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RainierSyncro
Samba Member
Joined: February 26, 2013
Posts: 809
Location: Seattle
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 Posted: Fri Jul 05, 2013 10:17 am Post subject: |
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| For a second there, I thought I was reading about my Syncro. Same color, Seattle area, bought around the same time and I've even done Rainier as well. I got mine for half of what you paid, but I now have the same amount poured in mine as you do now in yours. |
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phlogiston
Samba Member
Joined: March 30, 2009
Posts: 336
Location: seattle
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| Posted: Thu Aug 01, 2013 11:52 am Post subject: |
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had to put life on hold there for a couple of weeks while i was on travel to the bay area for work. for some reason i imagined myself having hours to kill in a hotel room on the samba but of course between tons of actual work to do and trying to capitolize on my location to visit friends and catch up on partying in san francisco, i barely had time to sleep, let alone write anything about my van.
well at last i'm home and had a few relaxing days to catch up with my family, do some cleaning in the van and garage, and make 20lbs of dill pickles... now it's time to get back on track.
over the years i have owned and maintained many mid-80s vehicles and mostly have had pretty good luck about not getting stranded due to breakdowns. but i'd say that about 80% of the times that i have found myself hitch hiking to an auto parts store, begging for spare parts in the parking lot of a race track, calling for a tow, or attempting roadside repairs with a multi-tool, the culprit has been a failed cooling system hose. so in an attempt to avoid this fate with the latest addition to my vehicle fleet, i decided to preemptively replace most of the cooling system. it was a painful decision, because i hate digging into my engine swap budget to buy waterboxer parts, but knowing that realistically, an engine swap is still a year or two away, i decided to invest in reliability.
here it is again, over $1k worth of new cooling system parts...
step one was to get my 2wd van "wendy" drivable in case this project ran over its allotted weekend time frame. funny, she's suffering from cooling system maladies as well, and my attempt at a fiberglass patch just wasn't holding up. fortunately, a local guy sold me a used set of pipes quite cheap.
old hoses can be one of the few examples of a part that can be as hard (or harder) to disassemble than to put back together. it was a little frustrating to spend so much effort on removing what appeared to be perfectly good parts from my van, so i kept imagining the sound of a hose bursting on a forest service road in the middle of nowhere to keep me motivated.
i always wondered if it was really possible to damage a hose by over tightening a hose clamp. found this while removing one of the bleeder hoses. oh yes it is...
with all the pipes and hoses removed, i had access to work on some other problems... like the PO's questionable attempt to mount the diff lock actuator with a sawed off bracket of the incorrect size.
with that out of the way, i was able to reach the starter... which for whatever reason had failed 2 days prior to starting this project. i push started the van to get home from work and ordered a new one from a local shop--no time to wait for one in the mail!
after all the horror stories i've read about dropping the engine and taking out the axle, i was surprised to see that i was able to remove and replace the starter using the access gained by the removal of the coolant pipes, diff lock actuator, and crossover "H" pipe above the engine. using a tap of the correct size, the bushing came out easily. i whittled down a dowel to make an insertion tool for the new one, and with my girlfriend's help the bushing and new starter went in without too much trouble.
stefanie doesn't like being told what she can't do, especially by a sticker!
i repainted the crossover pipe and began the new hose installation.
the guys at VC almost talked me out of replacing the heater hoses, but i'm stubborn so i did it anyway. i didn't like the thought of those old plastic tee fittings and figured i'd just replace the hose as well. i tried at first to use 5/8 hose for the run up to the rear heater, but it kept kinking at this bend in the rear wheel well.
i ended up using the smaller 5/8 - 1/2 tee fitting (also from VC) then running 1/2" hose through the wheel well to the interior, then using a 1/2 M-M fitting to connect to the last few inches of the original hose containing the 1/2 - 5/8 flare. At least now everything under the van is new...
time to tackle the diff lock bracket. while i was chatting with the fellow who sold me the 2wd coolant pipes, i mentioned that this was on my list as well, so he threw in a correct sized bracket for $10. thanks, chris!!!
like everything else, this "simple fix" turned into a project. the new actuator bracket was thicker than the old one and thus covered the groove for the circlip that is supposed to retain it in place. armed with some good samba advice about how all the parts are supposed to be assembled, i headed to the machine shop at my work and removed 0.060" of thickness from the spacer plate that goes behind the actuator bracket.
at last the new bracket fit! it didn't have nuts welded in place, so i purchased a couple of lock nuts. the new bolt from VC was a little shorter than the single original one that i was reusing and didn't quite reach the nylon locking insert, so i used a drop of blue locktite. i had heard horror stories about the difficulties of installing those bolts, but after i dropped the shift linkage out of the way to gain some room they went in pretty easily.
most of the VC silicone hoses fit great...
but of course the biggest problem arose with the very last hose i went to install. the van-cafe silicone hose that connects the thermostat cover to the crossover pipe wouldn't fit onto the tstat cover! i fixed the cover to a board with some lag bolts, lubed it up, and pushed with all my might while my gf worked a pick around the inside edge... there was no way this thing was going together.
i called peter at VC and he confirmed that it was "pretty hard" to install, but he said he was able to get one of his hoses onto a tstat cover. wondering if perhaps i got one at the small end of the size distribution, i ordered a second one. it showed up a couple days later and was even smaller than the first! finally, in frustration, i sanded down the barb on the plastic tstat cover and with much consternation was able to eventually work the hose into place. only to find....
the angle of the hose was wrong and the cover did not line up! i suppose i could have tried to force it into place using the cover mounting bolts, but in the past i have had issues with the tstat cover leaking if i don't get it seated just right. having already wasted many frustrating hours on this single hose, i decided to cut my losses. i called up go westy and ordered their hose.
the go westy hose had almost a full mm greater inside diameter on the tstat cover end. it fit easily, and with a bit of adjustment the tstat cover went into place normally and sealed properly. i may start another thread to see if anyone else has ever dealt with this... peter said he's sold quite a few of those hoses and no one else has ever called to complain. maybe i just really suck at installing hoses...
i now had stainless steel replacements for the cooling pipes and distribution junction, new hoses all around, a new coolant pressure reservoir, and a new thermostat and temp sensors. and it only took double the time i'd allotted!
no wonder i'm not getting any rock climbing done this summer! |
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kirsplat
Samba Member
Joined: April 30, 2008
Posts: 412
Location: Seattle
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| Posted: Thu Aug 01, 2013 2:26 pm Post subject: |
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Great to see you got the diff lock bracket installed!
Did you remember to put on the protective cover?
That'll keep the grime away from the shaft.
It can be installed with the bracket in place, just roll it over and be sure the seam is facing down, then zip tie it.
Chris
_________________
86 Syncro|EJ253|Carat |
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vwcampin
Samba Member
Joined: November 19, 2002
Posts: 392
Location: Omaha
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| Posted: Thu Aug 01, 2013 4:38 pm Post subject: |
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| phlogiston wrote: |
but of course the biggest problem arose with the very last hose i went to install. the van-cafe silicone hose that connects the thermostat cover to the crossover pipe wouldn't fit onto the tstat cover! i fixed the cover to a board with some lag bolts, lubed it up, and pushed with all my might while my gf worked a pick around the inside edge... there was no way this thing was going together.
i called peter at VC and he confirmed that it was "pretty hard" to install, but he said he was able to get one of his hoses onto a tstat cover. wondering if perhaps i got one at the small end of the size distribution, i ordered a second one. it showed up a couple days later and was even smaller than the first! finally, in frustration, i sanded down the barb on the plastic tstat cover and with much consternation was able to eventually work the hose into place. only to find....
the angle of the hose was wrong and the cover did not line up! i suppose i could have tried to force it into place using the cover mounting bolts, but in the past i have had issues with the tstat cover leaking if i don't get it seated just right. having already wasted many frustrating hours on this single hose, i decided to cut my losses. i called up go westy and ordered their hose.
the go westy hose had almost a full mm greater inside diameter on the tstat cover end. it fit easily, and with a bit of adjustment the tstat cover went into place normally and sealed properly. i may start another thread to see if anyone else has ever dealt with this... peter said he's sold quite a few of those hoses and no one else has ever called to complain. maybe i just really suck at installing hoses...
i now had stainless steel replacements for the cooling pipes and distribution junction, new hoses all around, a new coolant pressure reservoir, and a new thermostat and temp sensors. and it only took double the time i'd allotted!
no wonder i'm not getting any rock climbing done this summer! |
Had the exact same problem with the same Van Cafe hose. The others I ordered from them all worked as advertised. Ending up throwing it across the yard after struggling forever trying to get it on. Ended up having another section of hose that I was able to cut down to fit...
_________________
1986 Vanagon Syncro Westfalia Weekender |
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phlogiston
Samba Member
Joined: March 30, 2009
Posts: 336
Location: seattle
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| Posted: Thu Aug 01, 2013 9:19 pm Post subject: |
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| kirsplat wrote: |
Did you remember to put on the protective cover?
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hey chris! thanks again for the hook up on the pipes & bracket... it's so nice to have my 2nd van running, especially when every "weekend project" i start ends up taking me 2 or 3 weeks.
i got so pissed when i couldn't find that little section of hose you gave me... spent half an hour tearing my garage apart to no avail and then the next day i put on the pants i'd been wearing when i drove down to your place and found it in the pocket!
| vwcampin wrote: |
Had the exact same problem with the same Van Cafe hose. The others I ordered from them all worked as advertised. Ending up throwing it across the yard after struggling forever trying to get it on. Ended up having another section of hose that I was able to cut down to fit...
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it's reassuring to hear someone else has had this problem... when i didn't see any mention of it here on the samba and peter said that no one else had complained i really thought i was going crazy. at least GW had a hose that fit. i'd've rather had silicone in there, but not after wasting half an afternoon messing around with one stupid little hose! |
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ALIKA T3
Samba Member
Joined: July 30, 2009
Posts: 6355
Location: Honolulu,Hawaii and France
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insyncro
Banned
Joined: March 07, 2002
Posts: 15086
Location: New York
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| Posted: Fri Aug 02, 2013 4:54 am Post subject: |
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What's with VC hoses that don't fit 
I haven't had an issue but get my silicone from GeeBee, in the classifieds.
Last edited by insyncro on Fri Aug 02, 2013 6:04 am; edited 1 time in total |
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minsk
Samba Member
Joined: March 17, 2008
Posts: 899
Location: pittsburgh
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mirthpeople
Samba Member
Joined: March 15, 2011
Posts: 75
Location: New Hartford, NY
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| Posted: Fri Aug 02, 2013 1:25 pm Post subject: |
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| minsk wrote: |
| Where is Geebee? Is it crazy exensive? |
Go to the Classifieds and then Search. Type in GeeBee in the Username/Email and there you have it!
-Eric
_________________
1985 VW Vanagon Campmobile
1986 Syncro GL- Der Klienbus!
1987 Vanagon GL- Subie 2.2 installed 95% complete
2000 Cabrio- Needs lots of work
2002 Golf TDI- Future Vanagon transplant? |
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minsk
Samba Member
Joined: March 17, 2008
Posts: 899
Location: pittsburgh
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insyncro
Banned
Joined: March 07, 2002
Posts: 15086
Location: New York
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| Posted: Fri Aug 02, 2013 2:13 pm Post subject: |
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| minsk wrote: |
wow ..nice stuff.
no 2.1  |
No clue what you are looking at, but everything I have from that vendor is for a 2.1 wbx |
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minsk
Samba Member
Joined: March 17, 2008
Posts: 899
Location: pittsburgh
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phlogiston
Samba Member
Joined: March 30, 2009
Posts: 336
Location: seattle
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| Posted: Thu Aug 29, 2013 5:05 pm Post subject: |
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the next phase of my project is a classic example of the cascading nature of repairs on an older vehicle. i started out with a plan to service my front CV's and figured i'd deal with that shredded lower balljoint boot while i was in there. i knew it was unlikely to be finished in a weekend, but i never guessed my van would be up on jackstands for almost a month!
i was pretty excited to try out my new 3/4" drive slider with a length of hollow galvanized fence post, so the disassembly went pretty quick.
things were going well until i realized why the axle nut took so much work to remove... someone must have hammered it pretty bad in the past and then reused it. the damaged nut stripped off most of the threads from the outer CV as i unscrewed it. nope, not getting done this weekend...
i decided to disassemble the axle anyway, just for "practice", but without a real vice, it took some time and creativity.
the inner CVs looked OK, but there was one spot on the other outer CV where the wear had gone through the hardened outer layer of metal, so i decided to spring for new lobro axles.
while i was waiting for the new axles to show up, i brought my spindles and lower ball joint carriers in to the tec shop. i had plenty on my proverbial plate and was happy to let eion worry about the specialty tool stuff. however, no ordeal can be averted that easily... gowesty auto parts shipped my lemfoerder ball joints and new wheel bearings to my old (as in 3 years ago) address in arizona! ok, well they agreed to send me out another shipment right away, except..... those were the last of the lemfoerders! damn, all that trouble and now i'm stuck using the same febi parts that i could have sourced anywhere!
well, the parts finally came in, and i was starting to get hopeful about driving my van, when the call came in from eion. those nice, cheap front wheel bearing seals from gowesty auto parts? they look a lot like rear wheel bearing seals. and then, wow... for a guy that owns a "german car garage" the PO sure is a ham fisted hack when it comes to removing wheel bearings!
it wasn't just the grinder divot... the OD of the hub had been worn down from a sloppy bearing, and the new one just dropped on. no interference fit at all. time to start making some calls...
within a few days, i was able to find a replacement hub at a reasonable cost and get it in the mail. however, i was still trying to cheap out on the wheel bearing seals. i read on this thread that i could use SKF part number 25410 as a cheap generic front wheel bearing seal. i ordered them from a website i'd never heard of and crossed my fingers. eion did a quick check of the diameter and said they fit, but it wasn't until the hub finally showed up that we realized they were lacking the lip that mates with the "dust ring" on the outer CV joint. damn. so, kicking myself all the way, i went to do what i should have done in the first place--order the right parts from volks cafe!
there. that was easy. all that trouble was so NOT worth the $50 i was trying to save! speaking of trouble, eion said he exploded TWO snap-on adapters trying to press the lower ball joints out. what a hassle!
at last, time to start putting things back together... |
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jimeg
Samba Member
Joined: May 14, 2007
Posts: 510
Location: PNW
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Gunldesnapper
Samba Member
Joined: July 16, 2013
Posts: 147
Location: Murika
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| Posted: Fri Aug 30, 2013 6:10 am Post subject: |
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Keep it up, this thread rocks.
_________________
1990 Vanagon Carat "Pig"
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campism
Samba Member
Joined: September 07, 2007
Posts: 4492
Location: Richmond VA
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insyncro
Banned
Joined: March 07, 2002
Posts: 15086
Location: New York
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| Posted: Fri Aug 30, 2013 8:02 am Post subject: |
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Keep up the good work.
Looking great thus far. |
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phlogiston
Samba Member
Joined: March 30, 2009
Posts: 336
Location: seattle
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| Posted: Wed Sep 04, 2013 10:54 am Post subject: |
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seeing this in my driveway every day was getting old.
i love my old weekender, but i was starting to miss driving the syncro. while i was waiting for the replacement hub to arrive, i opened up some of the parts i had on hand.
meyle tie rod end looked to be well greased from the factory.
but i couldn't help compulsively spreading the grease around a bit.
febi upper ball joint looked OK as well. i thought about adding some grease to this one, but i had no idea what was in there and was worried about soap base compatibility. i decided to leave it as is rather than try to clean it with solvent and start over.
finally it was time to start the assembly! right away i was a little surprised to find that i could not get the radius rod end to line up with the holes in the lower control arm until i backed off the radius rod adjustment all the way. oh well, i was planning to get an alignment anyway.
(yes i cleaned that thoroughly before installing the lower ball joint carrier!)
the lower ball joint boot twists with the steering articulation, so it took a few tries to get the position lined up right. i wanted to see the boot look neutral for no steering and a similar amount of deformation at the left and right extremes. this was taken before i began the adjustment (which was accomplished by rotating the lower portion of the joint via the allen key hex recess in the threaded half of the joint).
i got some help paint marking all the fasteners i was carefully torquing down.
while i was waiting on everything else, i couldn't help ordering new brake flex lines. as soon as i removed the first of the old ones, i felt vindicated.
stoked to try out my shiny new flare nut wrenches...
the VC flex hoses didn't exactly match the length of the hoses i removed from my van.
despite the difference in length, the new hoses seemed to fit fine once i twisted them just right.
new hoses up front as well.
finally looking more like something capable of driving!
time to break out another new toy that i've been wanting to buy for years.
it turns out that the air pump to pressurize the motive power bleeder is quite undersized. it took at least 10 minutes of pumping to build up 15psi. fortunately my brake bleeding helper crawled out from under the van and helped me pump.
once i finally got enough pressure, i cracked the bleed valves and began to enjoy power bleeding at last.... until, oh no, my worst fear materialized!!
i had tightened the cap pretty well, but for whatever reason, it still leaked and made quite a mess inside the dashboard. between all the time spent pumping and all the time spent cleaning up the spills and then suctioning some fluid out of the reservoir to make room for the float switch, i'm not sure that the $80 power bleeder saved me a single minute.
brakes bled and tested.... new flex hoses, lobro axles, upper & lower ball joints, tie rod ends, wheel bearings and wheel bearing seals... time for an alignment!
(the new T3 Technique anti sway bar end links and powerflex bushings were purchased last year for my other syncro project that i abandoned. i pulled them off that van the night before i sold it!) |
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dobryan
Samba Member
Joined: March 24, 2006
Posts: 16503
Location: Brookeville, MD
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phlogiston
Samba Member
Joined: March 30, 2009
Posts: 336
Location: seattle
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| Posted: Wed Sep 04, 2013 4:31 pm Post subject: |
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| dobryan wrote: |
| I have that Motive and it pumps up pressure just fine, doesn't take ten minutes. Wonder why yours is that way? :? Maybe check to see how long it holds pressure? |
yeah, i wondered if mine was defective somehow. it held pressure fine for half an hour, so i don't think it's leaking. but for whatever reason, it took hundreds and hundreds of pumps to build up enough pressure to bleed. i guess it's time to call motive... |
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Maybe check to see how long it holds pressure?