CV Or Not CV?

Traveling in the company of those we love is home in motion.
Hunt

That is the question! Well, we have CVs again, all greased and fitted.

My friendly neighbour, as usual, generously gave up a few Wednesday evening hours to help out with the work. The CVs are all rotating lovely and quiet and smooth, like. Top job and I'm very happy.

I have been struggling for ages to remove the castle nuts from the wheel hubs in order to check out the rear brakes. So I lost my cool this afternoon and carved them up with an angle grinder. I have a pair of replacements on the white bus's rear axle, left over from the big chop. I'll just have to get those off without the grinder :).

The rear brakes on both sides seem to be in remarkably good condition considering that they have been living outdoors for the past ten years without maintenance or protection from the weather. The rubbers are still soft and flexible and the cylinders are still clean and rust-free. There was a little milky brake fluid left inside the cylinders that seems to have repelled moisture and kept them slightly lubricated, good stuff. The brake shoes still have lots of friction material and will be good to use still. After cleaning off some dust and a little surface rust we reassembled it all and called it a night.

A good evening's work and, as usual, a nice social get-together with a few cold ones to lubricate the way. Thanks again to Marius for the advice, brains, tools and hard labour - cheers mate!


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CooP

Grease Is The Word

To know you have enough is to be rich.
Lao Tzu

Thick, black, gooey stuff. We got clever this week and wore surgical gloves but we still managed to smear slimy lube all over the place. This could've been a lot more fun if Lynn was helping me!

I had a good look around for the correct replacement boots but couldn't find them, replica, pirate or otherwise. Strange really because Beetles and Kombis are still pretty thick on the ground - wonder where they get their bits? I managed to find some that seem to be intended for a later model, they're not identical but I'm gonna try and make a plan...

It took a bit of brute force and lubrication, these new rubbers are a tight fit, wooah. But I think that they'll work. We had to discard the metal cap as it is intended for a slightly larger joint. We packed loads of the black grease into the joints, and more and more until it squeezed right through the joint and out the back. Re-fitted the original crimped clamps where possible. One was damaged as they are not really meant to be re-used so I replaced it with a proper, screw-together clamp.

And there they are, completely assembled, greased and wrapped to keep them dust free in Lynn's best freezer bags :)

We'll fit them back onto Marigold on the next "work night".


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CooP

Stripping The Joints

You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.
Mae West

You have succeeded in life when all you really want is only what you really need.
Howard

We whipped off the remaining rear axle shaft and stripped the C.V. joints. Careful to mark and number all of the respective parts, we cleaned them carefully and packed them into individual containers. Two of the protective rubber boots are damaged beyond use, the remaining two are probably still servicable. One of the joints looks slightly different to the other three - perhaps it has been serviced or replaced at some time. I asked my Dad but he can't remember ever having done this.

Close inspection shows some miniscule marking on the inner races of a couple of the joints. I doubt very much that this shall warrant replacement but I'll have them checked out by a pro during the week. Usually they are only replaced if badly pitted, very loose or making strange noises. These are fairly snug and ran quietly (when they last moved, five years ago!)

The one with the badly damaged boot had a clump of dried grease inside and is one of the two that has a little scarring. The remainder were packed full of gooey, slimy grease which was a real mission to clean out. New boots shouldn't be hard to source, although my favourite parts supplier has shut down. If someone has taken over the business of Beetle Beauties then please let me know - the shop has been cleaned out and there is no apparant forwarding address.


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CooP

Stiff Joints

One who does not know what is enough will never have enough.
Lao Tzu

While I was mucking about fitting new studs under the engine I noticed that one of the rubber boots was damaged and split. This is a protective cover for the c.v. joint* and is crucial for keeping grease in and dust out. I also noticed a huge wasp nest right next to my cheek, just an instant before I flinched violently and bashed my head! Sorry wasps, you'll have to go.

It's a fairly simple job to remove the 6 bolts on each end of the driveshaft/sideshaft and take out the entire assembly as one piece. First we just had to clear decades of solidified gunk from the hollow ends of the Allen-head bolts.

I've clamped it in the vice and removed the retaining circlip and other clamps so that I can remove the protective rubber boot. I'll properly be able to check out the condition of the joint and it's bearings and housings in good daylight, but the grease inside is fairly solid, shrunken and dried out so I reckon I'll have to remove them all and check thoroughly. Hopefully there will be no permanent damage and I can just clean 'em, grease 'em and replace 'em.

*Constant velocity joint, similar to a universal joint that allows a drive shaft to transmit power through a variable angle, at constant rotational speed, without an appreciable increase in friction or play. There is a lovely, moving graphic showing how it works at Wikipedia. Also known as a homokinetic joint (stop sniggering at the back).


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CooP

What A Stud

Man is free at the moment he wishes to be.
Voltaire

Well we've had the engine out yet again! Getting the hang of it now, took less than 40 minutes. I fitted two shiny new studs into the partially stripped sockets at the lower end of the engine and glued them in with Pratley Steel epoxy. After setting for two hours we refitted the engine and tightened up all of the bolts except the two new ones. I'll let the glue set for a few days first before I tighten the nuts on that.

I'm making some progress with the roofing. It's not all square and perfect but it's made from donated scrap and has cost practically nada so far. It should help to form a barrier between me and the weather. It's certainly helping to keep the leaves and crap landing on the project - it's already covered in litter!

I discovered this nasty dent at the left-rear of the bus. Will need some attention before I put the bumpers back I suppose...later.


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CooP

Out With The Old

Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers, the mountain and the sea, are excellent schoolmasters, and teach some of us more than we can never learn from books.
John Lubbock

The frame for the forthcoming roof is taking shape. Just a few more cross-pieces and I can start covering it. I have just a few sheets of galvanised, corrugated steel, not enough to cover much area, so until the finances improve I shall cover it with a large piece of shadecloth.

 A lot of the cabin equipment in the original bus has deteriorated horribly as it's all open to the elements. We've removed most of the old parts from the dashboard and surrounds, including the steering wheel and column. I hope that many of the bits will still be usable in the project. Other parts that are duplicated will either be kept for spares or sold, traded and given away.

The Blaupunkt radio was working fine when I parked the old girl on the slab so I'm expecting it to be servicable still. It certainly looks better after a wipe-down. The steering wheel was badly cracked in two places around the centre boss and I damaged it a lot more when it was removed from it's splined position on the steering column. Very brittle and too difficult to restore, methinks. Other parts such as the windscreen wiper motor and assembly still look like new and are well-greased and have very little play in the moving parts. I expect to test and re-use some of this stuff.


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CooP

It Lives!

Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.
Kahlil Gibran

Last night after dropping the engine . . . again . . . we managed to realign the misaligned rear section of the cooling tin correctly and slid it back into place. It seems to get a lot quicker and easier every time we move this engine about - we had it out and back in under 40 minutes!

Unfortunately the lower-right bolt of the four main mounts came out with a bit of damaged internal thread attached to the main thread. It's stripped so the engine will have to come out yet again :(

Never mind, we nipped up the remaining three main bolts and the four that attach to the cross member support. Stuck in a battery and hotwired it for a test of all of our mods. And she runs! Not idling correctly but it's running pretty smoothly with no obvious rattles or squeeks other than the normal air-cooled noises. A major milestone reached and really monumental to me - luvverly stuff!

There is a nice steel bash-plate that protects the front of the underside of the gearbox . I imagine that it works quite well because it is rather battered but the gearbox beneath it appears to be unmarked. I've removed it to clean and straighten it up a bit.


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CooP