SS100 "replica" Kit Kar

[Ulu]

Pics from Judy’s first ride in the SS.

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SS100 kit kar
1600cc DP

[Buggeee]

Priceless
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1966 Sportsmobile Camper https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=...mp;start=0
72 Super Duper http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=672387
(adopted out) 61 Turkis Pile https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=728764

[Ulu]

OMG a stick shift car! It has been 19 years!

It just dawned on me that I haven’t once driven a stick since my father died in 2002. I drove his Civic to my sister’s house one time. I had a ‘96 Bonneville then.

I always drove a stick shift until 1990 when I sold my ‘59 Edsel. That car had a strong engine & a week transmission, and once I put fat tires on, it ripped out the first gear in about two months.That car would burn rubber like crazy with stock size tires.

Anyhow it turns out that my car has a brand new Chinese eBay voltage regulator and when I opened it up inside it was amazing.

Every set of points was misaligned and crooked . . . about as poorly as you possibly could have done the job. The coils were not indexed straight. Wires were crossing each other and burning through insulation. The insulator on the cover screw had rubbed through on the fat coil of the cut off relay & here was a clear short. The ground lug was about 0.005” from shorting B+.

Anyhow I spent about an hour straightening everything out and cleaning the points and making them align perfectly as possible. Now I have to put it back on the car with the voltmeter and set the cut out voltage and the regulator coil cycle.

I haven’t done this work since I fixed the regulator on my 47 Plymouth about 35 years ago. Being a 6 volt positive ground it still wasn’t that much different from this fake Bosch..
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SS100 kit kar
1600cc DP

[slayer61]

[Ulu]

Thank you, Paul.

The charging issue is bugging me. I am sure I can adjust this regulator to work, but will it last? What are the points made of?

I'm going to look into a transistorized regulator.

I was having a lot of gas fumes in the garage, and today I sealed the vent on my Wisco gas tank. They almost vanished. I forgot what cars were like before charcoal vapor recovery.

I need a canister in the engine bay, and a vent hose from the tank back there. Also a vapor purge hose, purge valve, and a purge signal hose.

But the biggest issues are (first and foremost) the rigid front suspension, crappy steering column, and lack of rear body mounts.

I just lifted the rear body and stuffed some rubber pads between the fiberglass and frame. I believe they hit the road when I did my unexpected burnout. The engine tried to stall in an intersection so I fanned the clutch and nailed the gas.

There was a little damp sand on the road so both tires spun for 3 feet, then hooked up hard, causing the whole car to shake like a wet dog and jump away like a scalded cat. The frame smacked the body on the booty repeatedly, and it made a lot of noise.

This beast needs some containment!
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SS100 kit kar
1600cc DP

[Ulu]

I made new temporary rear body mounts out of some polyurethane bushings. I desperately need to make another steel brace or hoop to reinforce the tub. It is sagging at the back lip, but you don’t notice it when the ragtop is on.

I still don’t have a working regulator and I don’t really wanna bother with the Chinese job if I can get a transistor regulator. I did remove all of the stock style hose, and I am plumbed back to the stock bronze fuel line. I still have to purge out that line to remove any dirt but I did put a fuel filter at the tank.

Today I will get a new regulator and try again.

This engine has a vent hose from the stub by the oil filler cap, and it goes to the bottom of the air cleaner. I had run some two-stroke gas in the engine & it was blowing a little blue smoke still, so I’m not sure if I’m sucking oil Up from the crank case, but this car does not appear to have a PCV valve or a road draft tube.

My VW experience came from the swingarm days, and this car is quite a bit different than the ones I fixed. It just never occurred to me before that this car should have a PCV valve. Maybe the circuit is so tall from the oil sump that a boxer engine doesn’t quite need one?

Because the front suspension on this car is topped out I started playing around with it yesterday to figure out if I could take it apart without disassembling too much of the car. It looks like I can do what I need to do and only break down one ball joint to do it. I don’t think I will have to touch the brakes.

When I took the shiny Brazilian shock absorbers off the car it rose about an inch in the front. Perhaps this is normal?…they are seemingly too short. I had to use ratchet straps to bring the suspension back down to install the top nuts.

I feel I need to get rid of these Cofap shocks but AFAICT The shock absorbers on this car are the only bump stops. I think if I leave them off and drive the car it will top out higher and start pulling the ball joints apart.

In the course of my ministrations, I jacked the suspension arms up and down independently and figured out that the left and right springs are not worn the same amount: the passenger side spring being a little stronger. I took the swaybar off earlier and I can see the effect when I look at the rubbers as well.

I also discovered that there is a very limited amount of clearance for the tie rods & should I bring this car down to normal operating height in the front they will bang on the body.

In the assembly manual it tells you to start stacking washers on the front body mounts until this goes away. That’s not gonna actually help enough with the car in its current configuration unless I start bending some heavy metal.

I’m going to have to invert the inner and outer tie rod ends, and I will have to buy a bushing set for this before I drill them out.
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SS100 kit kar
1600cc DP

[Ulu]

I got a nice transistor voltage regulator today for $26. It is used but it works OK. Unfortunately I am still sucking air through fuel hoses & I need to replace it all.
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SS100 kit kar
1600cc DP

[Ulu]

Well I put better fuel hoses on and a better fuel filter and the system has absolutely no leaks. I cleaned all the metal lines and everything is tight and solid.

But the fuel pump is weak and it won’t pump unless you’ve got a lot of gas in the tank, Such that it never breaks siphon, by sucking air while you’re driving around. The engine will run wide-open under load as long as you don’t get any air in the fuel line.

Soooo, I bought a new fuel pump today. I could only get the alternator style but it did come with gaskets and a push rod for 40 bucks. 100% Chinese of course. Frankly I’m hoping for a miracle here.

I bought a cheap balljoint breaker at Harbor freight today. Looks like a copy of the Volkswagen tool. The steel sounds brittle and it will probably crack at the hinge point. I have two pickle forks and two 4 pound hammers and I normally use them all at the same time to get these apart (on bigger vehicles) but I didn’t want to resort to that here if I could get the correct tool.

At some point someone had wrecked the generator pulley by putting the cover on backwards. HARD! So mine is damaged and I bought a new aftermarket one today for 20 bucks. It is in black oxide and I think I will paint it red.

Anyhow I could get the car running in an hour, but it doesn’t matter because I won’t drive it as it’s raining today.

Hallelujah! Unlike people back home, we desperately need some big rains. I want to drive this buggy but we have been in a drought for 10 years and more. It can rain in the rain and rain. I have a Toyota for driving in the rain.
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SS100 kit kar
1600cc DP

[Ulu]

What do I get for bragging?

I had to drive out across town in the rain, and fix my daughter's crusty battery terminals in a dark storage lot.

41 years old, and like most girls, can't look after a car.

Anyhow I'm damp and tired and not willing to fix the SS tonight. I won't drive it anyhow, until the streets are dry again. I just panted under all the fenders last month, & I just cleaned the bottom of the engine and trans.
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SS100 kit kar
1600cc DP

[oprn]

Yes! Thank you for the pictures of that drive! We have been waiting for those big grins! Makes the project with all it's trials and tribulations worth while.

Some days I wonder why I am still bothering to try and work all the bugs out of our Manx copy, then the Missus gets in it and grins like a school girl! Yup, that's why!

I hear you on the front suspension issues. The stock springing is way too stiff for our cars. As bought this one rode front end high and just did not look right. The front beam was rusted through in several places so I bought a lowered adjustable beam and put it in. With it adjusted down to get the stance I wanted the suspension bottomed out way too easily. This resulted in the front end bouncing right off the road at speed on a rough highway. If that don't fill your shorts I'm not sure what would!

I adjusted it back up and it fixed that but still sits a little too high on the front and rides pretty harsh. Next thing I will try is to remove some of the leaves in the spring pack.

In hind sight I wish I would have bought lowered spindles instead of a lowered beam. I'm not sure if lowered spindles would help you as the tie rods may still interfere and that would still not change your spring rate.
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We had the stone age, the bronze age, the industrial age and now we are in the age of mass deception and mind control for corporate profit. (The mass media age)

[Ulu]

[Ulu]

I spent some time reading about VW serial numbers and decoding the bits of my car, and here is what I have determined.

Chassis 113 2 822 733 . . . a beetle sedan from the 1973 model year.
Trans AT 08 05 3 . . . . . .??? from 8th may 1973
Engine AE 901 297 . . . . . .1600 DP 46hp SAE, pre oct 4th 1972, 49 state

I was afraid the engine was a 1974, which could be a problem with the CHP. I believe a 1972 engine gets me free of some things but not others. I won't need smog inspections, but the car might be required to have all the original gear, even if non-working. I don't have it, and if I did the air cleaner would never fit this body. It nearly touches the doghouse now.

I've heard too many things over the years, and I'll probably just have to find out the whole story Jan 5th.
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SS100 kit kar
1600cc DP

[Braedonsz]

Some shots of the column setup in this car. Seems to deviate from the manual u-bolt to offer a little more support. Perhaps it might offer some inspiration.

and a fuzzy shot from the other side...

[Ulu]

Thank you so much for the photos.

Your car has the column tube rubber mounted, instead of relying on fiberglass flexure. That is a good idea, and I was thinking of something completely different. I can weld a u-bolt to the tube and stick both legs down thru the fiberglass, with oversized holes & rubber bushings each side. I was going to add a stiffener below as well.

But now you have me thinking of something else.
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SS100 kit kar
1600cc DP

[Ulu]

Having determined that my fuel pump is old and weak, even though it looks shiny and new on the outside, I am replacing it with another fuel pump of modern oriental heritage.

We’ll see how that goes. I trust the guy that sold it to me and if it’s bogus I expect him to get me another pump.

I also got some bushings so I can relocate the tie rods. I’m not sure I will want to do all four yet. I wasn’t able to get a huge joint for the steering yet and I definitely want to install one and some real column support.

Having partially disassembled and reassembled my front end I have decided that the driver side front springs on this car are damaged from age. I don’t think they’re actually broken but I won’t know until I take it apart. At this point I really think I’m going to go with an air ride front end.
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SS100 kit kar
1600cc DP

[Ulu]

I took off the old Brazilian fuel pump and I’m preparing to install the new one.

When I went to grease the new pump rod, I looked at it and saw it was machined out by a poorly trained monkey!

It was amazing how bad the machine work was, and then they plated it right over it!

The new 100 mm pump rod was about 0.03” too long. After I filed and polished the ends it is 3.937” or 100mm exactly.

I haven’t pulled out the plastic isolator yet, so I hope it’s not cracked. I wanted to check and see what stroke I’m getting on the pushrod but I haven’t found a spec for that yet. It would be a pain to replace the fuel pump because I really have a bad lobe.
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SS100 kit kar
1600cc DP

[Ulu]

Well I’m only getting 0.080” travel = 2mm. That doesn’t seem like much to me but I still haven’t found the proper specification yet. At TDC I do have the 5 mm projection prescribed in the manual.

Checking the pushrod travel with a dial indicator.

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SS100 kit kar
1600cc DP

[oprn]

I'm curious as to what it is that made you think the fuel pump was weak. Were you running out of gas as full throttle? Did you install a gauge and the pressure was low?
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We had the stone age, the bronze age, the industrial age and now we are in the age of mass deception and mind control for corporate profit. (The mass media age)

[Ulu]

My suspicions were multiple. First off when I got the car they had bypassed the fuel pump and put on an electric pump. I have not yet installed a fuel pressure gauge.

But the mechanical pump looked nice & I didn’t really condemn the fuel pump outright. I had hoses that looked like they might be leaking air.

It certainly didn’t bother me to change out the cheap Brazilian fuel pump just because it was old. Everything looks shiny but this has been sitting around 30 years and only went 400 miles.

Generally, the performance was erratic. Sometimes perfect, sometimes impossible. Normally I would think that the carburetor is clogged up but I don’t think that’s the case. The car ran too good the first time I drove it.

This may turn out to be a case of clogged carburetor jets. I really hate the air filter arrangement on this car and I am planning to change it soon. I have some aluminum cut off‘s and a TIG welder and an urge to start welding aluminum.

Anyhow the car ran better and better each time I ran it except that eventually it ran worse and worse, then not at all.

When I took the fuel pump off it wasn’t really torqued down very tight. The plastic isolator had some very minor crushing, but no cracks. Also it had very thin gaskets, and the pushrod had some wear. It was .75mm (almost 1/32”) too short, but it worked OK when it worked.

We’ll see if it works tomorrow.I haven’t started the engine yet because the weather here is bad and I don’t want to take it out.
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SS100 kit kar
1600cc DP

[Ulu]

Cold, damp weather here, and I still haven't tested the car.

When I last drove the SS I made a hard right turn, and I think one of the front torsion bars cracked on the right. There was a noise, extra roll, and I heard rubbing of the tie rod on the underbody. I must have nearly bottomed on the left.

Right side is still topped out. Shock is fully extended & upper bushing compressed. Stiff when I sit on the right bumper tip. Doesn't want to bounce.

Left front is not topped out now & is drooping a bit. Droops a lot when I sit on the left bumper. It feels clunky & bounces.

I'm must pull the beam all apart soon.
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SS100 kit kar
1600cc DP