Raoul the 65 singlecab

[BarryL]

[70bus]

I'm trying to get everything but the motor buttoned up; progress is slow as usual. After much discussion (including 2 'you are overthinking it' and 1 'hole does look a hair off but it's a gas tank; slap two gaskets on it and make it as best you can') that's what I did. Not that happy but it's in. Can still see some daylight from underneath despite stacked gaskets. :P Also the grounding wire supplied with my harness is comically short so I need to crawl in there and put another on.

Pulled off ATE steering box cover. Ever been in a barn and the horse next to you stales? Huge stream of earthy-smelling yet sulfuric water. Then a surge of black goo (box, not the horse), then more water. At least it was full! Didn't see any obvious rust, damage, or loose parts. Cleaned and new seal lightly coated with Curil under the lid. Partially filled with cornhead grease, but my gun didnt like how liquid it was and stopped pumping; need to finish filling with a syringe and hose.

My first try on front brake lines went great; practically factory.

Then I tweaked a teense to clear a shoe and found my tool had nicked it. Had to file the back end of it smooth. Do not even Germans make well-finished tools any more?

Lesson learned; other attempts weren't as pretty but are ok... as far as I can see!

Drums gave me a scare; NOS Brazil ones looked a bit different, and some sites showed the B part number as being for an earlier bus. Checked OG drums, seal and outer hubs and they seem to match, so on it all went. NOS felt seals used. I put them in the way mine came off, but I see some installed them with seam towards car...

Adjusted kingpins - I assume all we are doing is tightening, then loosening a touch, similar to front wheel bearings?

Attempted to put on my sway bar, couldn't, and realized it was for a bay. Would work, but I forsaw some clearance issues under cab. I'll look for a splittty one first.

Double-checked that the Pantera Electronics t/s flasher box meant even my hazards worked with LED bulbs. Brake lights as well (tho the damn switches are leaking at threads).

This grab bar was on the bus, but looks more ivory than grey. Sun damaged or random replacement?

Went to mount washer bottle and found the parcel tray I have is obviously from a bus that had no bottle!

Ebrake adjusted - tho need to adjust brakes and ebrake again after bleeding brakes more thoroughly - shifter seems to be fairly close, electrics up front work... when seats come back I can finish out the cab. Except for the glass, as I have no helpers to put it in until one kid or other comes back from college. Then we see if the doors fit in the space I have to install them, finish clutch, put in motor and off we go.

So about another year at my pace...
_________________
Craig K
70 Neunsitzer
65 Pritschenwagen
"If Von Dutch was alive, he'd walk in there with a pistol and shoot these people."
-Robert Williams

[70bus]

Not a good idea to put the engine in while truck is up on jackstands, so I put the tires on. Actually about 1/4” higher than with the jackstands. I might even be able to roll my creeper under and work.

Opinion - paint the roof or leave it? I see lots of redhead buses out there; trucks especially for some reason.

_________________
Craig K
70 Neunsitzer
65 Pritschenwagen
"If Von Dutch was alive, he'd walk in there with a pistol and shoot these people."
-Robert Williams

[70bus]

Put in the parcel tray; it was supposed to be a test-fit, but so difficult that I hope it doesn’t need removing ever again… the speedo pod is definitely not exactly where it should be, and makes it very difficult to get the tray in. Gotta lift and push.
Oh, first, because there are many wires touching it, I added a piece of vinyl weatherstripping to the back lip, which is pretty sharp.

Ok, tray wedged in. Left side has a gap; makes the steering support sit oddly.

Original screws and dished washers installed. Screw closest to steering column was a pain as someone had cut out the captive nut. Magnets, wrenches and fingers were utilized to get a washer and nut fished onto the the screw and tightened.lost a nut in there for a while, really great item to be rambling round a bunch of ignition switch contacts. Finally got it sorted. Can you tell I ran out of paint before respraying the bottom? Kept the screws for 30 years but lost the original tray. :p

Still have the original washer bottle but this is a motorized version, and has a few differences (besides the motor) - maybe a bit fatter, and the tab for the mounting screw is at a different angle. The tray had no hole for a screw, so whateves. Will plumb and wire later but it’s hard to get in unless parcel tray is moved, so it gets stuck in now.its probably not in exactly the right place.

Also test fit the replacement steering wheel and horn button

Maybe I’ll rebuild the original someday. Climbed underneath and found lots of brake leaks; mostly just a flare or three that needed tightening. However, the damn switches still drip a bit at the threads, and I’m not comfortable tightening them further. May have to live with it. Aside from that things are beginning to look buslike!
_________________
Craig K
70 Neunsitzer
65 Pritschenwagen
"If Von Dutch was alive, he'd walk in there with a pistol and shoot these people."
-Robert Williams

[70bus]

Radio in, sounds great (even with no antenna). Just needs a support bracket. Adjusted tie rods and drag link, drilled a hole and put in a clip to replace one by the horn that broke off ( holds speedo cable). Ran wires for washer pump; put speedo cable in spindle… which was a pain, because something was in there.

An old grommet should have come out but whatever this one was it seemed determined to block the cable. Some syl glide finally got the cable through - with a new spindle grommet - but because no day can pass without an ‘FU what now,’ the hub won’t go on. I am using bay spindle nuts,but they should not interfere with the fit.

No witness marks inside so I don’t know what the issue is.

Sigh.

Trimmed the floor mat for the hi/lo switch - you can see my first erroneous attempt.

That at least went well.
_________________
Craig K
70 Neunsitzer
65 Pritschenwagen
"If Von Dutch was alive, he'd walk in there with a pistol and shoot these people."
-Robert Williams

[70bus]

Trying to finish up some transmission work; new HD cross shaft, new bushing kit, good t/o bearing.
It mostly came out easily- my expensiveish snapring pliers were pretty useless - but the pilot bushing was pretty stuck. My bushing puller was too big, but a tap, vise grip and hammer got it out.

Not real happy with the cross shaft play; should I stick another washer on the arm end? Pretty good gap between washer and snap ring there…

Also, how tight should the bushing bolt be? I do have the bolt through the hole in the bushing. When I tighten it, it pinches the shaft and stops it from turning. Is there a certain amount of resistance it should have, just touching, what? Old bolt seemed pretty well snugged, but shaft turned easily.
_________________
Craig K
70 Neunsitzer
65 Pritschenwagen
"If Von Dutch was alive, he'd walk in there with a pistol and shoot these people."
-Robert Williams

[BarryL]

[70bus]

If you look at the comparison photo, the HD shaft has 2 spots for a circlip. I have it on he farthest one as the bushing covers the one closer to arm. In this position, the bushing is flush with the outside of the case, and sticks in the f/w cavity about as far as other pics on thesamba; I set it up this way assuming that the bushing shouldn't be proud of the case under the arm.

I did see other posts mentioning another washer to stop slop, but I'll flip bushing first and see what happens.
_________________
Craig K
70 Neunsitzer
65 Pritschenwagen
"If Von Dutch was alive, he'd walk in there with a pistol and shoot these people."
-Robert Williams

[70bus]

For fun I swapped the bushing around; while it actually sat closer to the first snapring position, it clearly wouldn’t work

Switched it back, and using the old positioning bolt, it went back properly.

Put arm, spring and metal cap back on.

Not a lot of room to work back here!

It was a struggle, but did get both springy clips in - the second one lost some spring after tweaking it to get in arm holes, so I squeezed it back as best I could
It all seems fairly centered. I realize I should have soaked the bearing in some low-viscosity grease, as its old stock and old grease may be dry. Oh well..

_________________
Craig K
70 Neunsitzer
65 Pritschenwagen
"If Von Dutch was alive, he'd walk in there with a pistol and shoot these people."
-Robert Williams

[BarryL]

[70bus]

Some movement. Forward, hopefully.
Plate back on first time in decades.

Gas tap in. Lever in ‘off’ position. I tested it with Marvel Mystery Oil; won’t rust tank, won’t harm engine, smells minty. Tap/tank seal leaked overnight, so I tightened it further and reloaded another 8 oz of MMO. We’ll see if it held tomorrow.

Put the window in. Eh. Door closes, but nothings kosher.

Gap at top.

Seal at vent frame won’t go in. Prevents window frame from seating fully.

‘Cut trim to follow body line’ and the flap came off.

Same here but that’s ok because it wouldn’t fit anyways I’ll buy another frame seal and try again later.

Windows function nicely at least.

_________________
Craig K
70 Neunsitzer
65 Pritschenwagen
"If Von Dutch was alive, he'd walk in there with a pistol and shoot these people."
-Robert Williams

[70bus]

More door work. So do I want the upper rubber tight and trimmed to fit the channel, or wiggly and loose? Door shuts poorly now either way :)

Really have to slam it. I'm sure it's a combo of hinge/frame/catch alignments and perhaps a saggy or non-straight hinge. I'll circle back later when I fix the frame seal ugliness - gonna be a waterfall in there without the flap. I look at BulliBill's pics of his doors, and then at mine, and want to crawl into the treasure chest and not come out. Plenty of room behind the gas tank for a good sulk!

passenger door is near-perfect on first try tho

I'm sure the frame getting attached will change all that...

Working on the front drum/grease cap issue; no known cap fits, so I guess I get to grind 1mm circumference off 2 of these. You can see the witness marks from last attempt to fit.

It's unclear if the bay clamp nuts will clear when finished, so might have to go back to doubled nuts. Spot of yellow paint on top was scraped off by clamp corner and transferred. Other option is to toss the 300 spent on these 2 drums and spend 500 on some from WW. Plus new bearings to replace my NOS German ones I used. Wheeeeee.

Found the left rear drum is weeping, even after tightening nut as much as I can while on stands. Slow, one or two drips a day, but not good. It seems to issue from the lower bolt, just above the brake cylinder. At this point I think I'll let a shop deal with it when I bring bus in for a checkup to make sure I didn't leave something important off...

Remaining: minor elecrical work; putting in battery and testing things at high amps (just using 12v 9A alarm battery for tests; won't spin starter). Finish routing gas lines and put in motor; I have several feet of Flexnor 5mm, as well as a roll of the cloth stuff from WW. My bay I used hose through large firewall grommet straight from tank; the metal pipes on the split just seems complicated to me...

Waiting on front window glass - one of mine shattered in the box, tho nothing has touched that box in 6 months , and the other is aftermarket laminated that is pretty yellow, so I went with StaceyZ's new ones.

Then I push it into street and try to fire it up.

Lots of smaller tasks, like safety-wiring shifter nuts, because 2 FLAPS said they'd never heard of safety wire and it turns out aluminum picturehanging wire doesn't work :) Some cab trim, mirrors. T/C doors are hopefully almost fixed, then I get to tackle bumpers and gates.

But hopefully in April I find out if the motor and transmission work and see if it can go around the block (my 'block' is long and really steep, so actually kind of scary for test drives).
_________________
Craig K
70 Neunsitzer
65 Pritschenwagen
"If Von Dutch was alive, he'd walk in there with a pistol and shoot these people."
-Robert Williams

[heimlich]

[70bus]

I'd rather not cut the housing for the bearings, so the caps are the logical part to sacrifice. It's just the cost; the one shop I know of wanted 120 for the hour and was booked out 2 months. I do know someone with a lathe, but it's for their job making precision plumbing parts and they are not sure they want to mess with it. We'll see.

I do want to state that the drums themselves are fantastic, great quality. They just have a weird fluke in the outsized lip. I'm sure the part that fits is out there... but probably on a shelf in Brasil!
_________________
Craig K
70 Neunsitzer
65 Pritschenwagen
"If Von Dutch was alive, he'd walk in there with a pistol and shoot these people."
-Robert Williams

[70bus]

More small jobs.
Turn switch wouldn’t stay on; sanded flat and now sits firmly on column. Cancels nicely. Put in seat mats, but didn’t have near as many clips around the house as Nancy. Test fit the rear view mirror.

Seats test. Put sound deadening in a few spots to make clank more of a clunk. Rear window in.

Horn blows (but driver sucks). An issue: inner steering column can move front to back a good 1/8” in outer column.

More weepiness. I assume this is the classic RGB o ring leak?

More annoyingly, the fuel tap/tank threads won’t stop leaking. Even tried CurilT.

Gas can NOT go in tank until I fix that; garage is so attached to house you smell it inside if someone farts in the garage. I mean, it has a freaking window that opens into the house! Built way before building codes. So no gas leaks allowed. Suggestions?

Started disassembling bumpers and getting ratty white paint off. As suspected, the front one at least was painted same ivory color as dash at some point. White comes off with acetone; ivory is tougher.

Found a cool bit of trucks history ( and not so cool bit of asshattery from PO) - decal under the paint. They Didn’t even try to scrape it off.

It doesn’t quite look like the Randolph logo (truck has stickers from dealer across rd from Randolph) but something like that. Might be just generic ANG sticker…
_________________
Craig K
70 Neunsitzer
65 Pritschenwagen
"If Von Dutch was alive, he'd walk in there with a pistol and shoot these people."
-Robert Williams

[70bus]

Tackled the RGB leak. New seal; old seal Old hopefully was the issue. Something was leaking!

Put some grommets on the reserve cable and tried - again- to solve the tap/tank leak. We’ll see

The heater duct was sadly welded on at the wrong angle (I think) and the cable was rubbing on it I beat on the tube and got a small amount of clearance, but the wrap is still an issue. I’d need another 1/4” of denting to clear it at least. Someday I guess I’ll need to cut and reposition.

Thanks to David Melton, I got a replacement board for a hardboard visor frame I had. Was just gonna use it for a template but it looked good to me. I also think the hardboard ones look nicer. Need to get another…

_________________
Craig K
70 Neunsitzer
65 Pritschenwagen
"If Von Dutch was alive, he'd walk in there with a pistol and shoot these people."
-Robert Williams

[70bus]

Today’s fun. Finally appears the gas tap/tank is holding, so I can hook up the hardline and get the engine ready for install.

But OF COURSE I can’t get one step forwards without at least one back- despite the new oring , I find the RGB is still puking fluid. Not torqued to 253, but on pretty damn tight, and just as tight as pass side, which has remained dry. Driver RGB is newly rebuilt, was holding until I needed to take off drum, and has leaked ever since. I can see the first reinstall of drum might not have sealed/damaged oring, but I had hoped new one, carefully installed, would fix it. What else could be wrong?

Getting windshields ready to install (hopefully) this week. Just need to finish pass door and put in seatbelts and cab is done. Some minor electrical things… seems if you order a size 89 flash-light type led from… well, anyone, they send an 1157. So putting some gauges back in w incandescent I guess.

Would really appreciate opinions on RGB leak Yes I’ve read all the threads, but everyone else seems to have success first time!
_________________
Craig K
70 Neunsitzer
65 Pritschenwagen
"If Von Dutch was alive, he'd walk in there with a pistol and shoot these people."
-Robert Williams

[BarryL]

[70bus]

As far as I could tell. The only difference between pre-leak and leak is that i needed to take the drum off to fix an ebrake cableand the spacer slid out as the drum came down the spindle. Also , forgot to drain the box first. If it's possible for that to draw out the seal I'll take it back apart and check, but that seems unlikely. I never touched the bearing cover, so assumed everything should be intact beneath except for the o-ring. Kits from local shop have black seals; don't know if the blue ones are better.

Is it possible that fluid pooled in the housing is still coming out the weep hole? I will punt if it's going to need the 4 bolts off and new paper seals, and let the shop do it when finally on the road (no tags yet, so it will be trailered there).

On the plus side, I got the gauge facing from busandroll in, and connected an ISPWest 52mm Ghia tach and a CHT from Surfman. Pro tip: do this BEFORE the parcel tray is in, unless you have the hands of a baby. Also, both gauges were sorta shitty on lighting (CHT has huge plastic bulbholder and big-ass leads; tach light required a separate ground wire, and the stock bulbholder doesn't fit well). But they light, and the tach works when ignition is keyed on. Forgot to get pics.

It isn't ideal - now I have some spaghetti behind dash, the angle isn't great for seeing the gauges without moving head, and you touch the faceplate with your knuckles when turning key to 'start.' But no holes drilled, so it can always be redone some other way later.

If I can get windshields in Wednesday w/out cracking them, that leaves just the seat (out for some fabric repair), passenger window, and door panels. I'll install the seatbelts the same half-assed way they were when I got it. At least they seem to have worked for 40 years. I have some proper mounts that will go in when the driver-side wheelwell gets repaired.

Then it's just the engine - just, he laughs..........
_________________
Craig K
70 Neunsitzer
65 Pritschenwagen
"If Von Dutch was alive, he'd walk in there with a pistol and shoot these people."
-Robert Williams

[BarryL]