87 Westy Syncro TDI conversion and restoration~lots of pics

[87vanwes]

[87vanwes]

[ALIKA T3]

Hey Kevin!

fantastic work so far but I'm confused about your transmission mount solution.

You can lower the engine more to line up everything but what about the transmission shaft to the differential? Are you going to raise the van by mounting spacers between the front subframe and the chassis? (I've seen it done before, there'e a kit for it in Germany )

Aloha!
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Silicone Steering Boots and 930 Cv boots for sale in the classifieds.
Syncro transmission upgrade parts in the Classifieds.
Subaru EJ22+UN1 5 speed transmission
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=416343
Syncro http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4...num+gadget

[87vanwes]

[87vanwes]

[SyncroChrick]

[pedrokrusher]

[ALIKA T3]

Sorry man, super Pedro got it while I was sleeping
_________________
Silicone Steering Boots and 930 Cv boots for sale in the classifieds.
Syncro transmission upgrade parts in the Classifieds.
Subaru EJ22+UN1 5 speed transmission
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=416343
Syncro http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4...num+gadget

[pedrokrusher]

[MarkWard]

I did not see where you welded the syncro transaxle support to the chassis. It looked like you were using long bolts through bolting it. Welded is fine.

Keep the updates coming.

[87vanwes]

We had a shot of good weather...70s so I jumped in head first. Getting the bottom of the van painted is a big mile stone for sure.

For those of you who have a lift you are lucky dogs. Scrubbing, sanding and scotch brighting from a creeper sucks especially for us old folks.

I persavered and got it done. I wanted to remove every thing from under the van but one must draw the line at some point.

The wheel wells took a lot of work to clean. I did not want to compromise the original body wax. The plan is undercoat the wells and top coat over the undercoating. Wait... Can you say top coat under the car... Hmmm

So with the undercoating done its time to mix some paint. 3m undercoating..

I chose to go with acrylic enamel black for the entire underneath. One nice thing about it is what doesn't hit the van will basically be dry before it hits the floor. Or any thing else for that matter.

Haven't used this gun in forever but the gravity guns just wouldn't be much fun under the van. Notice I turned the pickup tube to the back of the cup.

After a long run under the van and turning the pre filters black on my respirator it all came out quite nice. We forget how nice hvlp is when using an old gun.

There has been much talk about transmission cooling systems and I happen to agree. These transmissions are getting harder to come by and very expensive. I think the lighter vehicles are ok but the heavy syncro westy with all its gear and bolt on goodies was never designed to go 70 for hours at a time.

Earlier in this thread I covered the trans. Cooling is number one IMO and if I'm going to return oil from a cooling system I think it should go back where the heat is being generated which is 4th gear IMO. There are some much more involved and probably better then my setup out there and I recommend checking them out if your thinking about transmission mods. I'm also focusing on simplicity which would explain the fully mechanical tdi. So I'm trying to keep it simple I guess dumb would be another word.

In the beginning I was looking into driving a pump off the drive shaft like NASCAR but it wasn't feasible and besides that thing just turns to damn fast. So I started looking elsewhere and started eyeballing the half shafts. This is what I came up with. This is experimental and work in progress..

I bought the wrong rotation hydraulic pump so I had to start with reversing it. A common proses back in my caterpillar days.

Just have to flip the housing end for end.

So with some aluminum stuff laying around the shop the madness begins.. No blue prints or technical drawings and no pulley this could back fire on me.

The plan is to belt drive off the left front axle. The faster the van goes the more oil. Just what it needs

With it all mocked up I painted it and mounted it under the van.

It fits just right. No clearance issues.

Gota love it when the bottom of your car is reflective

I will go into this much more in the future. The cooler I'm going with came off of an aircraft. They are readily available and may be a good choice.

More to come on this.

I thought I would throw in good news on the transmission front.
I've seen folks having to alter there starters and locker actuators for high torque starters. This is what I stumbled across. I used the gowesty bracket and twisted it toward the cv flange.

Had to cut some of the plastic. No big deal.

With the bracket mounted the holes for the actuator had to be ob longed toward the starter for it to fit the offset hole in the locker shaft.

Success... It all clears.

Hope this helps some one out.

Cheers
_________________
Kevin


1987 westy syncro tdi conversion and restoration.
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6...highlight=

[flomulgator]

You already win Most Esoteric Transmission Cooling Pump Idea, hands down. By a lot.

Wish I had known about the GoWesty bracket trick a couple months ago! I did a lot of shaving and cutting like you alluded to.
WestyVentures sells a sealed plug for that plastic starter connection, btw.
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She's built like a steakhouse, but she handles like a bistro!

[87vanwes]

[87vanwes]

Not a lot of progress.. But some

The rear locker actuator is done and sealed up.

These ty raps are the best. The stainless blade makes all the difference in the world. You can pull these things tight and they will stay that way.
I would love to put up links but I'm operating from an I pad and that would be way out of my abilitys so I hope pics are ok.

Tested and ready to go..

I'm slowly picking away at it. Addressing the rear hubs brakes and CVs.

There's two sets of axels. The plan was to tear down and inspect and keep the genuine vw joints providing there in good shape.

Some simply knocked of some needed the press but nove of them were real tight.

Standing in front of the parts washer got really old and hard on the old back.
The nice thing is we're almost done with dirty and greasy things.

This may be review for most but I thought it would be good to share how I take things apart and put them together. It seams like every thing on a vw involves a press and a special tool but that's not always true but I do see the wisdom in it all. There has to be directions just like torque specs.

The inner bearing is easy. Remove the snap ring and tap out with a socket.

The outer bearing is a little more tricky especially if you plan to reuse it and I do if it passes inspection. You need to find a socket or something like it the just barley fits through. This bearing is tight but can be driven out. A press may be a better idea but I did hammer them out without damage.

All out and kept in order especially the roller bearing races. This stuff is all in great shape including all eight of the CVs and they are all genuine oem parts.

Drilling and taping for grease fittings.

And the usual around here

Assembly is not much different then taking them apart but what is nice is you can heat the housings and put the bearings in the freezer and you almost don't need a hammer but you must be quick.

I put a grease fitting on both sides of the hubs. This is just like the hubs on some aircraft constant speed propellers. When you service them you remove the plug from one side and pump grease in the other till is comes out. This is to not compromise the seals. If you push one of those baby's out its off to the prop shop. Not cheap.

Plenty of grease in these things. I did try to leave some room for expansion.

I wish I would have drilled the holes lower but these will work fine.

And that's that for now.

This is what happens when your friends can get in your shop.

HaHa very funny.
_________________
Kevin


1987 westy syncro tdi conversion and restoration.
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6...highlight=

[ALIKA T3]

Looks hella nice man!!

As for your pump, I had a similar idea with a ZF power steering pump off the propshaft. I gave up bc if you go offroading, the shafts (prop or drive) are not turning fast enough to get oil flowing :/

What are your thoughts about it? Most of the heat is highway heat, but still, going slow with a lot of torque from a Tdi must generate heat as well.

Are you running 930 cv joints?


Cheers!
_________________
Silicone Steering Boots and 930 Cv boots for sale in the classifieds.
Syncro transmission upgrade parts in the Classifieds.
Subaru EJ22+UN1 5 speed transmission
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=416343
Syncro http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4...num+gadget

[zuhandenheit]

Great work! And thanks for documenting this so well.

When I was a kid, I spent my summer in Hatteras Island! My uncle owns a charter fishing fleet, and tried to train me to be a mate. Unfortunately, I get really damn sea sick. So, instead, I just washed my uncle's boats.

I'm a total novice welder, but have a question/suggestion. For your butt-weld test, it looks like you didn't using a backing plate. I'm thinking that a copper backing plate could make things a lot easier when you weld in the fuel filler. I have some scraps of copper plate and magnets I use, especially when I'm welding dent puller holes (my van looked like it'd been hit with a machine gun, under the body filler).


Also, I saw you were thinking about using awlgrip!

This is the first time I've seen else consider using 2 part polyurethane marine paint on a car. I painted my van with Interlux Perfection, which is really similar stuff. I'd done a lot of body work (including panel replacement) and needed to get some kind of coating on the van, with limited resources and working in a small garage where spraying wasn't an option. And I really didn't want to use Rustoleum, for many reasons,including a basic commitment to using only two-part products on the body (panel glue, seam sealer, epoxy primer, monstaliner, etc.), but also because I wanted something that could later be repainted with automotive paint.

I think that I'm crazy for doing this the way I did, rolling and tipping this stuff! I sanded between coats, and applied four total. It was a lot of work. The outcome is good enough, but at some point I want to get a damn spray gun, like a reasonable person, sand what I've got and hit it with one more coat. With enough practice, one could get a finish with this stuff that looks sprayed. Some of the panels on my van turned out just about perfectly; but there are plenty of areas where the texture looks bad. I also had a lot of trouble with dust.

I'm also considering wetanding and buffing what I've got. Interlux says it's not good for the paint, since, as it cures, it creates something kind of like a thin clear coat -- a layer in which some of the constituents of the paint, including UV protectants, are more concentrated.

In the last one, you can see some of the imperfections. There are a lot!!


So, do you know of others who have used these kinds of paints as automotive paint?

How would you compare the durability?

If you use Awlgrip, I'll be really interested to see the result!

[Signalocity]

Nice work on scrubbing the bottom of that tub clean! It's such an unbearable job. I'm really liking that half shaft belt driven pump. Vintage BMW Alpinas had such an option.

[87vanwes]

[87vanwes]

[87vanwes]