Miscellaneous Cleaning/Painting/Polishing
Several key parts for reassembling the reduction boxes and rear brakes are still on their transcontinental journey. In the mean time I’ve: thoroughly cleaned all of the gunk off of the inside and outside of the fuel tank and repainted it, polished more aluminum trim, stripped many sunroof parts, and blasted/painted some other random parts.
Transaxle Installed
Transaxle installed tonight. The reduction box cases are still open, awaiting some gaskets from Canada. Once these arrive the gearboxes can be reassembled along with the rear brakes.
Transaxle Rebuild Completed
Transaxle rebuilt successfully finished. The gaskets were of slightly different thickness and this resulted in slight misalignment of the shift forks relative to the gearcluster on the input shaft. The fork linkage adjustment is inside the case and can only be checked with the case closed; so the gearbox side of the transaxle had to be assembled/disassembled 3 or 4 times (seemed like 100) to get it right. This adjustment is critical; too far in either direction and one of the synchros will be engaged while in ‘neutral’, causing it to burn out quickly. Really too far in one direction, which is only ~0.1″, and the linkage will not have a neutral at all without holding the shifter between detents.
Transaxle Rebuild Continued
The transaxle teardown continued, the case was cleaned, and initial reassembly began.
Axle Bumpstop Perch Repaired
The perchs on the rear axle that holds the rubber bumpstop have what can only be described as a design flaw in that they hold water with no way for it to drain. Under these conditions it’s not surprising that the center post rusted away from the center of one. I welded on a nut and bolt of similar diameter in place of the missing post and drilled small drain holes at the bottom of both perches. The rubber bumpstops slide over the top of the posts so the repair will not be evident and will work as well or better than original.
Transaxle Rebuild Begins
Tonight I started on rebuilding the transaxle. The first step was disassembly, this is going fairly well with the exception of the release of 45 year old gear oil smell; it will take a while to dissipate. Overall everything is in great shape; I’m mainly rebuilding to clean it up and reseal everything. Even the reduction boxes at the end of the axles are in great shape. The reduction boxes allowed VW to use what is basically the beetle drivetrain in the bus, at the expense of top end speed. Reduction boxes like this are not used on any other road-legal production vehicle with the exception of the original military-derived Hummer H1; but in the Hummer’s case it’s done mainly for ground clearance.
Engine Assembly Continued
Engine further assembled and moved to the floor before it gets too heavy to move by hand. At this point it’s complete enough to be installed but this will have to wait until the transmission, fuel tank, and engine compartment are finished.
Engine Parts Painted and Engine Assembly
Engine parts painted and then engine assembled.
Big Parts Blasted
Today the remaining unblasted parts that were too big for the blast cabinet were media blasted outside. The parts were then hung up and primed. Many of these parts will be black, I should have the black paint completed in the next few days.
