Happy Campers New 67' Bug Barn Find

[vdubdriver]

Feb 20, 2011 9:26:00 GMT -5 Happy Camper said:

Blah, Blah, Blah
It suddenly occurred to me that you guys might be sick and tired of all my blah, blah, blah. I have been posting almost everything I have done to this car. If you want me to shut up, just say so. I don't want to be posting stuff no one wants to read.
Camper

Keep posting the progress (including the pictures). It will prove invaluable to someone doing the same things later. Besides that, it's a great read. I won't buy the book, but it's a great read. ;D

[teamafx]

If you don't post this stuff, how will I know what I missed out on? Keep it up.

By the way you need more pics with your good looking brother-in-law in them (and I don't mean Tommy or Brian) ;D

[akitsuji]

I agree with Steeve, More pics with your helpers and your shop as a back ground.
By the way I'm enjoying your progress threads. So keep up your good work!

[Happy Camper]

Sounds good, I just wanted to be sure I wasn't just shooting my mouth off and no one wanted to listen.
So today I got a few more things done; I got the rear spring plates installed. Now I want to lower the back about 2", so I found a nifty little chart on the Samba.

www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=237102

This chart tells me I need to change the angle of my spring plates to 7 1/2 Deg. less than stock to reach my 2" drop. My manual tells me my 67' with the rear anti sway should be set to 20 Deg. to be at the stock ride height. That means I need to set the arms at 12 1/2 Deg. to give me the drop I am looking for. To get to this angle, I leveled the pan using my 4' bubble level.



Next I used a digital level app for my Ipod touch to set the angle. I then bolted on the caps and it should be ready to go with a 2" drop. What that means is that I will only have to take it apart, adjust it, and put it back together about 5 times instead of 7





I got the calipers painted and put back together also.



And I got the chrome lock nut set installed on the trans axle.



I was starting to put the tie rods on to the steering arm and I discovered they are all the wrong size. They are too big in diameter! I didn't know there were two sizes. I need to figure out which parts I ordered and what parts I need to order next.

[dunedudex4]

Scott, did you take the calipers apart and rebuild them or just a clean up and paint job? Thanks Dave T

[bren]

Cool app. Did not know that existed. Wonder if the droid has that?

Keep the updates coming. I am enjoying watching your progress.

[Happy Camper]

Hey Dave, The caliper in the pic that is farthest away is new, I just painted it, and the closer one looked like it was pretty new. The other that I threw away was definitely old and trashed (rusted).
I blew into the cut off brake hose with compressed air and both pistons shot right out and I couldn't see any leaks around the piston so I just cleaned it up and painted it. After I cleaned the brake fluid off my face, the garage wall, the floor, the shop door, my clothes, etc. when you blow about 90 psi of air into a caliper that is only about half full of fluid, it makes a real mess when you pull the hose off!. The brake fluid that was once in the caliper suddenly wants out. In hind sight, this may not have happened if I had pointed the hose up instead of down. See, I am so much smarter now ;D

Hey Bren,
I am not sure about the app for Droid, but I bet it is available. I use this app often, best part is it's free! They say it's accurate to about .1 Deg. Thats close enough for me.

[ghiastein]

You did replace the bushing in the rear torchen tube when you had it all apart right. The bushings affect rear alignment. I know on an IRS they affect camber not so sure on a swing axle.

And keep posting. If I had a nicer garage with a heater plus more ambition I would be doing the same thing as you.

[Happy Camper]

I didn't replace the bushings They looked really good. They are rubber and ride on the sleeve of the spring plate. I applied a bit of talcum powder like the manual said to, but I am wondering if I should have "puffed" a bit of graphite in there for some lasting slipperiness. Oh well, I am sure that during one of my R&R sessions with the spring plate to get the ride height just right, I can lube them up. Are these rubber bushings typically a problem? I have heard some folks say the urethane ones tend to squeak. I don't know if that's true though.

[ghiastein]

When I set my rear ride height in the Bus I purchased new black rubber bushings. I have found that they corrected my camber on the passenger side. My old bushings were trashed when I opened up the end plate tons of rubber bits came pouring out too.

On my Ghia I just reused the old ones because I was broke at the time. I did later purchase a full urethane kit for the Ghia and that tightened up the front suspension. I have the urethane bushings for the rear but I have not yet got around to doing it yet. Its been about 5 years now so I would do them now while its all torn apart.

I have not had any squeaking. I think the key is to remove ALL of the old grease and use the grease that comes with the bushings. Also never grease up the stuff with regular grease

[Happy Camper]

Front Beam Completion
A bit more work on the beam today and things are looking up for sure. I started off by mounting the drop spindles and testing the length of the tie rods. As expected, both needed to be shortened. My father in law stopped by and we decided to attempt a nice trick Steve told me about.

Once the tie rods are cut, you slide a nut onto the tie rod and weld it in place over the joint. This also gives you a nice tool to line up the tie rods and the biggest benefit is that when you are done, you no longer need to adjust your tie rods with a pipe wrench!

I marked out how much to cut and chopped out the section out of the center of the tie rod. I beveled the edges and welded the rods together.







The nut I selected was an 3/4"-10 and would not quite slip over the tie rod. I filed and ground until it slipped over the rod with a bit of interference.





After I slid the nut in place, I welded it around each side, wire wheeled it to clean it up, and primed and painted the tie rods so they looked nice and pretty.





On to some finishing touches with the beam: we installed the new bearings in each rotor and greased them up nice and messy like. Installed the drums, mounted the calipers and installed the spiffy new braided flex lines. Enough for today.

[bren]

Nice progress. I really like the tie rod nut idea. That brother-in-law of yours is a smart guy.

[teamafx]

Feb 26, 2011 21:23:44 GMT -5 bren said:

That brother-in-law of yours is a smart guy.

And good looking ;D

[vintagevwnut]

I realy like the adjuster nut idea. Im sure it will help a couple years down the road when you need to adjust it for what ever reason and usualy it would not be easy to adjust. Only thing I might do, is use a metric one. lol. I may just do that for the beam Im assembling for Troy.

[ghiastein]

I like the nut idea.

When I did mine I just purchased a tap the same thread of the tie rod end. Then I cut off the required amount from the adjuster and just rethreaded the end. I cut a new slit for compression and with a rat tail file I notched the area where the bolt passes.

I should have said something because I would have let you borrow my tap.