Due to arrive soon

[94touring]

What is the star weld for on the bottom?

"Made some cuts to bend and create a low area to feed to the gravity pickup to the fuel pump"

[MiniDave]

No baffles?

[94touring]

Didn't bother.  Factory tank didn't have them and it's nearly the same dimensions. Put them in the aux tank due to the length to prevent weight shift.

[94touring]

All sides welded up. Ran out of time to weld on the filler neck  Calibrating the fuel sender took longer than expected but it's dead perfect.  I even made sure to measure the float in water to get the point at which it floats.  Then it was a matter of hooking up the battery, wiring the sender, and taking readings to verify the gauge.  Tomorrow will check for leaks after the filler neck is on and paint it. 

[94touring]

Aux tank installed and main tank finished. Waiting for paint to dry before installing it.  Leak test took a couple goes to get a half dozen or so pin holes welded up.  The 3/4" line going to the aux tank rapidly gravity fills. 

[94touring]

Engine builder got hung up but it's being shipped out this week. Transaxle guy tore it down this week and sent over all his findings.  A few worn items like spider gears.  Then a few oddball things like someone machined these special gears that hold your 1st through 4th in place.  So we're replacing all that.  The Brazilian differential has a different bolt pattern but as luck would have it he has a 4.12 brand new in the box with the correct bolt pattern.  He said they're like finding hens teeth and he's never had a use for it till now.  The other interesting thing was he said the case is heavier and way beefier than the standard issue bug or bus case.  Weighs 95lbs vs the usual 70-75lbs.  I did know they referred to them as rhino cases and are sought after.  Has a 1.31 3rd instead of the normal 1.26 which I'll convert over to in order to keep the rpm drop reasonable.  4th was a 0.89 so I was off a little in my calculations using tire size to deduct the gear ratio.  Had the 5.14 Brazilian which I expected.

[94touring]

Rebuilt the front left hub/spindle/link pins the other day.  Some minor learning curves but nothing crazy.  Wheel bearings were straight forward.  The bearings themselves looked fine.  The rubber dust ring was ridiculously old and brittle.  I've read the bearing configuration is very strong on these so should last ages.  Peace of mind having new bearings.  The link pins were pretty nackered up.  And with the new kit noticed not even installed correctly.  Even had the wrong number of shims.  So shimmed up according to the book, and got my camber back to within factory specs as well. The spindle itself was somewhat of a pita.  To tighten down the hub they use these jam nuts that are made out of aluminum the softness of milk chocolate.  Reading online they are a use once and trash kind of item. You tighten the first jam nut against the outer bearing with this washer in between that can be slightly moved to get proper bearing tightness/looseness sorta speak.  It's somewhat tricky and fiddly to get right. Then the 2nd jam nut is tightened down to 50ft lbs. Which strips itself in no time.  Got another jam nut, fiddled around, and stripped it too.  These were left hand threads and apparently my torque wrench doesn't click in reverse, hence the stripping.  Oops.  Well reading and researching spindles online I discovered that late 73-79 busses as well as other vw and Porsche cars use a clamping nut on spindles. Pic attached. You install the clamp nut to proper bearing washer movement specs and tighten it down via the bolt, and voila.  Got a pair ordered cause fuck these jam nuts.  I have a die ordered to clean up my spindle threads as a precaution. Middle threads took a beating where that 2nd jam nut kept stripping.  If the spindle nuts fail your whole wheel comes off.  Although I think the disc configuration would help keep it mostly on.  This brings up something else I discovered. Early 64-67 spindles, which this bus has, were drums. BUT my bus uses 73-79 disc. Scratching my head found out that the late European style buses used 64-67 spindles but with the bolt pattern for disc calipers the 73-79 buses used. 

[MiniDave]

A real voyage of discovery this.....

I don't remember any lock mechanism other than the clamp and bolt arrangement......

[94touring]

Some years used those jam nuts.  Which is inferior obviously.  So long as you get the proper thread sized clamp nuts you're good to go.  There was 18mm x1.5, 18mm x 1.0, and then a 19mm 1.5 configuration.  Maybe some others but those seem to be the bulk of them.

[94touring]

I've been adding fuel every day to the tanks to test out the system.  Gravity feed to the aux tank works as planned.  Aux pump fills up the main tank in a matter of minutes.  The pressure sensor light blinks as the pump runs then goes steady once the pressure drops.  I'll have switch to flip that toggles that system.  Fuel gauge verified accurate with just a few minor tweaks.  Luckily there is a fuel panel in the back that I made sure to position the sender below which made pulling the sender and making adjustments easy. 

[MiniDave]

How far out are the motor and gearbox?

[94touring]

Any day for the engine.   Gearbox guy found the spider gears I need, so he shouldn't be too far behind.

[cstudep]

Nice, should be sweet once you get it all going again. The added fuel capacity will be welcome for sure!

[94touring]

Reading the bus forums with this new engine, geared better, I can plan on 18mpg and maybe over 20 if I'm lucky.  That's 468-520 miles on the tanks.  Not that I plan to drive that long in one shot, but it's nice having it.

[MiniDave]

15 mpg going to Colorado, 25 coming back?   ;D

[94touring]

Probably!

[MiniDave]

My EFI cars get better mileage at altitude, not sure carbs will do the same tho.....Green car ran fine, but was rich as hell in Aspen.

[94touring]

Bus group says increase timing a couple degrees at altitude, or go down a size on the jets. The jets are easy to change out so likely I'll just swap them out once my air fuel gauge says I'm running rich.  I created some maps through the ignition box for a range of altitudes.  0-3000, 3000-7000, and 7000 to 11k.   Since the box reads KPA for it's mapping I used an altitude chart to make the maps.  Using the sea level map at 8000 feet would have me running too advanced.

[94touring]

Been trying to decide how to go about adding a tow hitch.  A few different ways to go about it but looking like the easiest way will using the rear bumper brackets that bolt onto the frame.  The brackets by themselves are too flimsy but adding some tube or plate steel would do the trick.  Then it's a matter of just welding in a cross beam and hitch receiver.   Pics to illustrate...

[MiniDave]

You may also have to reinforce where the bumper mounts attach to the bus?

I know the Mini is a light load, but it can exert considerable force in an accident or sudden manuver.....

My sister moved  from Colorado to Miami, they towed her VW Beetle behind a Uhaul truck. partway there the bumper and mounts tore off the car and it passed them. Fortunately they were going around a corner from a stop sign when it broke - the truck turned and the car went straight - into a ditch.

Just make it strong and well supported. I think I remember the old Beetle tow hitches had a single bar that ran under the engine back to the transmission mounts - seems like it was fairly thick too.....

[94touring]

I was thinking of doing that just for added peace of mind.  It's pretty beefy where those brackets bolt to this tube frame but adding a piece of plate vertically and adding another bolt or two into the tube frame wouldn't be a bad idea either.

[94touring]

Fresh bearings and brakes! 

[MiniDave]

Discs in the rear? I had no idea they had those....

[94touring]

Those are the fronts.  Rears are drums.  Gave them a good cleaning on the rear. 

[94touring]

Flushed the brake fluid and got them bled.  Pedal has never felt better.  The fluid that came out had a greenish tint to it.  Also tested the $20 ebay Chinese vintage/retro stereo on the shop speakers. I was amazed at how good it sounded.  I wasn't expecting much out of the thing and figured if nothing else it would block the stereo hole.