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I decided to put a condensed version of my build thread from TOS over here so everyone could follow along easier. That thread is already halfway through page 12 and I have over 300 pics in my Photobucket album. This is gonna take a while to get it caught up, so I'm gonna try to just put the essentials in here until I'm caught up. Retyping everything won't be easy, so I'll just put a summary comment above each pic explaining what I was working on in that pic. If anyone has questions or comments just post them up and I'll try to answer them as best as I can. On to the pics!

The rail as I received it:
I got the rail this past summer by trading a dirt bike for it. It ran, but had lots of issues. Rear tires are 31's and the fronts are stock bug 165's. Note the downward sloping angle from back to front on the bottom of the frame.


It has a home built frame with some very questionable parts on it. This was one of the scariest looking pieces on it.


Hyd line lock, cutter brakes and the regular brakes didn't work. The E-brake parts weren't installed at all. The shifter was as sloppy as a soup sandwich.


The 1600 DP engine is in fair condition, but it had to breath through that badly kinked stinger. It has oil and fuel leaks everywhere. There is an external oil cooler on it, but no filter.



The stock rear arms were boxed, but I don't like the single shear shock mounts. That will get fixed in the future. Brakes are stock bug parts front and rear.


The Porsche 356 steering box was a nice surprise. But the wasted TRE's and bent tie rods, not so much though. The steering U-joints are shot, but they are welded to the steering shaft and the steering box input shaft.


The rear rack was one of the things I liked about this rail. I'll like having the cargo space for carrying stuff.


I'm not sure how the PO managed to do that to the top of the shock.


The steering wheel was almost directly in the middle of my field of view when seated. The bearing block is also cracked down the middle. Seats are FG high backs with old and stiff vinyl seat covers.


There were obviously some issues with the steering stops as indicated by the rashed bodywork on the pass side.


The longer rear shocks are fine, but the single shear mounts on top and bottom, not so much.


Poly gas tank works for now, but I want to put in a stainless or aluminum one. If I swap to an EFI engine later I want to be able to weld the tank as needed. The red key to the battery cut off switch was snapped off flush in the switch.


This is my biggest issue with the frame. The axle is welded directly to the frame and it looks like the PO ran into something HARD with it. The beam is bent back on the pass side, and the frame is tweaked up on the same side looking at it from the front.



The rear torsion housing is also suspect due to about six layers of angle iron welded all around it. I found cracks on the bottoms of the horns as well.


Headers are rusty, but not rusted through anywhere yet. The vent on the valve cover is supposed to go somewhere. Not be left open to the atmosphere, especially on a vehicle that sees any off road time.


That's enough for now. I'll start on posting the work I've done to it so far.

Digging into the repairs and upgrades.

First item to address was the thin pedal box and worn out pedal assembly. I replaced it with a cheap no name unit. I had to fix it up a bit to get it all working smoothly before I put it in. The gas pedal roller was rebushed, I made a throttle cable yoke and the brake and clutch pivot bolt was reworked to remove some sticky spots. It's bolted to a steel cross bar underneath the aluminum floor. I fabbed up a brake distribution block and some T blocks out of a chunk of T6 aluminum. I also made an extra set for someone over on TOS.




The gas pedal kept flopping forward flat onto the floor, so I made a pedal stop out of another piece of that scrap aluminum. I still need to make one for the other side to prevent the gas pedal from travelling too far and pulling the cable out of the carb. The hard brake lines are all getting swapped over to Copper/Nickle. I made an adjustable throttle cable end so I can fine tune the cable length if I need to move the pedals later on.



I removed the non functional cutter brake and hyd line lock. I'll be adding a regular E-brake handle and manual cutter brake handles that pull on the side cables seperately


I had a filtered breather tank left over from an old Honda Accord turbo project so I plumbed the valve covers into it.


The 4-1 exhaust was swapped out for a new set of dual cannons (with muffler inserts) so I'll be able to pass inspection when I go to get this thing registered. I also welded on mounts for the turn signals, reverse lights and a license plate bracket and plate light. This bright blue is one of the main colors I'm going to use on the rail.


I cleaned up the front end and made new mounts for the lights on the axle beam.


Here's a better look at the downward rake of the frame. The second pic is closer to where I want it to be. Before anyone asks, the awning is just there for the shade.



I am thinking about putting dual carbs on this rail, but not from a standard kit. I picked up a couple old Solex 34PICT-3 carbs from Ebay, cleaned them up and rebuilt them. This gunmetal Grey is the second primary color I'll be using on this rail.




No one makes dual carb intakes specifically for this carb so I got the generic Empi set for slightly larger Solex carbs. I port matched them to the gaskets and milled out the mounting holes to fit my carbs. I also had to mill a little clearance from the sides of the top flanges because the accelerator pump linkage was dragging on it.



The 34PICT-3 requires an 034 SVDA type distributor but my engine has a 009. I bought a used 034 from a friend on TOS and rebuilt it with new Bosch parts. It was very sticky and stiff inside so I completely disassembled it, cleaned it up and polished all the mating surfaces inside. Now it spins freely and feels like a brand new unit.





The rail didn't come with a battery so I bought a new one for it. I used a large marine battery box to keep it in and bolted it to the floor. I made a longer strap from an old motorcycle tie down for it so I could loop it around the frame tube right behind the box to help keep it in place. I also replaced the bad tie rod ends and did some general clean up of the front end before painting it.


To be continued...

I picked up a thin cooler at a thrift store. It's similar in size to a large ammo box I already had. I'm planning on reworking the tree bars into big side storage boxes so I can fit these two boxes, and a couple of old army gas cans in them.


Next I cleaned up the steering box and tried to adjust it. I didn't see much improvement in the steering afterwards so I'm looking into swapping it out for a center mount rack and pinion unit.


I wanted to move the steering wheel down so I disassembled it as much as I could (everything was welded together) and put the steering shaft under the frame bars instead of over them. I broke the cracked steering bearing block so I made a new one out of aluminum. I used some oil-lite bronze to make the bushing for it.




I radiused the top edge of the bracket where it met the tube so it would sit on it like a saddle.


Since everything on the steering was welded together I had to cut the shaft in half to get the proper length after I moved the shaft below the horizontal frame bars. I made a steering shaft coupler out of some 1" diameter aluminum rod. Since the PO didn't add a rag joint, I made the aluminum to be sort of a weak link in the steering shaft.


I got an aftermarket chrome E-brake handle assembly from that same friend over on TOS. He gave it to me since he swapped it out for an original VW one. I needed to fine tune it since it had issues (typical chinese lack of QC) before I could get it to work right. I made a new ratchet pin out of steel that actually fit the hole it went in. The ratchet catch was very wobbly side to side and wouldn't lock into the ratchet teeth very consistently. To fix it I made some aluminum bushings to hold it centered in the handle. I also made some aluminum bushings for the rod to ride it so the button stayed centered in the handle. While I had the lathe warmed up I made a replacement button out of aluminum so I could ditch the plastic piece. I also made a spare button for my friend so he could put one on his stock VW handle.





My stock shifter was pretty sloppy feeling so I decided to upgrade it to a style I liked better. I bought a used round handled Empi T-handle shifter from someone on TOS classified ads. The reverse lockout plate was gouged pretty bad so I used to one from the original shifter that was like new. The push button was sticky so I pulled it apart, cleaned it all up and then polished the button and the bore it rides in. I gave the outside of the handle and the shaft a quick polish as well. While the button was out, I gave the end of it the same circular decorative treatment as I did on the E-brake button. I can't get these pics to load even though I resized them smaller than the max size allowed. I just posted the links to the pics in my Photobucket album so you can look at them in there if you'd like.
http://i326.photobucket.com/albums/k418 ... 304450.jpg
http://i326.photobucket.com/albums/k418 ... 304454.jpg
http://i326.photobucket.com/albums/k418 ... image1.jpg

One of the spare Solex carbs I picked up didn't have any of the choke pieces. I mentioned that in my thread and someone offered me the parts I needed for the cost of shipping. That worked out great and I was able to get all the pieces I needed to complete the second spare carb.



While I was working on the carbs I decided to fix a potenetial fire hazard. I pulled the fuel inlet tubes from the tops of the carbs and tapped the holes for 1/16"NPT hose barb fittings. I listed the info needed to duplicate this mod on a shop rag for the pic in case anyone else wants to copy this mod. These fittings will never pull out like the factory pressed is tubes can (and do).


About this time I spotted a wierd looking old VW for sale just down the street from my house. Despite what it looked like I saw the value of the parts that were on it and made the seller an offer. He declined my offer, but a few months later he came by and said he'd take my offer if I still wanted it. So now I picked up my second VW. I posted pics of it over on TOS and the guys over there were able to ID it as a 1968 Type 3 of some kind. There wasn't enough of the body left to ID it any further than that.

It's pretty late so that's enough for me for tonight. I'll pick this up tomorrow and try to get it all caught up then. I don't mind answering any questions, but please hold off posting in this thread until I can get it caught up to my current progress. That way I can keep all the progress updates in order so they're easier to follow later on. I'm not quite halfway through all the stuff I've done to it so far.

EDIT: I'm back, so on with the updates...
MY rail came with an aluminum diamond plate floor and thin aluminum sides. I decided to add to the bodywork and fully enclose the front. I used some 1" conduit and 1" square tube to make the frame work for the hood. I used some coated sheet metal I got for free off of CL.


At this point I decided to make an opening hood on it so I would have easy access to the brake and clutch reservois(sp?), the battery and the steering components.


I added a long heavy duty piano hinge for the hood and welded it in place. The hood got skinned with the same free sheet metal as well. Once I was happy with it, I painted it grey like the rest of the bodywork.




The spaces between the front beam tubes was closed up as well. I added some of the square steel tubing to give me a place to attach the sheet metal as well as lockable latches to keep it closed. I also added a steering stop for the pitman arm to keep the tire off the body work.



After the hood was completed I added some foam door weatherstripping to the edge of the hood to seal it up and keep it from squeaking or rattling. I also mounted a handle on the front to give me a place to lift the hood.




I made a metal roof to enclose the top next. I want to add a windshield so I added a piece of 1.5" DOM tube where I wanted the top of the window frame to be. I had to cut off the spare tire mount as it was in the way. The paint was still wet in the last pics so it looks splotchy.




Next, I picked up a turn signal level assembly from Ebay. It's an older Signal Stat 905 that does turn (L&R), hazard and switches the headlights (Hi&Lo). It's designed to mount to a steering column, but I only had a steering shaft, so I made a steering column stub. I grooved the OD of the stub so the switch mounting strap could not slide forwards or back.



The stub mounts to the aluminum steering bushing block with a couple of ears that I welded onto the end of the stub. Around this time I also made some welded bungs to replace the bolts I had holding the steering bushing block to the frame. I needed the heads gone since I want to add a windshield and the heads would be in the way.




The threaded bungs were welded in place and the top of the weld was ground smooth. The sheetmetal was patched and sealed with RTV where I had to cut a hole for access to the frame tube.


I picked up a spare 009 for parts and a fuel pump (Pierburg rebuildable type) and a NOS FP rebuild kit from a local (30 min away) VW shop I found. I went through it and gave it the same treatment as the carbs. I replaced the fuel inlet and outlet nipples with threaded hose barbs so they can't pull free. I polished whatever I could, painted the cast parts gunmetal grey and the hardware got gloss black.



The sagging front end was bugging me so I decided to fix that. I wanted to get some Thing front spindles, but the ones I could find were all out of my budget right now. Instead I found some taller tires on Ebay with free shipping so I got some of those for now. They are 7.00x15 with a tread that almost matches the tread on my rear tires. The new tires are about 3-4" taller than the 165's that came on the rail when I got it. I had them mounted a balanced and then I painted the rims before I reinstalled them. The tires raised the front end noticably, but I still want either Thing or lifted spindles to get it up there the rest of the way.



Unfortunately with the new taller tires, the edges of the treads are hitting the frame again. I'll have to move the steering stops again to prevent them from hitting the frame and the sheet metal sides.

To be continued:

The large battery box was close to the tie rods so I swapped it out for a medium sized one. The larger box had a battery level indicator and a 12V power port on the lid I wanted to keep. I removed those and mounted them onto the medium box lid. The new box was bolted to the aluminum floor with large fender washers to spread the clamping force over a wider area. I also added a steel battery top holding bracket and mounted the battery to the floor, inside the box, with long J bolts.




I have a small HF 2500lb ATV winch I was going to mount into the bed of my truck, but decided it would be put to better use on the front of my rail instead. I used some pieces of a bed frame rail for the mounts and welded them to the front bumper. I ran the two large cables through the sheet metal right underneath it. I made sure to pass them through some grommets so they wouldn't get cut by the sheet metal.



I picked up a roll of windshield gasket from Acme/Berrien to mount the windshield to the tube frame. I cut a few small pieces of the gasket to hold a piece of wallboard in the frame while I was making the windshield template. I left a 1/8 to 1/4" gap all the way around the template to allow the gasket. I picked up a tube of windshield adhesive for when I get the windshield made.


I started pulling the T3 apart for whatever parts I could salvage off of it. I started with the rear brakes and cleaned all those pieces up and painted them. I had the drums turned and replaced the shoes with new ones.




All the other parts were in good shape except for the piece that keeps the adjuster star wheels from turning. I couldn't find a replacement for it anywhere so I came up with a different way to accomplish the same thing. I drilled some 1/4" holes in the shoe backing that placed the springs in a more horizontal position. This caused the coiled part of the spring to ride between the notches in the star wheels. I made sure to debur the star wheels so they wouldn't nick the springs and create a weak spot.



I painted the rear wheels like I did the fronts before I put them back on the rail.


I found the reason the brakes weren't working on the T3 when I got it (only the E-brake worked). The PO said he "fixed" the brakes not long before I got it, but the new brake hoses started leaking. I discovered why when I went to disassemble the front end to get the disk brakes off of it. The PO had replaced leaking sections of the hard line with rubber vacuum hoses. At least he used double hose clamps on each end...




I test fit the rotors onto the bug spindles on the rail and they were a perfect match. I just had to pick up a pair of caliper adapters to allow me to mount the ATE calipers on the bug drum spindles. One of the seals on the calipers got cut when I was cleaning it with a wire wheel so I had to get a rebuild kit to fix that one.


While I had the front end apart I replaced all four ball joints on the rails front arms. I used a hydraulic press and some various sized pipe couplers to drive the new ball joints in place. I made sure to align the notches on the arms with the notches on the ball joints so they wouldn't bind. I also straightened the top threaded part of the driver side shock while everything was still apart.




After I painted cleaned and painted the rotors I had them turned. I mounted the caliper adapters, and checked for any interference. I didn't find any problems so I moved onto the rotors next. I put the rotors on, set the bearing preload and locked down the clamp nuts. The calipers went on next to check for their spacing in relation to the rotor. They were both dead on center so I didn't need to use any washers to realign them. I put new pads in both calipers and new rubber brake hoses on when I assembled everything for the last time. Of course right after I finished bolting everything up we had about three days of solid rain which caused the rotor faces to flash rust all over.




I wanted to use the dual circuit MC that was on the T3 since it was stock size for the disk/drum setup on the T3. However, the mounting holes were horizontal on the T3 MC and vertical on the aftermarket MC that came on the pedal assembly I installed earlier. My solution was to make a MC adapter and a longer push rod so I could mount the Varga MC on the aftermarket pedal assy.





I bought a clear Volvo brake reservoir from the classifieds on TOS and mounted it on the Varga MC. To get the MC to fit next to the clutch MC, I had to remove the rear brake pressure switch. I don't need two switches, so I'll just plug that hole and use just the front switch to activate the brake lights. I had to shorten the push rod I made because it was just a little too long to fit the way I made it.




Next I started working on the T3 steering column. I plan on replacing this frame with a new one (Beeline Pack Rat 2 seater kit) and I'd like to give more of a finished look to it. The factory aluminum steering wheel adapter was hacked up very badly to fit the tiny steering wheel. I am fixing that with a piece of T6 aluminum and my lathe. I will rebuild it to look like it was meant to be made that way from the factory. I didn't get any before pics, so these pics are of the middle of the repair process. I made a long aluminum threaded rod to fill and plug the drilled and tapped holes so I can re-drill them properly. The rod is threaded and epoxied into the holes and then cut off just above the surface. The tops will be faced off flush with the top surface. The pic with the threaded stud sticking out of the adapter shows how bad the hole alignment was. That's NOT an optical illusion BTW, it was really drilled and tapped that crooked by the PO.





I kept turning the OD of the adapter smaller until I got an even and smooth surface. I'm making a cap to fit tightly over it and hide all that mess on the original piece. It will be an interference fit so I will heat the cap and cool the adapter so they will go together. I'll also use some JB weld to lock the two pieces together permently. After it dries the holes will be redrilled properly. Mt lathe is a 7x14 mini import lathe and the big chunk of aluminum broke the tool post from the interrupted cuts I was making. It stripped the threads out of the casting and I had to get a longer bolt to get it working again. It's fixed now, I just haven't gotten back to working on the adapter yet.




I finished cutting up the rest of the T3 to put it out of it's misery. I was able to trade a few pieces for upright engine tins at the local VW place. Scrap metal is selling for $10/ton here so it was going to cost me more in gas than it would have paid me for it. Instead I brought the two remaining truckloads of metal over to the dump and tossed all the left over pieces into the metal recycling bin.





The top cylinder tins were trimmed like the off road tins offered online. The tabs by the intakes are full of cracks so I'll be cutting those off and making new ones to replace them. I'm not going to be using heater boxes so I cut the hose funnels off the sides of the DH shroud. I wanted to make use of the air that was being directed to the heater funnels so I drilled three 1" holes inside each end of the shroud so the air would go to help cool the cylinder tins. I drilled the first hole at too steep of an angle and drilled through to the outside. To fix it I sand blasted the area and tapped the edges inward so they didn't poke outward at all. Then I placed some electrical tap inside the cut area and put some JB weld over the hole. I'll smooth over the repair later and then put a skim coat of bondo over the whole corner since there are some dents in the metal right next to the JB Weld.




Next I started working on the T3 engine and the upright conversion. I removed all of the flat configuration parts until I was down to the bare long block. I cleaned the top side of the engine and spent quite a bit of time getting all the oily dirt and crud out of all the fins on the cylinders and heads. I bolted on a T3 conversion dipstick to where the oil fill used to be on the rear of the engine.



I removed the bolts and stud for the flat config oil cooler so I could mount up the DH oil cooler adapter kit. I had to drill the two holes near the cylinders to fit the larger studs. I was able to find a stepped stud (M6-M8) to replace the other stud so I didn't have to drill and tap the case for a larger M8 stud.



I also got an original VW alternator stand in that parts trade for some of my T3 parts. It was caked with sludge and rust so I cleaned it up with degreaser first and then wire wheeled it afterwards. I'll probably replace the fill box on top of it with an angled aluminum piece later on.


I disassembled the 4-1 header, cleaned the flanges up and then temporarily mounted it onto the engine. I recently bought a mid pipe for the Empi header to replace the bent stinger. I loosely bolted that up next and aligned it before tightening the bolts on the collector flange. Next I removed the header and brought it to the local tire and muffler shop. I had them weld on a glass pack style muffler, a chrome tip and some support brackets so the muffler wouldn't flex and break off.



I test fitted two different size dual carb intakes I have on hand to see which ones I liked better. The one on the left is an Empi aftermarket piece with a Solex 34PICT-3 sitting on it. The one on the right is a stubby factory VW Type 3 dual carb intake with a 32PDSIT sitting on it. I'm leaning towards using the pair of 34PICT-3's and modding the tops of the shorter T3 intakes to allow me to mount the PICT carbs on them.


Whew! And that's where I'm currently at now. Thank's for waiting patiently for me to finish this looong progress update before posting. Let me know if you have any questions and or comments and I'll do my best to address them.

Impressive. Nice work! Nice rail, too.

The Type III case appears to be an original `68...that's not a good thing, they suffer from the same problems as `68/`69 Type I "H5" cases due to the poor choice of alloy. Hopefully it'll give you decent service, but if you ever go through with plans for a larger-displacement engine DO NOT base it on this case.
What are you doing for an oil pressure switch? One option is to notch the Type I fan shroud and use the Type III cooler which has a boss on it for the switch.
The `68 case is small-passage (as are all pre`70 cases/coolers) while the "doghouse" adapter is large-passage, so you need to use "conversion" seals between them - plus another set at the cooler if you use a small-passage Type III cooler.

Have you fit the overcylinder tin yet? 311 heads have some extra fins/gussets which can interfere with Type I tin. No big deal, just grind them if necessary - you can even just cut them away with a sharp cape chisel

http://www2.cip1.com/v/vspfiles/photos/ ... -029-2.jpg ...the washers included in the kit are for adapting a flat-bottom small-passage cooler to a large-passage case.

Looking forward to seeing how you go about fabricating linkage for dual 34PICT-3s. Considering your high workmanship standards, it may end up being a marketable product. That 034 distributor takes a pretty strong vacuum signal to achieve maximum advance; I wouldn't expect it to work quite right here. Perhaps if you tee the ported-vacuum signal from both carbs...

`68 Type IIIs sold in the US were all fuel-injected (other markets had carburetion available, using essentially our "1967" setup). The `67 and later 32PDSITs are the most desirable/largest venturi. '67s will have "98-1" and "99-1" stamped into them. http://oacdp.org/wog69/049.png

In case I missed that you removed it: as far as I know the hydraulic park/lock brake is not DOT legal and, hence, not legal in most states. They have a bad habit of either jamming locked or letting loose and, if you live on a hill... well.... Also, they are a dodge for insurance companies. Any air or moisture intrusion of any kind they will use against you. With turning brakes (not legal in some states on the street) you are going to have enough joins to play with w/o having that monster in place. My blue buggy has rear end damage due to the park/lock it had letting go and it doing down an alley backwards and into a chain-link fence.

Since you are doing such good work I would point you to the last page of CWB's build and to the bead rolling. The formed bend you have is ok (lower case letters are intended)... maybe but for strength and elimination of flexing of flat panels bead rolling is the way to go.

The rake (nose down) is pretty common especially with the 31" tires and pretty much a max dia with IRS and still using a torsion setup. You still have a ball-joint beam (those shocks you first showed were pretty bad with the bent rod ends) and you can lift it: either with cutting and turning the torsion tubes, using adjusters or lifted spindles (or Thing if you can find a pair. The Thing spindles are the best way to go in my opinion). There are special ball-joints for class racing that will allow you a bit more travel but as far as I know the Thing BJs are not modified that way.

You've done some really impressive work. Keep it up.

Lee

This engine is a U0 code which is supposed to be a '68 T3, 1600, EFI, DP engine. A PO swapped it over to the 32PDIST-2 &-3 carbs sometime long before I got it. I still have the linkage for it, but not the air cleaner. All I plan on doing with the PDSIT carbs is just cleaning them up and setting them aside for now. I haven't looked at them too hard as a result, so I don't know what stamps they have on them ATM.

The 34 PICT-3's will get the vac signal T'd off and a vac pulse valve installed to help boost the signal to the carb. I've already opened up the venturies on them to 28mm on the lathe. They were supposed to be 26mm according to the numbers cast into them, but they measured out to just 25mm.

For the dual carb linkage, right now I have the generic Empi dual carb linkage kit and the factory linkage that came on my T3's 32PDSIT dual setup. So far I'm not sold on either type. All I'll probably use from either one is the center bell crank portion. What I'm thinking of doing is making a cable operated bell crank system that won't be affected by the engine expanding as it heats up and shrinking as it cools off. It will all be custom made from the center out to the carbs.

The case on this T3 engine only has a single oil valve, so I'm just keeping it at the stock displacement. The engine case that is in the rail now is a dual oil valve case, so I'll build that one up if I plan to bore and/or stroke it later on. Cylinder tins won't be an issue. I'm cutting them up and modding them to off road style, so a little trimming here and there is to be expected.

That old hyd. line lock is long gone from my rail and is still floating around somewhere in my barn. I'm in no hurry to find it either. I saved the tunnel from the T3 with the E-brake bracket and I'll be adding that to the new Pack Rat frame as I build it. The turning brakes will be manually cable operated and be sort of stealthy since they will look similar to the heater control rods. Just a bit longer handles is all.

Lee, if you were referring to the sheet metal bodywork on the rail, it's just been done to try out some ideas. I got the material for free so I didn't loose out anything by giving it a go. The free metal was coated steel that was used for a large dog house roof at one time, hence all the random holes here and there. I knew I was going top be replacing this frame soon so I've been trying out different ideas on it. I saw that post about the bead rolled panel edges, and if I had a bead roller I'd definitely do it that way.

The ball joint front will be staying with the old frame since it's welded to it and bent anyway. I'm planning on getting a conversion beam from Bugzilla on TOS for the new frame. It's got the BJ tube spacing but uses king/link pin arms and spindles. I'll have to get a different caliper bracket to use the T3 brakes on the new beam AFAIK. However, by using this type of conversion beam, the Thing spindles won't be an option anymore. At least there are a lot more options for aftermarket lift spindles for the king/link spindles though.

I have that adapter seal kit already, but the oil holes in the top of the case that go to the oil cooler adapter are the larger type. Maybe a mod by a PO? I have a standard T1 DH oil cooler coming in the mail to mount up to this DH oil cooler adapter. I already traded away the T3 oil cooler so that's not an option for me anymore. If I need to I'll drill and tap the case like the T1 case for the oil pressure switch.

I've been lurking on this site and just reading the threads here for a long time. I've only recently started posting here since it seems a bit more responsive than over on TOS. In case you're wondering, I was a machinist (MR) in the Navy for most of my 20 year career. Now I'm a retired machinist/gunsmith who just enjoys working on my own stuff at home. I really like inventing stuff and making custom pieces and parts to solve uncommon issues, or what most other people like to call "problems".

GoMopar440 wrote:This engine is a U0 code which is supposed to be a '68 T3, 1600, EFI, DP engine.

Yes. I was going by the visual cue of that distinctive boss in the casting aft of the O.P. switch location - that's a c1968 thang. Type III engine codes aren't quite as descriptive as those used on Type Is, since alloy & oil-circuit changes were made within the same general configuration (1600cc, FI) denoted by "UO". Point is, these early UO cases were made from the low-density alloy used in H5/B5 Type I/II cases of the same vintage, infamous for warping/cracking/pulled studs.

GoMopar440 wrote:What I'm thinking of doing is making a cable operated bell crank system that won't be affected by the engine expanding as it heats up and shrinking as it cools off. It will all be custom made from the center out to the carbs.

That sounds nifty. But check out how Berg fanshroud-mounted linkage works - since it uses down-rods to the carbs it's immune to the expansion issue. Expensive to purchase, but should be a piece of cake for you to build something like it...Berg basically started with a chunk of bedrail.

GoMopar440 wrote:I have that adapter seal kit already, but the oil holes in the top of the case that go to the oil cooler adapter are the larger type. Maybe a mod by a PO?

That would be bizarre, are you certain? It doesn't look like it in the pics, I'm seeing the small openings. The only reason he might've had to do that was to install a `70-`73 large-passage Type III cooler without using conversion seals, and it would be difficult to do without a mill...do the "normal" (red) large-passage seals fit comfortably in the case?

GoMopar440 wrote:If I need to I'll drill and tap the case like the T1 case for the oil pressure switch.

Just rig an air supply to the cooler passage to blow out the chips as you drill/tap the O.P. switch boss.

GoMopar440 wrote:I was a machinist (MR) in the Navy for most of my 20 year career. Now I'm a retired machinist/gunsmith who just enjoys working on my own stuff at home. I really like inventing stuff and making custom pieces and parts to solve uncommon issues, or what most other people like to call "problems".

It shows. Bravo Zulu!


Do you have one of these? http://www.type2.com/rvanness/images/hooverbt.jpg It's referred to as the "Hoover Bit" (Google it) and is important to seal cooling air from escaping around the base of the doghouse cooler.

Marc wrote:That would be bizarre, are you certain? The only reason he might've had to do that was to install a `70-`73 large-passage Type III cooler without using conversion seals, and it would be difficult to do without a mill...do the "normal" (red) large-passage seals fit comfortably in the case?

Yes the red seals fit perfectly. I was expecting to have to use the adapter seals that's why I bought them. The holes are machined clean and precisely and don't look like a shade tree bubba hack job. I didn't measure the holes though, I just used the seals that fit best (red ones). The original seals that came out of it were red as well.

Marc wrote: Just rig an air supply to the cooler passage to blow out the chips as you can drill/tap the O.P. switch boss.

Sounds like a good plan. Packing the drill and tap flutes with heavy grease and going slow is another thing I plan on doing to help control/catch the chips as they try to break free.

GoMopar440 wrote:...Yes the red seals fit perfectly...

I'm perplexed. Never seen a single-relief case that would accept those...or a `70 case with that extra boss in the casting. What's the entire engine ID number?

The engine # is:[round VW logo] U0016720

You can see the original red seals that came out of the engine in this pic, sitting stacked on the oil cooler stud closest to the center of the engine.


Maybe a mod done by a PO during the carb swap? They had all the original factory parts as far as I could tell on the swap. I didn't realise it was supposed to be an EFI engine until I looked up the engine #. That PO at least had a good attention to detail and I wouldn't be surprised if they had the oil seal holes professionally done. For some reason though, I don't think it was the same PO that did the "custom" body work, or the brake line "repair" either.

That number puts it at mid`68 (model year) production.

What's the diameter of the outer hole in the case? "Large" is ~.600" and "small" ~.530"...you can get the large seals into the small openings, but it tends to make the I.D. constrict.

Oil passage diameters are ~.300" for the small-passage, ~.370-450" for the large (the one closer to the flywheel typically is bigger)

Early FI Type IIIs had a threaded boss cast into the LH head near #4 exhaust port for the temp sender (it was moved up top c1970)

My #4 side of the cyl head still has the temp sender in it under/next to the exhaust port, so early EFI production looks to be correct. You can see the black wire coming from it in the above pic near the #4 exhaust port.

It's about 20*F outside, I'm in my slippers and the engine is out in the barn. I'll have to get you those oil seal hole dimensions tomorrow.

FWIW: The red seals drop right into the holes easily with no constriction at all. No force is required to get them in there, they just drop in place. Looking at that last pic I posted, I can see a size difference between the two holes, with the larger of the two openings being towards the flywheel. Everything I see here points to the red seals being the correct ones for those holes.