Due to arrive soon

Started by 94touring, August 07, 2020, 01:46:39 PM

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94touring

Quote from: MiniDave on March 09, 2023, 09:33:09 AMSo which transaxle do you think will arrive first, the new one or the rebuilt one?  :great:

Jesus I don't know but I'm at the 3 week mark with the 2nd guy and nothing yet.  I was told 2-3 weeks.  I need spares on hand just to bypass the year long wait to rebuild one in the future. It's maddening.

94touring

Holy smokes  :cheer:

BruceK

The painted bumpers really look great on those Baywindows. So much better than if they were chrome. 
1988 Austin Mini
2002 MINI Cooper S
1992 Toyota LiteAce (JDM)
1997 Jeep Wrangler Sahara

94touring

I should have emphasized to the builder this is going in a bus, because the drive flanges are the wrong size.  Easy to swap out at least. Tomorrow I'm going to temporarily fit it in place to temporarily mount the motor.  This will allow me to finish off the custom exhaust routing and determine how the new oil lines and cooler will be mounted.  The drive flange job I'll probably want to do with it on the bench as opposed to in the bus.  Only takes me about 20 minutes to swap it all out either way. 

Back to the brake job.  After replacing literally everything and then making adjustments on the rear shoes, realized that with the brake pedal pressed all the way down I could still rotate the wheels with my hands. There was minimal friction. Only thing left was the proportioning valve.  Pulled it apart and it was all muddy and filthy, but all I got was a firmer pedal on reassembly and still no brakes.  Ordered an adjustable proportioning valves, some fittings, and T fitting to give it a new shot.  Well the damn new proportioning valve wasn't allowing any fluid to pass by at all.  So zero brakes in the rear.  Confused by what was wrong I took it out and went to just the T fitting. Low and behold the rear brakes finally brake.  Of course it wasn't until after that I opened up this new proportion valve to discover it needed some grease or blob of whatever they assemble it with cleaned out.  Figured I'll do some hard braking to see how the bias is and if I will need to yet again dump fluid everywhere to put the new proportioning valve back in. For now just happy I caught the fact the rears weren't really working.  Not even sure they ever did since I've owned it!

MiniDave

Cool, now you'll have both more go and more stop!
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

94touring

Yesterday was full of fabrication.  I got the new transaxle in to mount the engine so I could fab up the exhaust. Except that turned into fabbing up a custom bracket to mount the new transaxle. What I learned was Brazil used a different nose cone than everyone else. The nose cone is the front part of the transaxle that has the "hockey stick" that shifts the gears. The end of the hockey stick that protrudes from the nose cone attaches to the shift linkage that runs under the floor and then works it way up to the shifter in the cab. Bugs and busses use different nose cones, but they can interchange because the bolt patterns are the same on the transaxle.  67 and earlier busses (the style that matches my engine) have the hockey stick part sitting lower, which in my case wouldn't align with the shift rod because brazil decided to make it like the post 67 year busses that used a different transaxle and mount. A bug nose cone does align with the shift rod.  But neither of those will work because the mounting bracket doesn't align. A bug nose cone can be fabricated to work and was what I ultimately did, as a temporary solution or if I ever get in a bind and can't find a Brazilian nose cone. Now, the Brazilian nose cone has the hockey stick part even further up, which allows the mounting bracket to line up.  This is something the internet doesn't explain, and when you call the transaxle guy he has no clue either.  Also finding one of these nose cones was difficult.  I finally found one and ordered it.  Temporarily have the cobbled together mounting bracket in place  for the bug style to work using some quarter inch plate I had leftover from fabbing the tow hitch.  Another issue I had prior to all this was the hockey sticks are apparently different from Brazil as well.  Brazil must be longer.  A standard bus hockey stick, which also differs from a bug in that the angle of the selector end is different, is about an inch shorter than Brazil. What this creates is a 1st and 3rd gear throw that is farther forward than you'd want.  2nd and 4th are more in the middle where you'd expect nuetral to be. Now being the time to correct all this, I put the bus in 2nd, which puts the shifter at it's furthest throw back, and disconnected the one coupling that joins the shift linkages  under the bus. Once the coupling was disconnected, I then went back into the bus and put the shifter where I wanted it.  Then it was back under the bus to measure the new distance between the linkages that the coupling connect. Cut the coupling in half and welded up an extension and voila I have a shifter that isn't throwing my knuckles into the dash.  THEN I got this exhaust put together.  Very tight fit but this is it in progress.  I will need to adjust the exit once the bumper is on.

Pics to illustrate what I'm talking about starting with a nosecone.

MiniDave

With two mufflers the exhaust should be quiet at least....
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

94touring

Quote from: MiniDave on March 16, 2023, 09:14:43 AMWith two mufflers the exhaust should be quiet at least....

That's the goal anyways.

94touring

#608
Didn't get out to the shop today but had worked on a few things a couple days ago. I added a 10lb residual valve to the rear brake circuit to help the cylinders respond quicker.  Pedal feels a little better I suppose. I got the Brazilian nose cone in and everything lined up perfectly between the mounts and shift linkages. Except the hocky stick doesn't reach to shift the gears now. 🙄 always something. So I messaged the guy with my original transaxle about getting me a pic and description of the stick that came out.  You can't just but them of course. I ordered a bug stick to potentially modify/lengthen that gets here next week.  He also indicated he's almost caught up and will have my transaxle done.  Go figure. If that's the case I'll have 2 transaxles that will work and a hockey stick that goes with this transaxle too.  In the meantime I was able to swap out the bug drive flanges in this transaxle and put in the bus style and got the throw out bearing installed. Small wins.  I think I'll go ahead and install it all on the modified mount so I can at least break in the motor, tune it up, and change all the fluids thoroughly.  Then when I get the hockey stick situation figured out yank it all back out and swap in the correct parts. Luckily I can have it in and out in no time, literally 30 minutes.  Here's a few pics.  I took one of the nose cones beside each other showing how the alignment is different too.  You'll see how the proper one aligns higher. Last pic was from the transaxle guy showing the stick I need. 

94touring

Hockey stick is arriving today instead of next week, so rather than install everything today I suppose I'll wait till tomorrow when I can weld on the extension.  Or at least make the attempt.

94touring

As luck would have it the bug hockey stick came in way ahead of schedule so I went ahead and modified it to use the proper nose cone configuration.  Well it was a royal pain!  After a few tweaks was able to get the length right. But, there was also the angle and width, and grub screw location. All highly important for it to shift smoothly and get the correct gears.  4 hours later and about 15 times removing and installing the transaxle I had success.  3rd and 4th were the easy gears, 1st and 2nd not so much. It kept hanging on something going into first, so it took some searching to make it in.  Whereas 2nd would go to reverse.  In order to verify this meant selecting the gear I wanted, unhooking everything, pulling the transaxle out, opening up the nose cone and visually verifying the gear.  The final piece of the puzzle was moving the grub screw location over as little as 1/16", which doesn't sound like much but that was the ticket. After getting the engine back in I started on buttoning things up and did the final tweaks to the exhaust exit.  I ran out of steam redoing the oil line configuration since I'm adding a bigger cooler and fan.

MiniDave

The blue paint really pops now!  :great:
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

94touring

Quote from: MiniDave on April 07, 2023, 09:04:17 PMThe blue paint really pops now!  :great:

I'm surprised considering the rear end has my greasy hand prints all over it! 

94touring

Discovered something interesting.  That nosecone I had bought that goes with the Brazilian transaxle was from a farm equipment supplier.  Thought it was odd that a farm supplier would have a vw bus transaxle part.  Did some sleuthing and found that there was an agriculture sprayer made in the US that used Vw parts in their equipment. It used the same transaxle from Brazil.  I searched among various farm equipment suppliers to see what they have for parts, but they're old sprayers at this point so it's all mainly NLA.  Although I see a bunch of standard bug/bus parts that crossover. Pretty wild.

cstudep

That is wild, My brother in law had one of those old Spra-Coupes. Never would have guessed it had VW parts in it.

94touring

Quote from: cstudep on April 09, 2023, 06:35:23 PMThat is wild, My brother in law had one of those old Spra-Coupes. Never would have guessed it had VW parts in it.

Yeah surprised me too. I just went down the rabbit hole of parts and ran across it.

94touring

#616
Finally on the road!  Had to make a few tweaks to the grub screw again, as 2nd, 4th, and reverse weren't hitting. Apparently after everything was in and tighten fully up it made a difference  :017: Reverse is a little tempemental to get into still, and I may be able to adjust from the shifter itself to help tweak it slightly. 1st through 4th are butter at least.  First drive out I managed to bust an oil line off a barb. I caught it quickly, pulled over, tightened it up, added oil, and carried on.  After some other minor tweaks the 2nd drive was much better. It pulls really nicely and zings up these hills without any worries. Noticeable difference actually. Not popping wheelies but it's got more oomph. Light throttle maintains 70mph pretty easily.  Main jets were perfect right out of the box too.  I need to richen up the idle jets and keep breaking it in.  Head temps are a little higher than before but seem to be coming down as the rings bed in.

Oh and the brakes work!  The pedal has a stiffer feel that took a little getting use to but isn't horrible.  If I really stand on them it comes to a rapid stop.  Nose drops, forward Gs felt. Better than before actually, which leads me to believe those rears weren't really doing much before.

2nd edit:  the exhaust sounds good. Definitely quieter.

BruceK

That is one crazy looking sprayer!
1988 Austin Mini
2002 MINI Cooper S
1992 Toyota LiteAce (JDM)
1997 Jeep Wrangler Sahara

MiniDave

This has been a long haul of a project, glad to see you have it back on the road and even better, now all you need to do is get some air to that oil cooler and you should be good for another run at the mountains this summer.  :13:

Oh, and fix the damn front end!   :grin:
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

94touring

Put about 100 miles on it so far. Needed to move the coil away from the plug wires,  it was getting interference and causing some skips that showed on my tach.  Was able to adjust the shifter and have all 5 gears working easily. Checked the valves and got the oil cooler fan wired up.  I will still fab up a little scoop for it.  Engine runs a bit hotter than before which may be an issue dead of summer. I have my cylinder head temp gauge under #3 plug vs #2 before. 3 is supposed to run hotter so I may try my other sensor under 2 to get a better comparison from before and after.  It is higher compression so that may be the issue.  Took it out on the highway blasting into the gusty winds today. Before going up hills at 70-75mph into the wind it would bog down a bit. Well not anymore. 

MPlayle

The hotter temp reading is going to be the combination you already suspect: sensor under #3 and higher compression.

Way back in my air-cooled VW days, I was taught that #3 is always the hottest cylinder and thus was the recommended place for putting a temperature sensor.  The #3 cyclinder always runs a bit hotter as the factory oil cooler usually sits right above that cylinder and reduces the air flow aound #3 some.


94touring

Quote from: MPlayle on April 12, 2023, 03:38:48 PMThe hotter temp reading is going to be the combination you already suspect: sensor under #3 and higher compression.

Way back in my air-cooled VW days, I was taught that #3 is always the hottest cylinder and thus was the recommended place for putting a temperature sensor.  The #3 cyclinder always runs a bit hotter as the factory oil cooler usually sits right above that cylinder and reduces the air flow aound #3 some.



Yep, only thing on my setup is I deleted that oil cooler and went with a big external cooler.  We shall see how it does once summer really hits

94touring

Thinking things over this morning, and unfortunately I'm back on the road for 2-3 weeks, but I need to modify the industrial tins that block the J tubes from the heads. The way the new exhaust headers fit the tins don't fully cover the J tubes which allow direct heat from the exhaust to radiate under where the plugs and sensor is located. There's an unshielded gap about 1.5 inches. The J tubes are tucked tighter towards the block which pull the tins I have over leaving the gap. Perhaps that is enough to cause a rise in the sensor temps as well.  Pic of what it should look like to illustrate..

Another thing I'm going to do is go back to a stock diameter tire on the rear.  I'm running the standard 185r14 on the front but went with a 195r14 on the rear.  This lowered my rpms 100-150. Going back to the 185r14 will keep my fan speed up for cooling. Optimum cooling tends to be around 3800 rpms for me, but that's me doing 75mph. I prefer to stick around 70mph for lack of aerodynamics and engine loading.  My thought is if I can gain some fan speed without increasing aerodynamic loading then that should be a win for cooling too.

MPlayle

The black, flat tin is sized and shaped for when the factory heat exchangers are around the 'J' tube header.  The combination of the heat exchanger and tin channel the air across the underside of the cylinders.

Without the curved piece, the air will just blow out the gap instead.

I realize the Brazilian market cars often did not have the heat exchangers from new, but I have a hard time understanding why some many folks in the US remove them when "upgrading" their engines since they also seem to leave out the cooling tin as well.  It means no heater in the car and reduced engine cooling.


94touring

#624
I think you might be thinking of this little piece that sits under the fins and directs air. The sleds just direct the hot air out the back instead of straight down.  That curved piece around the exhaust keeps the push rod tubes from being exposed to exhaust heat, and helps reduce oil temps .

When people upgrade to 1.5 inch headers the options available for properly sized heat exchangers go down. Running the factory 1 3/8 exchangers on a built motor keeps too much heat in the heads, which is why they're typically deleted.

Edit: example pic showing the gap I have.