The 16" money pit

[bluntlunchbox]

Great job on your Syncro and love the holiday pics! Do you have a link to the thread on club80-90?
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1966 Beetle "Old Girl"
1990 Vanagon GL

[lloydy]

thanks again all, The wife will never truly forgive me for selling the previous 3 vans the white one pictured above.. someone drove off in it just as she was getting back from work, never even mentioned it was for sale..

Scott, this is the tip of the iceberg! read the thread on 8090! This is just a recap

forgot to ad the pic after the lift

more to follow..
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16" syncro multivan pop top AHU TDI
“Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life.”

[lloydy]

[lloydy]

Van is now so high the wife can't see in

More camping at our favorite spot

pic of the 16" spring spacer

So, the handbrake let itself off one day..

new cable fitted

Got on with the big brakes, merc 303mm vented discs, G60 calipers and VW Sharan brake flexi's

new next to old flexi's. Hole in chassis bracket for flexi needs opening up slightly

rear handbrake cables changed over too

just in time..

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16" syncro multivan pop top AHU TDI
“Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life.”

[lloydy]

During the brake work, new boots were fitted too, all genuine VW.

Some proof here of the bmw oil seperator doing its job, breather pipe before and after unit

Now al replaced with oil rated silicone hose

Steering rack bushes next, certainly improved the feel

On to leisure battery side..
Sterling 50 amp battery charger fitted under drivers seat

and a leisure battery befing both front seats

Power also run to the back with it's own fuse box

Compressor fridge fits behind the drivers seat

Decided black is just to dull for coolant hose's, orange and s/steel is just so much better..

By now the white smoke issue was really starting to annoy me, didn't stop me getting a new prop though

and a free camp in view of stonehenge

another free camp by the beach

smoke was steadily getting worse.. Had a check of the timing.. Brilliant looks a fair bit off, could be the answer!

new belt fitted, now runs a lot better, but still smoking.. Anyway no time now, a year has passed and its time for our next euro holiday. Felt a bit more nervy leaving this time, as i new something was wrong with the engine..

fly screens fitted

And we are off!

Stayed in france this time, but still covered a fair amount of ground

The van really behaved well, no breakdowns.. but still smoked like a trooper...
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16" syncro multivan pop top AHU TDI
“Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life.”

[lloydy]

So, we kinda come up to how it stands now.. Decided to do a compression test and found one cylinder is down around 70 bar, this will answer all my issues.
Instead of repairing this engine, i have gone down the route of getting a new engine built with all new parts. This is still being built now, but heres a few pics of block, new oversize pistons, new flywheel, sump ect ect

And after a clean, mild port, new tappets, seals ect

A brand new flywheel was sourced and paid for

The passat alternator/water pump/ps pump bracket was too mucky for my liking, so it was cleaned and a new bearing pressed in
before

after

And bearings arrived...sputter bearings in the rod and normal in the cap...expensive!

And pistons fitted to rods selectively with pins to get the best possible balance..piston on the left has had a bit of metal removed as it was overweight..

And main bearings in and crank fitted....plastigauge shows oil clearance at 0.05/6 so well within the limit of 0.17.

this is up to date with the engine, now to empty the interior for the bodywork
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16" syncro multivan pop top AHU TDI
“Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life.”

[lloydy]

stripping the interior, showing 16" and multivan specific stuff..

new back lights

just waiting for the Terrapodz now

van is at the bodyshop now, awaiting surgery. I'll keep this updated with pics of engine and welding....
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16" syncro multivan pop top AHU TDI
“Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life.”

[chojinchef]

Holy crap!

It's like my whole life just passed before my eyes.

Very nice

LP
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Its a mistress; an expensive, whiney, needy bitch of a mistress. She is a chunky, dirty girl with bad skin, little motivation and yet she always makes me smile. She sure has been around before shacking up with me. She has a direct line to my wallet, plays with my emotions, is consistantly jovial yet with a sarcastic and sardonic side, is consistant in her inconsistancy, and every once in a while gives me a great ride and a fantastic memory.

[joetiger]

Great thread and a cool rig! Thanks for sharing!
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Joe T.

'86 NAHT Vanagon GL Syncro/ supercharged ABA 2.0 "Pigpen"
'91 Wolfsburg Carat "Barchetta"

"get metaphysical with it. if it's simply a means to get to and from places, it will let you down. if it becomes your zen, it can't fail you." -dabaron

"Still, it's good to be afield."--VWagabond

Check out my book: Vanagon to Louisiana--A Two-Lane Reckoning Through Past and Present

www.josephtrussell.com
www.pigpensyncro.com

[lloydy]

cheers

From previous pics of the dirty seats and carpet, i got them back almost good as new

Stripping and cleaning the central locking (has never worked)

taken apart

and cleaned up

Still didn't work
perseverance is a trait i have the the wife can rightly hate sometimes....
BUT.....

i've got my central locking working well, some of it..
after looking at Andy's line drawing, and looking on the samba, it finally made sense on how they worked.
I removed the actuators again and stripped them and checked the contact point on the slider thing, this i have realised is where the tiny springs are. Mine had rusted leaving the contact point too far in to make contact

Old springs out, and you can also see the new spring

i had to make the hole for the new springs slightly bigger as the spring i had was bigger

I also put the motors from the two slave actuators in to the master ones, as theses were a lot better looking.
slider actuator all cleaned and fitted

contacts on slider

and contacts on pillar, as you can see one pin has failed, luckily only 3 of the pins are used so just swapped them over

And heres the mechanism in the tailgate for those who want to see how it fits

My next plan for this is to remove the remote locking 'brain' and wiring from a T4 (eurovan) and splice it into the T3 loom, should then have a genuine VW set up, as i'm not sold on the aftermarket kits. The flip key always seems flimsy
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16" syncro multivan pop top AHU TDI
“Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life.”

[lloydy]

I also fitted some relays for the new SA set up, really did make a big improvement

Made up some tails for the relays first

removed the steering column cowl and dropped the fuse board.
Traced the wires from the hi/low switch on the column until they popped out the sheath. It's the yellow and the white wire that are for the lights, can just see them here

Then cut one of the wires

, connected the end from the column to number 86 on the relay and the end going to the fuse board to 87
Then it was just a matter of running a cable from the earth crown to number 85 and a live, which I too from a spare spade on the back left of fuse board to number 30 on the relay. The relays I then mounted to the top of the fuse board

And that was it done...
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16" syncro multivan pop top AHU TDI
“Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life.”

[Zeitgeist 13]

[lloydy]

I agree.. A few friends have a very similar kit to the one you linked (called rightclick) and report no problems with years of use. I just REALLY want it to work off a vw flip key, i'm a fussy fecker!
on German ebay you can get the whole harness for remote locking for around £100 (eurovan). something i may look at in the future... Maybe when the van comes back from body and engine work..
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16" syncro multivan pop top AHU TDI
“Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life.”

[yycwesty]

Hey Lloydy

Amazing write up..Thank you..Can you tell me about the immobilizer ring. I have never head about this unit..Looks like a good way to improve security or is this a syncro only option (have a 2wd)

Cheers
Al

[lloydy]

Hi, the immob ring is from the donor car that supplied the TDI engine and loom. I just had to keep the key with the chip inside it from the donor, then put the chip in a key for my van. Should be able to be done with any of the TDI/1.8T conversions.
As far as i know, not something you can retrofit to a standard T3 engined van
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16" syncro multivan pop top AHU TDI
“Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life.”

[lloydy]

one that always bugged me with my van was the lack of illumination when passenger and sliding door was opened, so i decided to fit two more interior lights. One above the passenger and one by the slider

light fits!

above passengers door

And again i didnt make the hole too big!

in the two pics above, the hole and light dont look level.. just a optical illusion, honest.... measures to the mm to the one on the other side and the plastic strip holding the headliner...
just need to run the wires now... i
1, piggyback live, perm earth and switched earth from drivers light over to connection on light above passenger door (passenger door already has wired in door switch)
2, piggyback same wires over to light above sliding door, then take the switched earth down to switch on sliding door.

picked up a delay light off a Golf, this will allow (with the above wiring) all the lights to work as the delay type

After removing the headlining and having a bit of a headscratch on the right way to run the cables i found what seems to be the VW channel for them. Starts off right here above the drivers door

it then appears here above the slider

You just keep on feeding it through and it comes out right by the cut out for the light but on the wrong side of the metalwork. Fortunately VW provide a hole in the metalwork for the wires to go through (copied from the other side) Heres the wires now, waiting for a light to be fitted

The other end by the front door will be attached to a light then carrried over to the drivers side. I still had to run a switched earth from the rear light to down the B pillar for when i get the door switch, it will also be spliced into the existing switched earth circuit (this will mean all the lights come on whatever door is opened)
I followed the same route as the wires for the central locking, so through this grommet (normally hidden by headliner)

and found down here

perfect access to where the switch will be (just above central locking connections)

Contact pad for the door switch on the slider, this is where it goes

and here it is fitted

also the switch for the slider contact, which turned up after the van left

Loom for the lights all wrapped and temp tied up out the way

happy to report it all works, whichever of the 3 doors are opened all 3 lights come on, and all stay on for the delay period too!
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16" syncro multivan pop top AHU TDI
“Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life.”

[kamzcab86]

Wow... that's some story and an awesome adventure van!

[Zeitgeist 13]

[lloydy]

That idea was flickering through my mind just now i have a whole set of those MES type actuators... Have a go and i'll copy
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16" syncro multivan pop top AHU TDI
“Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life.”

[Brickwerks]

Tut tut, lacking attention to detail, switched earth for courtesy lights is brown with a white trace not black, black is ignition live, coh, don't you know your din standards?

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