I love how you did the E-pedal. The two Raby buses in our shop have the pedal up front and they are not "right" to how I like the feel.

I'm getting closer to a 2.5 like you. My modified wbx runs great and pulls well for what it is, but I want more. Plus the old bag stranded me leaving 5 quarts on the ground and me walking this morning with an oil cooler seal blow out on a ski trip. Total bitch. I've driven hot VWs since 1995 and this is my first real need for a tow though so that is pretty good I guess. AAA premium to the rescue since the tow from cascade to boise is 500 bucks. AAA is 150. WIN.

[Piledriver]

Yes, but how old was the $2 seal? It should probably be replaced on a schedule.
(AFAIK mine was circa 1986, so every 20 years would probably prevent it)
Just had to do one on the cabby, (same oil cooler)
Fortunately(?) it puked in the driveway, but didn't notice it until I got out in the road.
Didn't like 10F. Fortunately it was ~70F a few days later and the newish hoses were flexi enough I just had to pull it down and off. With old hoses that would have probably ended in a larger mess.

I do love the AAA premier RV even though I don't own an RV...

[turbobaja]

I love how you did the E-pedal. The two Raby buses in our shop have the pedal up front and they are not "right" to how I like the feel.

I'm getting closer to a 2.5 like you. My modified wbx runs great and pulls well for what it is, but I want more. Plus the old bag stranded me leaving 5 quarts on the ground and me walking this morning with an oil cooler seal blow out on a ski trip. Total bitch. I've driven hot VWs since 1995 and this is my first real need for a tow though so that is pretty good I guess. AAA premium to the rescue since the tow from cascade to boise is 500 bucks. AAA is 150. WIN.

The pedal bracket is something Kirk @ Northwesty was having made locally out of stainless for both Syncro and 2wd Suby conversions. The first few 2wd conversions I did for him, he had me place the pedal above the trans for a "cleaner" engine bay. Obviously there's a fuel tank there in the Syncros, so we rerouted the cables and placed the pedal on the left side of the engine bay, where you can actually reach it and use it to throttle the engine from the engine compartment for burping the cooling system or just revving the poop out of it like Kirk liked to do so much... . The last few 2wd conversions I built for him, I convinced him to let me put the pedal where the Syncro pedals go for ease of access. The pedal feel is quite nice like this.

AAA Premium will be part of the plan when I finally insure and start driving this rig.

[turbobaja]

So many of these Vans I've seen and worked on had the lower rear valance all beat in, just like mine was behind the bumper. My Van had just been painted before I bought it from the shop I used to work at...painted almost a year before I started there, for 12 grand according to the shop owner, trying to sell me the Van during my interview to come work for him, seriously. All the areas covered by the fiberglass lower body trim (Factory Blue Star stuff I guess) was either left untouched and sprayed over, or very quickly beat and bondo'd, then painted. She's rough around the edges, but function is all I'm shooting for with this machine...



5 minutes later with my 2 gloved hands...now I can fit a muffler in there



And here's a shot with just the long block on the trans, had to leave the plenum off to slide it under the body. I went with a Hitorque starter, used, feelin' lucky. Most suby swaps go with a TDI starter and adapter plate if they're smart...probably will go that route in the future and keep the Hitorque one for onboard spare.

[turbobaja]

My fuel gauge worked once out of the 3 times I've driven this Van. I lowered the tank to install the stainless coolant pipes and decided to test the circuits for the fuel level sender while I had better access. Sure enough the sender was an open circuit internally with 3/4 tank full. So I drained the tank and pulled it out completely to replace the sender. Turns out the vapor lines were in very poor shape as well. All is getting resealed along with new roll-over valves in each vapor tank. This gives me a good opportunity to clean a lot of debris from around the tank mounting area and bundle the heater hoses with the coolant pipes where they pass above the tank.

[Leatherneck]

Karl you know your going to have to tear everything apart and make it better, it is what you do.

[turbobaja]

Karl you know your going to have to tear everything apart and make it better, it is what you do.

You are right, unfortunately. Nearly every component on this Van has needed major attention to be considered functional. Still need to run through the power window and power lock systems too. I'm on a mission for running and driving under Subaru power for now