Cipica, VW 1303S from '74

[Ed_R]

Really appreciate you taking the time/effort to share your rebuilding the '74, I have a '74 that I've just started on and all you've shared is an excellent help.

Best continuing wishes to you and your loved ones!

Thank you.

Kind Regards,
Ed

[tzepesh]

Ed, I'm glad it helps others, that was one reason to document all work with as many details as possible. There were topics which helped me in the same way. (links in one of the first posts).

The weekend before we attended the single meeting we could this year, the already local, traditional La Plaja Noua VW Meet. Sorry, not many pics, just good time spent with family and friends. Seems like people become more comfortable and tents are too small. So nice to see either folding caravans or trailer tents. One girl came with a 97 Mexi all the way from Spain via Norway! Speak about many kilometers.
Also problems: my wife drove the bug to and from the meeting. She told me that going to the meeting it ran bad, seemed to have not enough power and struggled to accelerate, and kept spluttering. On the way back, it ran fine. Combine that with the fact that it starts very bad: needs a lot of pedal pushes, starts with two cylinders and I have to rev it above 3000 rpm that the other two come to life. Then it stays on. That started after the last round trip at the mountains, and at that time I had new spark plugs and checked AFR by wideband, 13.0-13.5:1 everywhere. Now I can not understand if problem is fuel or spark, so I bought an original 010 distributor, leads, spark plugs, now I just need a coil to test.

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'74 1303S, L98B Viperngrun (extra glitter), German Look
'64 1200, Sea Blue, under restoration

[Maddel]

[tzepesh]

[tzepesh]

Here is the wind deflector. Still in work, need to trim it a bit. What I can not catch on camera is that perimeter cut color. It is white in picture, but in reality it seems like a laser beam. All people thought I put kind of internal lighting in it.
Disclaimer: this is not my idea, I saw some pics on facebook and decided to make a try. Only available in the US for sale.

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'74 1303S, L98B Viperngrun (extra glitter), German Look
'64 1200, Sea Blue, under restoration

[tzepesh]

Mail received yesterday! Thank you so much, H2OSB! I got a connector from a Vanagon, now I need to get one or two seatbelt locks with contacts (I think I have one somewhere) and the relay and wire everything.

Then, weekend's adventures. More details on engine/ignition struggles here, but I will make a summary. https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=640208&start=80
Went for a 320km round trip with the family at a dinosaur park, also wanting to test the classic ignition (remember the 010 dizzy?). Ups and downs, it started well, pulling hard, then it started to sputter at low revs and idle went down by 200rpm, then one hard brake and a sharp turn and the coil went bad. Good thing I had a cheap replacement, and 10 min later we were back on the road. But it kept running pretty bad, or not as smooth. Working on it, waiting for a good new coil, also leads seem to have too high resistance (5-10k).
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'74 1303S, L98B Viperngrun (extra glitter), German Look
'64 1200, Sea Blue, under restoration

[tzepesh]

So, ignition is solved (after more adventures): 0Ohm main lead created EMC issues in the dashboard, solved by changing to 4KOhm. Then tachometer was "behaving" so after many tries I got the hint that a diode shall be added. Works now. Changed a bit the design of the chokes, now they work smoother and I have the lever in a proper place (near shifter).
And now, the last one: alternator bearings are noisy, so time for a change. Bought new bearings, I just need to find the time. And again, dis-assemble the throttle linkage, alternator stand, no easy job with engine in car, but I'll do it. Funny that I have two other alternators, both with 1 wire (the one in the car is 3 wire variant): One new, 75A, but that is for the type 4 engine to cope with the fuel injection, and the second coming from wife's car, also with noisy bearings...
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'74 1303S, L98B Viperngrun (extra glitter), German Look
'64 1200, Sea Blue, under restoration

[tzepesh]

Weekend's adventures: change alternator bearings. Pulled alternator out together with alt stand. Locking washer at fan side was missing. I managed to crack the pulley. Strange pulley, cast, and it needed a spacer to sit properly, otherwise it touched the alt housing. Changed bearings, installed a pulley from another alt, installed locking shim from a dynamo I had laying around.
And now the fun part starts: fan is hitting the tins. I thought it would go away once installed. Wrong assumption. I installed everything, belt seemed too tight with the new pulley (4 shims used), I also changed the distributor clamp and broke the main lead (did not see it from the beginning). So trying to start it, of course no spark. Change main lead, it starts, loud noise, both from fan hitting tins and the fan belt too tight.
So, alternator back out, marked the point where it hit, use the "convincer" aka 5kg hammer with short, not so hard blow to slightly bend the fan. And measure again, and another hit. And so on, until I got it pretty well aligned. All back, add more shims on pulley, start, sounds good.
But the engine died after maybe 1 min of running. it would start up again, run a bit, die. And it would not rev up high. Arrrrgh! So, I have a fuel pump relay, the one which will have a short priming pulse when switching the key on, then it would stop pump, and restart once engine speed is sensed. That relay worked okay when I had signal from Megajolt, but I removed it when I installed the dizzy and I thought the relay perturbed the tacho, and reinstalled a few days ago when I got the tacho running well. Well, it did not sense engine speed from coil negative side (although the pin is marked 1), it seems, because it delivered only the priming pulse. Take out relay, put a regular one, yeeeey, car runs perfect!
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'74 1303S, L98B Viperngrun (extra glitter), German Look
'64 1200, Sea Blue, under restoration

[tzepesh]

Today she's 50.

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'74 1303S, L98B Viperngrun (extra glitter), German Look
'64 1200, Sea Blue, under restoration

[OTTO 1303]

[Buggeee]

Happy Birthday. One of my favorite builds.
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1966 Sportsmobile Camper https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=...mp;start=0
72 Super Duper http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=672387
(adopted out) 61 Turkis Pile https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=728764

[tzepesh]

I'm thinking to buy a set of CB manifolds or CSP, or whatever allows me to install a stock fan shroud. I have now Empi manifolds and the carbs hit the shroud, so I had to cut the heater circuits, and I welded some outlets in a different position (see pictures before), but air flow is not good for interior heating. And this car used to cook me inside...

Meanwhile real winter came (I guess it will stay around for a few more days). I have to extend the garage somehow, because now I have wife's Bug inside and mine is out.

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'74 1303S, L98B Viperngrun (extra glitter), German Look
'64 1200, Sea Blue, under restoration

[chicagovw]

Nice to see you have the car to the point where you have been enjoying it. Far too often a build thread goes dead-and we often wonder what happened to the project!

[tzepesh]

We had a nice trip during the weekend, as we were godparents to a newly wed family in a beautiful town 270km away, in Sibiu. We took some photos in the medieval town center (unfortunately we could not go all the way up as there were barriers and we were not granted access). Behind the car you can see the Bridge of Lies, visit the town when you are in Romania!
About the trip: good driving, 100-110-120km/h constant on the highway, heating works well but I get some smell from the engine. I need to vent the case to the air filters, I just received the nipples. On the way back idle dropped to 400rpm, I guess just some plugged jet, otherwise it runs well. And chokes are magic in the morning, quick start, but I am struggling to pull the lever that activates them, I need to fix it to the chassis somehow.
Update: of course it was a clogged jet. Idle issue solved.

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'74 1303S, L98B Viperngrun (extra glitter), German Look
'64 1200, Sea Blue, under restoration

[Buggeee]

Good use for the sunroof! Great pictures. Beautiful people, beautiful bug, beautiful town.
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1966 Sportsmobile Camper https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=...mp;start=0
72 Super Duper http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=672387
(adopted out) 61 Turkis Pile https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=728764

[tzepesh]

Thank you, Buggeee!
Another update: the sport syeering wheel is restored and installed. I have mixed feelings, as this is black, and the previous GTI was cream, ut this is correct and beautiful. Maybe with an all black dashboard? But I will not change it soon.
Today's topic: why doesn't the headlight washers work? Either the pump (I have a Porsche new unit to test) or the new valves have too mich spring force (I have a set of old ones).

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'74 1303S, L98B Viperngrun (extra glitter), German Look
'64 1200, Sea Blue, under restoration

[H2OSB]

Your wheel looks fantastic!

H2OSB
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(o\_i_/o) I'm not a vegetarian because I love animals, I'm a vegetarian because I hate plants.

[tzepesh]

Thank you! New paint, leather upholstered. Wife painted the W.
Now on the headlight washer system. I tries the system and the original pump did not make enough pressure to overcome the valves. So I tried the Porsche pump I boght new long time ago. It's different in shape, but it works. Now I need to add a tee to give fluid to the windscreen too. The original pump had the tee built in.

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'74 1303S, L98B Viperngrun (extra glitter), German Look
'64 1200, Sea Blue, under restoration

[tzepesh]

20 bucks later, the Porsche headlight washer pump is installed. It does not look so nice as the original one, but it works. I will work on the original pump to make it run properly. It does spin, but it does not create enough pressure.

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'74 1303S, L98B Viperngrun (extra glitter), German Look
'64 1200, Sea Blue, under restoration

[tzepesh]

Last week I replaced the old alarm system (~25 years old) to a new Viper one. In the end, the old alarm still works, it was an issue with oxidized contacts, but anyway I will use it on wife's car.
This weekend it was family time. The spring retro cars show in the center of Timisoara and then my daughter had a bike contest so we did some offroad with the bug.
Find Waldo!

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'74 1303S, L98B Viperngrun (extra glitter), German Look
'64 1200, Sea Blue, under restoration