Due to arrive soon

[BruceK]

Sometimes you can find OEM CV boots as separate items. So if your Original CV joints are still in good condition, you can just replace the boots with high-quality onesand not have to go for a complete axle replacement.

[94touring]

Yeah all I did was replace the boots. But to do that at least one end needs to come off each axle.  And all 4 ends lost balls when the boots were knocked off and things weren't set in it's normal position.  Since I had balls laying around and 2 ends completely off, I decided to just take them completely apart, inspect, clean, reassemble, and repack with new grease.

You can see how they must come apart to get the boots off.

[94touring]

In other news I started doing the fuel injection conversion.  Crank trigger on, manifolds in place, mechanical fuel pump blocked off, distributor removed and distributor drive hole blocked. The way the distributor block off works is you're supposed to use a special tool to pull out the drive gear down in the block. Then magnet fish out washers if I recall. I did a test run on another block but couldn't get it out.  Rather than do all that or leave the distributor in place, which is required or the internal drive gear in the block comes up and off and something internally bad happens. I took a cheap crap distributor I had used for parts, cut the bottom off at a specific length to match the block off piece, stuck it in the lathe and trimmed down where I cut nice and flat.
 Took the distributor hole block off piece, and used a couple washers to set lash.  This allows a dizzy drive that sits in the block that keeps the drive gearing in the block in place and not coming up out of place. I should have taken pictures  it would make more sense.  Another benefit is on a long road trip, if this guy's ecu takes a shit, I can just slide out the dummy dizzy drive and slide in a distributor.  To make sure the dummy drive is in the drive slots I cut a slot on the end of the drive shaft that I can stick a screw driver in and twist the drive to make sure it's matched up.

Added a picture of what the dizzy block off looks like. The slot is for the O ring. You tighten down a screw on the end which sandwiches plates together which squishes the O ring tight. With the screw completely removed I can slide a skinny flat head down to ensure the dummy dizzy drive is in the slots. Then tighten things up.  The internal drive gear, spring, and washers I would have had to remove otherwise.

[94touring]

More pics to illustrate. It pulls out with a magnet.

[MiniDave]

Why does that drive flange have to go back in? What does it do if it's not driving the dizzy?

[94touring]

So if there isn't something holding the drive in the block, it rotates up and off it's position/perch in the block and shreds a brass gear and the 2 washers go floating around damaging everything in their path. I could remove it like everyone else does. However, if I want to toss a distributor back in or run a mechanical fuel pump (let's pretend I have some catastrophic ecu failure and need to toss the carbs back on) this allows me to slide a distributor back in and the mechanic fuel pump. The rod to the fuel pump (fuel pump is also blocked) rides on the drive gear too and moves up and down since the landing it rides on is angled.

Plus this engine will go in the bug eventually and back to carbs and distributor.

[94touring]

Well yesterday I installed the tank T fitting for the Efi system, found a spot to mount the fuel pump,filter, and run some hoses up and over the transaxle.  Waiting on some hard line to do the rest of the fuel system.  The fuel pressure regulator doesn't have a way to mount, unless you get creative and I'm getting limited on space to mount things, so it will be afixed off the final fuel rail outlet off the last set of dual manifolds.    I also got the transaxle mounted and bolted down.  Almost had a heart attack when I opened the gear oil plug to see some teeth missing on a gear. Being xmas I knew the builder wasn't available so I reached out to a builder I've since made a relationship with and he quickly responded it's very normal. I'll see if my video attaches showing what I saw and a description of what I found.  Today I might  toss on the axles and continue with efi wire harnesses.

[94touring]

Video and explanation.

Brief search:

When new, those 3x3 teeth are wider than all the others. What that means is that all of the torque of the engine is transmitted through those 9 fat teeth. The other teeth make no contact, and transmit no load.

After a full life in a car, those 9 fat teeth get their flanks worn so that the factory back-cut is gone. When this happens, the slider will pop out of engagement. Ever push the shifter out of gear without first throwing in the clutch? This is the wear from doing that too.

By removing the worn out fat teeth, you now have all the virgin narrow teeth to hold the slider in engagement. And there are many more of them, so in theory, you should be able to run many more miles than the first time around before it starts popping out of gear.

[cstudep]

Interesting. Sounds good in theory I guess but I can see why you would panic seeing that lol.

Did he mention why it was designed that way to begin with, was it intentional for this very reason or just some sort of mistake? Seems odd they would intentionally design it in a way that only some of the teeth would engage.

[94touring]

Maybe VW had that in mind when they made the gears. Not sure.  You remove 3 sets of 3 every 120 degrees on the 2nd gear slider.

[94touring]

Got the ecu wired up. Used ferrules for the wire ends so it took some time.

[94touring]

Did a bunch of minor details yesterday. Amazing how so little can suck up an entire day.  The efi throttle bodies injection ports don't completely align with the manifolds, so took those off and grinded a little bit away. 

The nice alloy filter tops I already tapped for the h20 injectors, because there isn't a lot of material and they're soft weren't really ideal. Plus they sit higher due to fins. I grabbed the "cheap" metal ones, drilled holes for the studs, the center hole for the stock filter base plate nut was then used for the h20 nozzle location. Welded in a piece of steel, tapped and died, way better. Will have a little more clearance to the top of the filters as well. Should be easier to work if I need to take them off to clean/inspect h20 nozzles.  The alloy tops because of the fins and about 1/2" space to the floor bottom meant pretty much taking the entire carb out.  Just very difficult to not cross thread trying to get the nozzle back in.


The fuel T off the tank had a blue O ring. The blue washed off as soon as fuel touched it. What kinda junk is that?  I was adding the fuel pressure regulator and attaching the return line when I noticed how loose the T fitting actually is, even though I felt like I tightened it up pretty good.  I just didn't like the O ring design. Stock has some kind of phenolic O ring but don't have anything that would fit this T fitting. Went to my copper washer bin but couldn't find exactly what would fit. Too big or too small.  Found one the ID was perfect but the OD too big. Was able to stick it on a brass fitting and turn it down on the lathe. Torqued up the T fitting, added a small amount of black block sealant (fuel resistant) to the threads for good measure.  The last thing I want to do is deal with a small drip from the fitting once everything is in the way.

[94touring]

Hard lines for the fuel.