Itinerant Air-Cooled

Perhaps some inspiration from the late great Peter Aschwanden...

http://www.peteraschwanden.com/galleryThumbs1.html

BTW, his widow is selling art 'n' stuff. I got a signed original print of the exploded bug.

Lulling about, I am.
I was sitting there and thought, "when am I going to get to that shift rod?"

/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=13694#p230727




Well, to get to the shift rod, you have to take out the engine and transaxle. So I did:




To take out the engine and transaxle with a little 'ol floor jack, you need to hit the center of gravity of the whole assembly:




The engine can remain fully-dressed when you remove the transaxle and the engine together. The only additional steps are to unbolt the inner CVs and remove clutch cable bracket, reverse wires and wires from the starter:






Factory fresh at 97,000 miles, folks, there's the emission code:




I wanted to restore everything to super-gorgeous, but I do NOT have time ... but I did get the red hose from the decel valve to the plastic tube re-redded. Me and the kid, happy:




Because the path to the shift rod removal includes having the transaxle out of the car, I thought, "let's install a bearing retainer plate and a new hockey stick ball!" See how you clean BEFORE disassembly?
















Am I just wasting TIME around here?

Well, maybe, but I am putting in this bearing retainer plate to help prevent the axial play in the gearbox from bashing the bearings out. That's right folks, your quiet helical (diagonally cut) gears cause a lot of forward/backward forces every time you accelerate/decelerate. This steel plate stops the movement a whole lot better than the magnesium of the nose cone:




I did do a mirror/80 grit milling operation the next morning to remove the very little evidence of wear. Note the grease soaked paper towel in the hockey stick bore:




I used the ambient light reflecting off the gasket surface to keep my "milling" accurate:




Then I washed the heck out of the nose cone with plenty of Dawn and hot water and re-lubricated the very nice original hockey stick bushings/little embedded ball bearings. Removed the hated springs that gave us that 1976-on-up spring-loaded shift gate, and stuck in a new hockey stick ball (plastic, not metal, no springs to wear the thing out!) and. Yay!

Oh yeah, remember the bent shift rod diagram up there at the top? I finally got to it. Pretty diagrams are one thing but photos or it didn't happen. It happened. Here is the residual shift rod bend after my field repair straightening made the car so much more civilized ...




The final "perfect" straightening was not much fun. Too much crap falling off the counters, but you can see the "fulcrum" I slipped in at the middle of the bend. Then I crushed it flat in the vise, but it sprang back when I loosened, so I had to bend the whole shift rod at the first curve against the near edge of the vise a "little too much" so it would then spring back perfectly straight:




Sanded the rust off the shift rod AND the inside of the rear bumper, then brush-painted the inside of the bumper and rust-catalyzing primer followed by silver for the shift rod:




Now-silver shift rod going back into the car with grease and new boots:




So much I wanted to do, but no TIME. The only thing I did for the engine was to remove every tin screw one-at-a-time and hit their threads with anti-seize, so I can do future tin-painting projects out in the boonies without wasting half the day due to a stuck screw .... go! engine in! Bye.

Wonderful description! Thank you, the late and good Long Enterprises, for those plates!

I'm curious Colin - how long did it take you to do this work? Half day? A day? Two?

Jeff

BusBassist wrote: ↑

Sun Apr 14, 2019 6:32 pm

I'm curious Colin - how long did it take you to do this work? Half day? A day? Two?

Jeff

Yeah! Where's The Itinerary Clock???

Robbie

asiab3 wrote: ↑

Sun Apr 14, 2019 7:25 pm

BusBassist wrote: ↑

Sun Apr 14, 2019 6:32 pm

I'm curious Colin - how long did it take you to do this work? Half day? A day? Two?

Jeff

Yeah! Where's The Itinerary Clock???

Robbie

It is not yet the Itinerary, and thus, there is no No Itinerary Yet Clock.
The entire process, including cleaning up after that horrific Testors model red paint (no WONDER children were beaten senseless in the early 60's!), took three easy-going days with:


a trick epoxy repair of the last plastic fresh air duct in the country:




a re-torque of the lower cylinder head nuts (If I had had TIME, I would have loved to replace the heads) and rocker supports (photo here shows scratches I put inside the valve cover to monitor oil temps):



an entire exhaust system repaint,



a sink wash of the foam seal (a great thing to do, by the way),


re-refashioned dump tubes (now using VW 1600 heater hose) and innumerable other little projects like touching up the black paint on the tins and detailing the engine compartment and all wires:



Now I am in a scramble with upper ball joints at .065" and I refuse to buy crap new chinese Lemforder or Turkish Meyle ball joints! I refuse! Now I am waiting for responses from Samba classified vendors. I am only doing the uppers, regardless, to keep the friction down. The lowers have imperceptible play. What makes the uppers wear out more than the lowers?
Colin

I love them all, and selfishly love a late westy. I have driven them all too. It looks like it will be Naranja again which will be great. I voted for Bob D because it really is one of the nicest, best driving cars I have ever driven. Nothing like any bus I have ever driven.

Colin, markannenorton here still have that 1977 bus that won't rev over 3500rpm. may be a stop in NC. I see you may be coming through.

mtcamper wrote: ↑

Sat Apr 20, 2019 6:58 pm

I love them all, and selfishly love a late westy. I have driven them all too. It looks like it will be Naranja again which will be great. I voted for Bob D because it really is one of the nicest, best driving cars I have ever driven. Nothing like any bus I have ever driven.

BobD wants to go, I know. Might be a horrendous impulsive last-minute move. but the summer gathering in Taos seems to want to be a real camper experience instead of my usual. I might break it up and take the BobD at least to East Coast Calls post Main-Lap.
What a problem to have ...

markannenorton wrote: ↑

Sun Apr 21, 2019 5:24 am

Colin, markannenorton here still have that 1977 bus that won't rev over 3500rpm. may be a stop in NC. I see you may be coming through.

You are now relegated to fall should you decide ...
Colin

Amskeptic wrote: What a problem to have ...

Ha! As I love to say when possible,
“Sounds like a first world problem”

Amskeptic wrote: ↑

Mon Apr 22, 2019 11:03 am

... the summer gathering in Taos seems to want to be a real camper experience instead of my usual.

That summer gathering? My last art project of the season ... ask Kit and JR how feverish that collaboration was ...
viewtopic.php?f=51&t=13822#p232769

Kit Whistler wrote: ↑

Mon May 20, 2019 1:23 pm

currently trying to decide where to tattoo one of them onto Sunshine, our ‘76 Westy. She currently has no other stickers, so this is a big deal....
JR and I thought we’d recreate your photo above, Colin. Hope it does your art justice.

-kit

Well, that is certainly a beautiful model to model the sticker pose ... it does the art more than justice.
Colin

I just completed our mandatory corporate training on "Respect in the Workplace" and learned that it is a "best practice" to never make a comment about the physical appearance of another person, therefore I will only say that I've found the rear section of the driver's side rear window blocked by the "closet" cabinet is an excellent place for "tattoos".

(I do hope someone at work will still tell me if my fly is down, or I have doughnut sugar smeared across my face! )

vwlover77 wrote: ↑

Tue May 21, 2019 4:37 am

I just completed our mandatory corporate training on "Respect in the Workplace" and learned that it is a "best practice" to never make a comment about the physical appearance of another person, therefore I will only say that I've found the rear section of the driver's side rear window blocked by the "closet" cabinet is an excellent place for "tattoos".

(I do hope someone at work will still tell me if my fly is down, or I have doughnut sugar smeared across my face! )

I agree that the rear side windows are a perfect spot especially for passing pedestrians ...
Don, did I ever mention that you are utter eye candy for the weary world yearning for beauty?
Colin