TheSamba.com :: View topic

Mon May 09, 2005 8:32 am

well, i got the 412 home yesterday. had one major issue 40 miles from the house and had to leave the car for the evening on saturday night. the alternator went out and i drove it until the voltage dropped below what the fuel injection could use and still operate. this was at 12:15 sunday morning. so i drove the wife and kid home, turned around and went back and got the car parked at this little hotel in the middle of nowhere. took the battery out and hauled it home and put it on the charger. sunday after a full morning, i took the wife, kid and battery back to the hotel in Curtain, OR and hooked it up fired it off and drove it home!

for such an ugly car (it is school bus yellow afterall), the ride is amazing! you can't hear the engine (at all) from the cab (even at 85 mph) and the automatic shifts very smooth! it holds it speeds on 6% grade climbs even. the front trunk is vast! i could lay down up there and close the hood (i'm 220lbs). the rear cargo area, with the back seat folded is flat and plush enough i could camp in it! all and all it is an ugly car on the outside with everything right on the inside! it even comes with a gas preheater. you set the temp on the unit and without the car running, it will warm the cab up in the morning while you finish your routine! the bumpers on it are not chrome... they are aluminumn with chromed overriders and if you look at the pic, you can see that the overriders are rusted out but the bumpers are just oxidized. i gave the car a bath to get all the moss and grime off of it and today after work i will get it titled. i hope they let me keep the original plates on it!

one last note... the car has not been started since 1995! it took about 5 hours of diagnostic to the FI, system in general, clean up, fill the brake system, re-route fuel line. get the fuel pump running and start! (Thank you Toby and Hal)

it would have driven the entire 200 mile maiden voyage if the alternator hadn't gone out in it at night in the rain. the autotranny is perfect, the mileage was good (about 24) and it just glides!

Mon May 09, 2005 8:51 am

Nice find! I know where one is, cheap, but don't know enough about them to really care. Nothing wrong with being different, but I hear parts are hard to source. Good Luck with it. :)

Mon May 09, 2005 11:31 am

SOME parts are hard to source, but that parts in general are hard to source is a misconception. The engine shares most mechanical parts with the later VW's that got the Type 4 engine, Buses, Porsche 914's, Porsche 912E's. The fuel injection came on plenty of Type III's and 914's also. Plenty of parts available. The automatic transmission is virtually the same as the Type III auto, and parts are available, not to mention it is extremely easy to work on. Early Type 4 brake parts are all exactly the same as late Type III brake parts, and later Type 4 front brakes are shared with the 914. Brake master cylinders are still available rebuilt, and rebuild kits are still floating around. Other brake masters can be adapted. CV joints are shared, I believe, with the Type 181 and Porsche 944. You can use the front shocks for a Ford Econoline van in the rear of the Type 4 with some very minor modifications. Various trim and body pieces are the difficult parts to find, and non-cracked and non-delaminated windshields seem to be in short supply, though repro windshields are being made in Europe, albeit at quite a cost. Windshield and glass rubber is now being fabbed and is available from revolks, among other things such as carpet and uphostery. That leaves the only other problem area being the front suspension and steering components. Type 4 guru Ray Greenwood has explanations and solutions for those problems and has presented them in detail on shoptalkforums.com 411/412 forum. Most of them involve only a little bit of fabrication/machining or slight modification of easily obtainable watercooled VW parts or other aircooled VW parts. Sure, you can't just pick up a catalog and charge everything you need on a Visa like a Beetle, but I have found so many good parts, I can't even begin to purchase them all, it has just taken the slightest bit of effort to seek them out over the past year or so.

Mon May 09, 2005 6:28 pm

ubercrap wrote: SOME parts are hard to source, but that parts in general are hard to source is a misconception. The engine shares most mechnical parts with the later VW's that got the Type 4 engine, Buses, Porsche 914's, Porsche 912E's. The fuel injection came on plenty of Type III's and 914's also. Plenty of parts available. The automatic transmission is virtually the same as the Type III auto, and parts are available, not to mention it is extremely easy to work on. Early Type 4 brake parts are all exactly the same as late Type III brake parts, and later Type 4 front brakes are shared with the 914. Brake master cylinders are still available rebuilt, and rebuild kits are still floating around. Other brake masters can be adapted. CV joints are shared, I believe, with the Type 181 and Porsche 944. You can use the front shocks for a Ford Econoline van in the rear of the Type 4 with some very minor modifications. Various trim and body pieces are the difficult parts to find, and non-cracked and non-delaminated windshields seem to be in short supply, though repro windshields are being made in Europe, albeit at quite a cost. Windshield and glass rubber is now being fabbed and is available from revolks, among other things such as carpet and uphostery. That leaves the only other problem area being the front suspension and steering components. Type 4 guru Ray Greenwood has explanations and solutions for those problems and has presented them in detail on shoptalkforums.com 411/412 forum. Most of them involve only a little bit of fabrication/machining or slight modification of easily obtainable watercooled VW parts or other aircooled VW parts. Sure, you can't just pick up a catalog and charge everything you need on a Visa like a Beetle, but I have found so many good parts, I can't even begin to purchase them all, it has just taken the slightest bit of effort to seek them out over the past year or so.

Preach on my brother! I lost the source for the rebuilt masters, who is selling them? And did you buy one?

Mon May 09, 2005 7:50 pm

I got a couple of them from autopartsgiant.com. I haven't had a chance to test them yet, but they were very cheap, like $27 each, so definitely worth the chance in my opinion.

Tue May 10, 2005 6:05 am

ubercrap wrote: I got a couple of them from autopartsgiant.com. I haven't had a chance to test them yet, but they were very cheap, like $27 each, so definitely worth the chance in my opinion.

Coolness, I just order one, thanks UBERman!

Fri May 13, 2005 5:00 pm

Hey DB, that avatar is MUCH better than before!

Fri May 13, 2005 7:08 pm

lol, THANKS!

Tue May 17, 2005 9:13 am

ubercrap wrote: I got a couple of them from autopartsgiant.com. I haven't had a chance to test them yet, but they were very cheap, like $27 each, so definitely worth the chance in my opinion.

I just got mine, it's perfect!

Wed May 18, 2005 8:50 pm

Sweet.