Saving the Supers Never Ends! '75 Le Grande At Last!

[plextor]

[vamram]

[VW_Jimbo]

Sounds great! Exhaust leaks are par for the course. You will need to regasket all of the connections.

What’s up at the front bumper and hood?
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Jimbo

There is never enough time to do it right the first time, but all the time necessary the second time!

[vamram]

Jimbo the hood looks great to me, lines up perfectly at the cowl and edges. The bumper looks funny because it's missing the plastic end caps and the factory bumper strip. The spare bumper has all of it.
_________________
"Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition
to put moral chains upon their own appetites. -Edmund Burke
“If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.”
Stop Russian-Soviet Aggression!!

'74 Super 9/16 - present, in refurb process.
'73 Super - 6/18 - Present - Daily Driver!
'75 Super Le Grande...languishing since 2022.
Click to view image
Save the Supers!!

[VW_Jimbo]

[Marinablau703]

Glutton for punishment I see!

Hopefully as you peel back the layers of this onion, you don’t find major surprises. We all know how project creep works haha.

Looking forward to watching this project from the ground floor!

[Buggeee]

I think you're going to love the fuel injection up north because it'll start as easily in the middle of winter that will in the middle of summer. You will find a lot of crossover information with the fuel-injected buses and air-cooled vanagons because they were using similar fuel injection stuff. The troubleshooting guide like you have there is really useful and you'll find more of stuff like that up in the technical section and or Archives of this site if you look in all the different areas and models that might have had fuel injection. When it comes to fuel injection Victor the tiniest little bit of air leak will cause lots of hard to diagnose problem so the first step is really replace every little piece of fuel line with brand new fuel injection rated hose and then every little vacuum hose and rubber boot that you can that will eliminate so much time and trying to track stuff down. Plus those fuel lines will start cracking from the inside out so they may look good on the outside but be full of cracks on the inside. At least that's what I found when I pulled them off of the Vanagon and that fuel injection system is under a tremendous amount of pressure I think even more than modern systems so when a line splits is just a vapor spraying out like a flamethrower waiting for an ignition it will find very quickly in an air-cooled engine. Immediately replacing all the fuel lines in a Volkswagen fuel injection car is a religion and high holy day mass at that so please do that first because I love reading all your posts
_________________
Big Time 1988 Vanagon Westy
Release the Krankenwagen! 1966 Sportsmobile Camper
Dr. Kompressor 72 Super Duper
61 Turkis Pile (adopted out)

[Buggeee]

Also replacing the little o rings that are in the fuel injectors is part of the rubber stuff that cracks and creates bugs for you scratch your head about so you might as well replace those you'll be pulling the injectors out to replace the fuel lines anyway so just get a kit off of Amazon or Ebay for pennies that has all those little rubber O-rings for the fuel injectors
_________________
Big Time 1988 Vanagon Westy
Release the Krankenwagen! 1966 Sportsmobile Camper
Dr. Kompressor 72 Super Duper
61 Turkis Pile (adopted out)

[H2OSB]

What an awesome starting point! I wish I could find and justify having a '75. Grats on the find. I will definitely be following along.

H20SB
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(o\_i_/o) Funny thing about pigs, they're cleaner than you and me. Well....you.

[vamram]

Thank you thank you and yes I am a glutton for punishment, woke up sore this morning...

Buggee, all the rubber hoses were replaced by the PO over the last year using high pressure fuel injection hose.. I've gone thru the motor and tank, all appear fresh.

My concern is why did he use hose instead of the rail. I do see where the rail is chaffed at one of the hose ends, as if it had been rubbed against other metal for a long time. I have a spare rail in my parts stash. Replace, or run with the current set up?
_________________
"Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition
to put moral chains upon their own appetites. -Edmund Burke
“If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.”
Stop Russian-Soviet Aggression!!

'74 Super 9/16 - present, in refurb process.
'73 Super - 6/18 - Present - Daily Driver!
'75 Super Le Grande...languishing since 2022.
Click to view image
Save the Supers!!

[Lost69Convertible]

[plextor]

yep '75 had the hose. I keep this image bookmarked as it's the nicest image of a new '75 engine bay I've been able to find.

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1975 VW La Grande Bug (Super Beetle, 1600 EFI, owned since May 2021)

[vamram]

Thanks Plextor, that answers one mystery. Another is the engine case. [EDIT] It's a single letter E-code case, not a 2-letter E-code. After a quick search I discovered on thesamba case codes page that this was sometime in its life a factory-rebuilt case, by VW of Spain....

Then there are the funky Brazilian taillights. A Hella rear lense will not fit these because the white plastic piece for the Hella brake bulb prevents the assembly from sitting flush.

And then there's the wiring mess at the dash....here's a glimpse of my future.

Finally, I have some FI troubleshooting to do once I get into this. It starts cold but idle is rough and under 800 or so for the 1st minute or so. Something w/the cold start valve I guess...?
_________________
"Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition
to put moral chains upon their own appetites. -Edmund Burke
“If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.”
Stop Russian-Soviet Aggression!!

'74 Super 9/16 - present, in refurb process.
'73 Super - 6/18 - Present - Daily Driver!
'75 Super Le Grande...languishing since 2022.
Click to view image
Save the Supers!!

[Buggeee]

[plextor]

[vamram]

Not yet - car is on ice until I finish fixing the '74.
_________________
"Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition
to put moral chains upon their own appetites. -Edmund Burke
“If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.”
Stop Russian-Soviet Aggression!!

'74 Super 9/16 - present, in refurb process.
'73 Super - 6/18 - Present - Daily Driver!
'75 Super Le Grande...languishing since 2022.
Click to view image
Save the Supers!!

[vamram]

Well Gents - hate to admit it, I've had to give up on this project. My Bug heart is heartbroken. But I've got too many other things going on (my '74 and my '73 + all the non-VW stuff in life) and realistically it just ain't gonna happen. Might as well make it available to some other Super lover who's always wanted a Le Grande!

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=2718846
_________________
"Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition
to put moral chains upon their own appetites. -Edmund Burke
“If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.”
Stop Russian-Soviet Aggression!!

'74 Super 9/16 - present, in refurb process.
'73 Super - 6/18 - Present - Daily Driver!
'75 Super Le Grande...languishing since 2022.
Click to view image
Save the Supers!!

[Buggeee]

Dude, this is OK. I think you've proved your point a few times already! it's time to enjoy.
_________________
Big Time 1988 Vanagon Westy
Release the Krankenwagen! 1966 Sportsmobile Camper
Dr. Kompressor 72 Super Duper
61 Turkis Pile (adopted out)

[vamram]

[67rustavenger]

I agree with buggee. It's time to enjoy the fruits of your labor.

You've done some amazing work on your cars over the last few years. And it never really ends, i.e.: your 73 fuel supply issues of late.

I'm at the age where I'm slowing down a bit. I really don't need to build any more fast cars for myself.
It seems over the last year, I have enjoyed assisting friends with their race car setups more than working on my cars.

I bought a Eurovan last week and am looking forward to a few camp trips.
That'll be a little bit more of a relaxed lifestyle for me.
_________________
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!