slayer61 finally has a Dune buggy!

[slayer61]

Winter update:

As it was the "off season" for the buggy, I took advantage of the time to make a few upgrades on my buggy project...

The cage was sent out for powder coating so it would match the motor tins. While the cage & seats were out, the floor got coated with Herculiner bed liner. For the record, I can recommend the product, but come armed with extra rollers.

It all went back together last night and just in time for the first drive of the year, it started to rain.

No worries. Put a tri tip on the smoker & had a great evening nonetheless.

Be well.
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[67rustavenger]

Was there an update here?
All I read was,

[slayer61]

[slayer61]

Yesterday I went down to my local "purveyor of vintage VW parts" for some engine mock up parts and saw Jim had a cool old buggy in his stash. No idea about it's ownership status atm, but it looks very nice

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[67rustavenger]

Manx SR.

A school buddy of mines dad built one in the 70's. Sadly his work shop burnt down with the car inside.
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I have learned over the years.
Cheap parts are gonna disappoint you.
Buy Once, Cry Once!

There's never enough time to do it right the first time. But there's always enough time to do it thrice.
GFY's Xevin and VW_Jimbo!
2003 Astrovan? GFYS again, Xevin!
Don't let your bad ideas remain, ideas!

[slayer61]

Seems like for ever since I've done an update on this project.
In the last year we sold our California house, moved from California to Texas and it was an experience I don't wish to repeat. We flat towed the buggy from California to my brother's place in lake Havasu, AZ where it lived for a month. No problems with the buggy other than a torn swingaxle boot. We patched it up and picked it up in Havasu and continued on our way to Texas. Towards the end of the trip the buggy developed a nasty weave the last 100ish miles Both front wheel bearings had developed enough play you could shake the front wheels with the buggy still on the ground In the process of removing the front wheels, I discovered the passenger rear was even WORSE!

Sorry, can't load pics from my phone.
The rear disc collapsed the center section enough that the nut no longer held tightly and wallowed the splines all out! Empi strikes again. Ron Lummus has been contacted for replacements.
Happy New Year everyone!
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[clonebug]

I've had similar issues with the front bearings working loose too. Never could tell why but after tightening a couple times it seemed to fix it.
I thought maybe the races weren't seated correctly when I assembled them but I know what a seated race sounds like.
They do come with Chinese bearings that are very difficult if not impossible to cross over to a quality bearing.
Once they "Set" in the issue was resolved.

On the rear rotors I also had issues with the left side working loose and then stripping at the most inconvenient time......try 1000 miles from home.....
The funny thing is they were fine for over 7 years with not one issue then all of a sudden it stripped on our third trip to California. Two other trips were fine.
It then happened again the next year which really pissed me off.
I tightened the ever living S**T out of the replacement by going to 300 ft lbs of torque and going to the next cotter pin hole so probably 330 plus ft. lbs.
It's been good for over 2 years and close to 10,000 miles on the new hub. I decided to keep a spare on hand which somehow ended up with an order for a 5X4.75 drum by mistake and then a second order which somehow got me two rotors for spares..........
Needless to say I have enough to cover any issue which will probably never happen now that I have the spares.
I have a tool box that I put a spare rotor, nut, studs and BFW to replace a rotor on the road along with a jack to raise the buggy up. It will fit on my luggage rack that goes on the back of the buggy.

The smaller one with the red lid would be dedicated to the repair parts if or when we ever did that trip again. I can fit a rotor and parts in there if the studs are not installed.
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[slayer61]

Greetings from central Texas! We have settled in for the most part. My shop is done and the buggy has a new place to live and get pampered. The rear brakes are sorted and are fabulous.

The turbo project is still moving slowly.... but I've made the first step in the conversion. It has been cut over to a complete MSD ignition, 6al box with Boost retarded, MSD distributor, coil and wires. It actually is a great system and enhances performance.

I'm about to drop a couple of racks of ribs on the smoker. Be well fellas
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[slayer61]

Update....
In an effort to replace more/all empi products on my buggy, Ron Lummus is sending a set of his front brakes. I'll update again once I put both sets on the bathroom scale!
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[slayer61]

New front brakes installed and tested & approved

New turbo mounted and back in the buggy. Just waiting on a turbo drain hose to come from RAD. Due tomorrow, start up scheduled for Friday

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[stevemariott]

Bravo, sir! How much do those brakes weigh?

Engine looks good! Keep us posted on how the startup / test drive goes!
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1963 Manx copy
1968 Bus

[slayer61]

[stevemariott]

[slayer61]

Turbo update
My turbo drain hose, from RAD showed up yesterday and got installed this morning. Check. Game on.

Motor filled with Valvoline's finest 10-30. Done.
Removed plugs and disabled the ignition. Done
Turned on ignition to fire the fuel pump and bench set the fuel pressure regulator to 3 PSIG. Also tightened up fuel inlet so fuel leak would stop.
Cranked engine over until oil showed up at the end of the turbo oil feeder line and hooked it back up.

Plugs back in and ignition enabled.

Time for test fire fingers crossed

It fires and sounds bad ass! it has an oil leak... dammit

It appears to be running out of one of the push rod tube seals

Smoking gun found and replaced

Now it's leaking like the Exxon Valdez
Double dammit
Now I'm wondering if I didn't upset the oil cooler seals when josteling the fan shroud on and off...

ALSO dammit I found that the rubber 45 degree hose from the turbo collapses under vacuum

Long story short, I expect it's coming back apart to redo the cold side tubing and inspect the oil cooler and seals

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[67rustavenger]

Well, the oil leaks are disappointing, as you well know.

What pushrod tube are you using?
My 2276 leaked like a sieve when I fired it off a few years ago. The pushrod seals were leaking.
I use JayCee PR Tubes. I pulled the tubes loose against the springs and wiggled the tubes and seals a bit to get the seals reseated. No more leaks.

Unless you didn't tighten the oil cooler well, you may have jostled the seals a bit but, that's not a likely scenario.

I wanna hear/see a video of that thing running.
_________________
I have learned over the years.
Cheap parts are gonna disappoint you.
Buy Once, Cry Once!

There's never enough time to do it right the first time. But there's always enough time to do it thrice.
GFY's Xevin and VW_Jimbo!
2003 Astrovan? GFYS again, Xevin!
Don't let your bad ideas remain, ideas!

[slayer61]

Thanks for your input. I have JayCee push rod tubes. One of them wasn't seated when I experienced the first leak. I replaced the seal and reset the tube, but the leak continues. I pulled the fan and shroud to inspect the dog house cooler and it's clean and dry.

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[slayer61]

That's a lot of work for nothing. I really wanted to see a smoking gun ruptured cooler, or something

It could have been worse... I could have been working on a sedan or van or something!
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[rayjay]

It's niggling issues like this that made me a believer in test stands. Tall test stands so no bending over. Comfortable working height when standing.
.

.

.

[slayer61]

I have a suitable work bench my engine stand is on, I just don't have a run stand yet

And yes. My work bench is almost as tall as the buggy roll bar.
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[slayer61]

So it seems that getting push rod tubes to seal, is just a matter of holding your tongue right. I used my patent pending push rod tube compression tool (a short length of mule tape half hitched onto the tube) to compress and re seat a couple of tubes with enough success to stem the flow of oil hemorrhaging out! Huzzah

Now I just need to sort out my DCOE accelerator pump's failure to do it's intended task.
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