New Member with a New 2 ME Sand Rail

[Scruffy Buggy]

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New member info: I was a auto tech in my former life for 25+ years followed by a 20 year career as a machinist. Now retired and refusing to grow up.

Just bought an old sand rail I will be resurrecting.

It has a 71 Bus engine and transaxle that I think is basically stock. Engine sounded okay but I didn't run it long or drive it because the fan was scragged. Hub was worn out and fan was freewheeling so I hope they didn't do too much damage to the engine. They claimed trans is okay so I went on trust.

It needs rear tires which I am on the hunt for. It has 35x12.50-15 on it.

I have a new fan and hub on order.

Previous user said it didn't run or idle all that good so I went ahead and ordered an aftermarket stock type carb. It was only double the cost of a kit so I went for simple if it's not junk. Reviews were good on it. Also ordered a new fuel filter and some 1/4" fuel hose. Stock carb had the shut off solenoid clipped and no power going to it so I will add power to the new one.

It has an external oil cooler and a aftermarket dog house. To be honest I haven't looked close enough to see if it has an oil thermostat. How much extra oil should I add? Planning to change oil and filter tomorrow while I wait on parts.

Axle boots are all torn and I plan to just replace the axles. Aftermarket axles are so cheap it isn't worth my time to repack CVs and put new boots on. Not going to spend that money until after I make a few laps around the property.

I have 7 acres and recently made a road course around the back 3 for a go Kart I bought to play with. My granddaughter is having fun with the kart but it is too small for both of us. I started this mission looking for a larger kart and came across this rail so I went that direction. Wife had a VW when we married and has pestered me to get her another so I may get away with making this count. I figure it will give me a start to teach the granddaughter how to drive a manual trans and some car control.

Here is a video of the track I made. I have modified the course since this was taken and made it lap around the property instead of having turn arounds. Was eating too much dust having to turn around and drive through the area from which I just came.
https://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=ZZG1Xf0iG0Q&ab_channel=sandyman099

I use to do a lot of autocross and track days in my Mustang. I let my daughter drive it in autocross and she became an excellent driver.

I still try to get in a couple of track days every year.
https://www.youtube.com/user/sandyman099/videos

And here is the obligatory photo of the new project.

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[cbeck]

Nice. Don't see how people get thru life without a pick em up truck.

_________________
My cut in half and rebuild thread
www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=647779

[Scruffy Buggy]

Making slow progress.

Ordered a new fan and discovered my shroud was too narrow for it. Seems I have an early Thing shroud. After some research I found the general consensus was to do away with the external cooler and install a doghouse cooler and fan shroud. Since I already have the 36mm fan I went ahead and ordered a compatible cooler and shroud to go with it.

Decided to run a compression test today and found 3 out of 4 holes were stripped. Borrowed the helicoil tap from a friend and ordered the correct inserts for the tool I borrowed.

Seats didn't have a slider and my granddaughter can't reach the pedals. I have some sliders I could adapt but saw a Yerf Dog roller on FB that had the high back seats with a slider on the drivers side so I snatched that up. Going to move the seats from that to the buggy and park the dog out in the maybe later pile. It's the two seater adult size kart so looks like a fun future build or may just steal the seats and flip it.

[Scruffy Buggy]

Got my spark plug holes fixed and installed my new doghouse oil cooler.

The eBay seller I ordered the shroud from hasn't put it in the hands of the shipper yet. It really pisses me off when a seller does that. Ordered it the same day I ordered the cooler. Cooler is on the engine and the friggin shroud sits in California with me in FL.

Working to install the different seats. Having to cut some tabs off and weld on new or eliminate for the belts and slider adjuster.

Still need to run a brake tube for a throttle cable and get that connected. I guess I will mock that up with my old shroud. Can't run the engine enough to tune without the new shroud. I have the new tube and cable.

[oprn]

[Scruffy Buggy]

Ordered a pair of 31x10.5-15 mud terrain tires. Should drop it a couple inches and fit the 15x8 wheels better.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/1-New-31X10-50-15-Roadone...2749.l2649


Damn eBay seller just shipped the doghouse shroud I ordered on the 22nd. Made a BS claim that UPS JUST picked it up. Funny no other sellers had that problem. The oil cooler I ordered on the same day and time from a different seller arrived on the 26th. If you are on the east coast I would think twice before ordering from aircooledhouzz.

[oprn]

This is what I have on mine. They are Quad tires. 31" is a whole lot better but still a bit tall for the open road and a stock 1600 but should work.

[Scruffy Buggy]

My choice of tire size was dictated by the existing wheels.

This buggy has a 71 bus transaxle so the final drive should pull it. It will likely never leave my property or see 3rd gear.

[Scruffy Buggy]

Finally making some progress. Hit a little snafu with the trans but I think I have it sorted out now.

So far I've had to:
Replace fan, shroud, and oil cooler
Helicoil all the plug holes
replace the pushrods and valve adjusters
Replace rear tires
Pull nose cone on transmission and replace the shift ball
Replace intake boots
Rebuild Carb

Cleaning up wiring today. Not going to bother with full street legal right now.

Still Needed:
Install new seat belt harnesses
Replace axle Boots
May want to add front brakes


Link
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[Scruffy Buggy]

First run around my gokart track in the Scruffy Buggy. GPS speedo app said I achieved a max speed of 31.8 MPH. I need to grade and widen the course for the buggy to have a little more run off room.



Link
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