1971 VW Type 3 Fastback

[937carrera]

I have found that the blue paper towel to remove the excess, followed by brake cleaner & roll on the shaft is a quick & relatively clean process. If boots are not new, then they get a clean out with the blue paper to remove the excess.

My parts washer takes a bit of time to set up, party because I keep using it as a table. I'll have another word with myself.

[broady_6]

Well it seems Microsoft werent happy about me hosting images with my onedrive account and have started disabling my photos. I will have to go through and rehost them all which will be fun, as I try and figure out which photos were which. Not wearing my impressed face.

[937carrera]

They most recent ones, CV's etc are still visible to me -

[broady_6]

Yeah, it appears there is a cap on the number of images you can embed. And they've disabled the oldest first. I will have to rehost them on Flickr

[purplepeter]

If it's not too late & in case you haven't already done them, it's worth thinking about the output shaft seals whilst it's on the bench
I too have one of those parts washers that works as a table !

[broady_6]

Thankfully they were nice and try, I gave them a good visual. Im taking the if it aint broke dont fix it approach on this one. I have a habbit of going down the rabbit hole and jobs take 3 times longer than they need too.

[937carrera]

I too have one of those parts washers that works as a table !

The forum can host photo's itself, by adding attachments, There are size limitations, I just did one here

https://www.vwtype3and4club.org.uk/foru ... 033#p73033

Bonus points for identifying what non VW car it's from

[broady_6]

It can, but the volume of photos ive posted in this thread would probably fill our space. I also have this thread on VZI and retrorides. So it would still need a solution for those sites aswell. Ill get it sorted.

[broady_6]

A bit of waffle for you then. After the gearbox wash, I set too with a wire brush on the die grander to take the fuzz off. Then gave it a couple of coats of silver, more for corrosion protection that pretifcation. I also took the nose cone off as the gasket has started to leak some time back, so now was as good a time as any. Speaking of the nose cone, I found the bush, it was still in the back of the chassis. This told me it wasnt a very tight fit, and thus needed replacing.



With the nose off, cleaned up and painted silver





Foolishly it was here that I relaised I should have done the bushes first.



This was a bit of a challenge to remove. But with some careful tapping it finally gave up, and here is the new one pressed in.



I then got the 2nd use out of my press, to push the top hat bush in.





The inner bush needed a little reaming to get the selector hockey stick back in. But its now tight but moves easy enough, so that should be the first oil dribble sorted. Next job was to put the nose back on, with a fresh gasket.



I then went to the other end of the box, the bell housing was so full of oil from the knackered engine I wasnt sure if the gearbox input seal was leaking or not. So for a couple of quid I decided to change it anyway. This meant removing the clutch fork, naturally it was hard to get the lever off the end, but it was much easier than doing it in the car.



And a fresh seal.



And its behind the guide tube.



I pointlessly painted all this clart, which will last a full 6 months before it looks exactly like the "before" photo again .







And roughly hung back in place. I then had to turn my attention to some decorating work in the house. So connecting everything up has hard to wait.



Buuuuut while all that was going on, I had a delivery, a freshly machine block and crank. So between coats of paint, I went and applied coats of paint.





And for the same reasons as the box, I have painted the block as well. Its starting to get a bit frilly around the lower tin mounting tabbs.



And finally, the heat exchnagers which I took for ceracoating, were blasted and didnt stand the test. So I collected them and repaired. The main issued was this folded seam. I trimmed the thin edge away. Cleaned it up and folded it over. Then seam welded it. Once its coated and wrapped, who will ever know?

[937carrera]

Good progress

Have you ever considered using clear lacquer rather than a paint - could be nice with all that cleaned up aluminium ?

[broady_6]

That's a good thought. It'll at least show when it's failed and letting water in. Hard to tell with paint until it's too late.

[Rhysos]

That gearbox has been given some love! Good to see that you are still cracking on, even with the distractions of redecorating your home

[broady_6]

Thankfully, ive just about got the office sorted. Odds and ends now, painting, and furniture fits done. Just sorting the junk and hanging picture to do. Which isnt too distruptive. So the past few days ive been back in the garage and started the ground work on the engine. Though I relaised I cant go too far as the case nuts and washers are at the zinc platers. So ive been getting lots of bits clean and dry built to be sure of fits.

[broady_6]

Small update for you all then. As a bit of light relief from the decorating I found my self titivating the starter motor. I couldnt bring myself to bolt it back on to that clean gearbox while all covered in rust. Ive dont a half arsed job and not removed screws ect. But its a steup up from how it did look. And whos going to be under there anyway?











One job I cant complete yet is reconnecting the clutch cable, this is because the conduit boot had perished. A new one arrived and some how I split it while trying to fit it, so that went in the bin and I ordered another. I await delivery.





Starter motor fitted.



Next I decdied to get those replacement wheel cylinders installed. They arent a perfect fit, in that I had to file the bolt holes slightly, as the centers are slightly closer together, inspite of being advertised as the correct item. When removing the OSR old one, I grabbed it to lever it out, and when I squeezed the boot, fluid came out, just proving my suspicitions that it was knackered.





Once installed I set about bleeding, thus far I have yet to get an aceptable pedal. But plenty of air is coming out. So im sure its just a matter of time before I get there.

[937carrera]

Nice work on the starter - is that a satin black ?

[broady_6]

Yeah, and a few heavy coats of 1k epoxy first.

[Rhysos]

You may believe that you half-arsed the refresh of the starter motor, but at least you had the sense to detach the solenoid Looks good to me and not only smartens up the appearance, but gives a little extra protection.

[broady_6]

Shall we say this is like cocaine. You always need a bigger hit. On the 944 I look all the hardware off the engine, well off the car and replated it all. So painting screw heads is "half arsed" to me now. Im already annoyed that the heads of the studs on the 944 are rusty, but to get them out of the block is a massive job, so ill save that for my next drug hit!

[purplepeter]

Well done on occasionally doing something half arsed! It gives the rest of us some comfort, & count yourself lucky that you know where to stop on being a perfectionist
I know someone who started work on a Type 34, but went down the rabbit hole of perfection- Unfortunately both He & His mechanic were both so anal that everything had to be more than perfect & they fed off each other making each other worse- One such instance was when He asked me for the part numbers for fuel tank retainers & Bolts- I told him to just use beetle ones & standard M8 bolts- By the time He & the mechanic had argued it out, they decided they wanted retainers & bolts, with 341 numbers on them... I don't think he actually lost the will to live, but He's given up on vw's and if its still there, theres a Razor edge in a lockup with its front removed & a huge stash of parts.

[broady_6]

Well done on occasionally doing something half arsed! It gives the rest of us some comfort, & count yourself lucky that you know where to stop on being a perfectionist
I know someone who started work on a Type 34, but went down the rabbit hole of perfection- Unfortunately both He & His mechanic were both so anal that everything had to be more than perfect & they fed off each other making each other worse- One such instance was when He asked me for the part numbers for fuel tank retainers & Bolts- I told him to just use beetle ones & standard M8 bolts- By the time He & the mechanic had argued it out, they decided they wanted retainers & bolts, with 341 numbers on them... I don't think he actually lost the will to live, but He's given up on vw's and if its still there, theres a Razor edge in a lockup with its front removed & a huge stash of parts.

I thank you. I could see me heading that way exactly as you described. And much like those two, you end up sucking all the joy out of it. Its nice to have something a cut above, but aiming for 1000 point concourse perfection just means id never want to use it. And the point of these cars is to get them out there and enjoy them!

Id be interested in that Razor if the price was right. Any details appreciated.

[broady_6]

The beat goes on. I built the crank up, pressure the gears back on and installing the new bearings. I then went to fit the con rods, and realised that the little ends were, shall we say past their best. You can just about make out the colour change in the bush.





So ill be changing those then, a job ive never done before, even though ive lost count of how many of these engines ive built.

Old one pressed out and new one ready to go in.



And making good use of my new press, here is another action shot. It owuld seem I need a new support block. ANd maybe it needs to be made of steel.



I works slowly and thoughtfully as it was my first attempt. After the bush was in, I drilled the 3 3.5mm oiler holes.



And as you can see in an earlier photo, there was a big box of adjustable reamers. This was used to ream the bushes out to fit the gudeon pins. Theyre now quite a tight fit, certainly not the sloppy pin they were last week.



Once all 4 were done and checked, they were given a good wash to removed any debris and I finished building the crank. Then I assembled a case half.



That was as far as I could go with that, as the case nuts are still with the zinc platers. But its due back with me before this week is out. In order to fill a bit of time I had enough go at the clutch cable boot.





This time I warmed it up a lot first and then a liberal coat of silicone lube. I then did the boring job of filling the gearbox with fresh oil. I made sure some good music was playing to pass the time while the golden syrup flowed.

And a run to the coaters to pick up all my exhaust system parts. Lamp shade not included.



While I continued to wait for the parts to come back from the zinc platers. I got on with the head. While there was northing really wrong with them. I decoked them, and decided to relap all the valves. Simply because there had obviously been come blow by in at least 1 pot because of the broken ring. This messes with mixtures and pressures, which changes the burn ect. And the one job that needed doing, was a replacement set of exhaust studs and most of them were knackered or shortly would be knackered. A little light on photos, nothing to exciting.

Decoked and valves out.



Old studs



New studs, which are too long. Ill need to do something about that later.



And rebuild after lapping.



Rinse and repeat on the other head, a good wash down with deisel and theyre more or less good to go again.

[purplepeter]

Before you rush ahead & put the heads on, Please do a test fit of the main exchrs on the heads
And why haven't you replaced the valves?

[broady_6]

We're quite a way from fitting heads. The exhaust studs won't be left as they are, they're too long. I've just been too busy to work out what I'm going to do.

Regarding the valves, if it ain't broke don't fix it.

[purplepeter]

Bloody hell, you're on the ball this morning!
I was about to add a question about the exhaust coating- How much of the inside gets coated? & are you willing to divulge cost?- Mine always rot from the inside out

[broady_6]

I'll do you some photos of the exhaust. But I ask them to blank ports, so none. But they're very willing to do as asked. So I'm sure they would have a go at coating the inside.

I'm on mates rates for that. But it was £90.