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Sir Sam
Samba Member
Joined: July 19, 2009
Posts: 1686
Location: Fort Collins Colorado!
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 Posted: Sun Feb 10, 2013 6:03 pm Post subject: Sir Sams Syncro Status Thread: |
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What has two thumbs and a running syncro? This guy does!
So long story short I've had this thing a few years and haven't gotten around to working on it, back in Dec I finally ordered a new clutch for it and spent the time to get that in. During the process of getting the clutch in it kind of snowballed and I ended up needing something else and then something else and so on. So after fighting little thing after another little thing I finally got it back on the road today.
New clutch, new starter, resealed cooling system, new clutch slave and master cylinders, new locker actuator and one solid test drive later and it looks like I'm gonna start rocking this thing tomorrow.
Working rear diff locker!
(unfortunately my van didn't come with a front locker or decoupler).
I had to JB weld in my starter pilot bushing, this should have been a press fit but because of how the bellhousing bolts broke I think the starter ate away the bushing and wallowed out the hole.
Rebuilt bosch starter, I've had to strike it with a hammer twice already.
Been out playing around with the rear locker, first time I've had it working proper like(but I think I have my lines backward, up in on and down is off .
Now on to the next issue, like why my odometers decided to stop working during my test drive(worked for a whole 2.9 miles before stopping) and tracking down why my tachometer doesn't work.
At some point I will have a decently running syncro, and I can tear it apart to install the westy top and interior from this donor:
_________________
'91 Carat Westy
87' Syncro + '87 Westy conversion coming soon
Last edited by Sir Sam on Sat Feb 23, 2013 8:36 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Chuey
Samba Member
Joined: October 18, 2010
Posts: 855
Location: Oceanside, California
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| Posted: Sun Feb 10, 2013 8:59 pm Post subject: |
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It's a very nice looking vehicle. It sounds like you've got some work into it. I always feel that the work I put into my vehicles make them mine. That's my favorite Vanagon color.
Chuey |
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tam_shops
Samba Member
Joined: November 15, 2012
Posts: 1530
Location: Vancouver BC
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| Posted: Sun Feb 10, 2013 9:25 pm Post subject: |
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Enjoy!
tam |
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Sir Sam
Samba Member
Joined: July 19, 2009
Posts: 1686
Location: Fort Collins Colorado!
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| Posted: Sun Feb 10, 2013 9:56 pm Post subject: |
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| Chuey wrote: |
It's a very nice looking vehicle. It sounds like you've got some work into it. I always feel that the work I put into my vehicles make them mine. That's my favorite Vanagon color.
Chuey |
The gold or red?
Its getting there on work........someday the little issues with be done with and I will be able to get to the fun stuff of the westy conversion.
| tam_shops wrote: |
Enjoy!
tam |
Thank you I will.
_________________
'91 Carat Westy
87' Syncro + '87 Westy conversion coming soon |
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Sir Sam
Samba Member
Joined: July 19, 2009
Posts: 1686
Location: Fort Collins Colorado!
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| Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2013 8:31 pm Post subject: |
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Cleaned out the van today, removed the center row of seats(only seats 5 people instead of 7 now, probably leave it out). Took my Xmas tree to the dump along with a few other things, got to rally it up Mt. Garbage to drop stuff off. I removed the nasty old chrome trim stuff from the side windows, put some cross bars on the roof and tossed a spare thule on top for aesthetics.
Took it for a wash and then swung by walmart for a new battery and home depot, loaded up some 8" wood with plenty of room to spare!
I've also decided to keep the audi wheels I have, they are have grown on me and with some new silver paint I'm going to like them. The real kicker for me is that they are forged lightweight allow wheels, and its actually harder to get something functionally better than these. Sometime in the next couple of months I'm going to pick on some new tires, I'm considering a couple of options:
Top of my list:
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=B...mpare1=yes
Second:
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=B...mpare1=yes
Third:
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=B...mpare1=yes
_________________
'91 Carat Westy
87' Syncro + '87 Westy conversion coming soon |
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syncroluvr
Samba Member
Joined: October 11, 2010
Posts: 200
Location: Trois Rivieres,QC
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| Posted: Sun Feb 24, 2013 5:55 am Post subject: |
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Wow, you've done some good work! I too am thinking about 15" tires. Hope to see more from you! 
_________________
1990 Syncro Westy with stump pulling 2576cc Subaru
Y2K V6 Passat
Calcandi Leviter |
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FNGRUVN
Samba Member
Joined: October 27, 2007
Posts: 2237
Location: Fort Collins, CO
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| Posted: Sun Feb 24, 2013 7:25 am Post subject: |
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I see your van has the "moron" dent, too. That's the dent that 90% of these vans have on the upper rear section of the slider where some moron thought it necessary to drive his shoulder into the door to get it to shut. Previous owners....sheeez! 
Your dog is ready to hit some trails.
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"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote." - Benjamin Franklin |
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Phishman068
Samba Member
Joined: February 19, 2007
Posts: 1867
Location: Pittsburgh PA (ish)
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0to60in6min
Samba Member
Joined: November 27, 2006
Posts: 3416
Location: OR & CA (Oregon/California)
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| Posted: Sun Feb 24, 2013 10:24 am Post subject: |
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good work!!
I have now BFG All Terrain but for next set of tires... I am debating between BFG All Terrain or BFG Mud Terrain..
any idea of differences?
thanks |
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Phishman068
Samba Member
Joined: February 19, 2007
Posts: 1867
Location: Pittsburgh PA (ish)
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Sir Sam
Samba Member
Joined: July 19, 2009
Posts: 1686
Location: Fort Collins Colorado!
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| Posted: Sun Feb 24, 2013 12:05 pm Post subject: |
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| syncroluvr wrote: |
| Wow, you've done some good work! I too am thinking about 15" tires. Hope to see more from you! |
Definitely more coming, I just don't know the order of things! I have so much stuff to order and bolt on, my orders to Van-cafe tend to be like:
| FNGRUVN wrote: |
I see your van has the "moron" dent, too. That's the dent that 90% of these vans have on the upper rear section of the slider where some moron thought it necessary to drive his shoulder into the door to get it to shut. Previous owners....sheeez!
Your dog is ready to hit some trails. |
Actually the whole door is twisted, barely seals on the left top corner(C pillar), and is tweaked all over, I think it must have gotten bumped into something on the trail once and messed up, its beyond repair, and it also messed up the slider cover. When the time comes I am going to go with the Burley "sycro" stamped cover.
I have a good new slider track cover, but I really want to go with one of these guys:
$200 for a cosmetic piece, but damm I like it.
I have a red donor van for my pop top and westy interior, it has a good slider:
(its pretty rashed up, but I can do a quick skim coat on it to clean it up, it will still end up being many hours of labor, but its straight overall and unless I can find a cleaner slider cheap I will stick with it.
| Phishman068 wrote: |
Looking good!
My syncro has BFG's ATs on it and many other syncros do as well. They're a wonderful "all around" tire for a syncro. I would not waste on the street tires you listed as the last option. The BFG AT's are plenty quiet and long wearing.
HOWEVER,
I think i'm about to switch to the Mud Terrain's. As I understand it the new compound is only slightly louder and slightly faster wearing than the BFG AT's. With that said, I like the look of them ALOT better, much more aggressive.
Keep up the good work! |
I have the BFG ATs in a load range E 245/75/16 on my Jeep, I've been very pleased with them, so its pretty much at the top of my list, I just need to figure out what size I want to buy/fit. The upside to the muds is that they are more agressive looking, but they are going to be worse in the snow. Those big lugs are great for mud, and are fine offroad, but solid lugs are terrible for snow grippyness, and most of my driving will be onroad and very little mud, so the ATs are a good choice, realistically the duelers are a better tire than the Muds for my needs.
Most of the offroading I have done in my life has been on street tires, and I've managed pretty well, and combined with my rear locker and future front locker I think the BFGs make the most sense.
_________________
'91 Carat Westy
87' Syncro + '87 Westy conversion coming soon |
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Sir Sam
Samba Member
Joined: July 19, 2009
Posts: 1686
Location: Fort Collins Colorado!
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| Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2013 10:07 pm Post subject: |
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Got some LED lights for the van, I got some of the superbrightleds.com damaged DRLs(4), and then I bought a regular priced set to get the wiring and such, so I will have 6 of them installed up front, I'm going to install them to come on with the headlights, not DRLs.
https://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/led-vehic.../626/1896/
The damaged ones I have were $10 each without wiring harness.
Then I got some new sidemarkers:
https://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/truck-marker/double-bulls-eye-marker/596/
These use the exactly same screw spacing as OEM, but need a ground added, they are considerably brighter than the OEM setup, though they stick out a bit more.
The photos kinda suck, I'm not sure how to get better evidence, point to point they seem about the same, but they put out more light and I think they will be more visible from a distance.
Original:
New:
OLD vs NEW, same shot:
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'91 Carat Westy
87' Syncro + '87 Westy conversion coming soon |
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Syncromikey
Samba Member
Joined: September 19, 2012
Posts: 463
Location: Calgary, Alberta, Canada
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| Posted: Fri Mar 01, 2013 7:48 am Post subject: |
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Those side side lights look great!! They are so bright. Are you happy with them? They almost look too bright 
Have you thought about putting one or two of those LED driving lights on the back to use as backup lights? There never seems to be enough light back there when you are trying to back into a camping spot after you roll in a bit late.
Cheers,
Mike
_________________
Love my Westy ...
My build: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=528954 |
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Sir Sam
Samba Member
Joined: July 19, 2009
Posts: 1686
Location: Fort Collins Colorado!
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| Posted: Fri Mar 01, 2013 9:26 am Post subject: |
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| Syncromikey wrote: |
Those side side lights look great!! They are so bright. Are you happy with them? They almost look too bright
Have you thought about putting one or two of those LED driving lights on the back to use as backup lights? There never seems to be enough light back there when you are trying to back into a camping spot after you roll in a bit late.
Cheers,
Mike |
Actually I already have. At $10 each I wish I had bought more while I could. This is a set on my dads 91 for backup lights. I might end up doing this with two of them. It just depends on how much light I want up front.
Honesty I don't think the side lights are too bright. If anything I'm a bit disappointed with them, after seeing someone else's photos I was thinking they would be brighter. That said it was still worth the $6 each to replace my old cracked lenses, and get a brighter light. And it's 100% reversible, not a single OEM part was changed, so I can always buy it back to stock if I change my mind.
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'91 Carat Westy
87' Syncro + '87 Westy conversion coming soon |
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Sir Sam
Samba Member
Joined: July 19, 2009
Posts: 1686
Location: Fort Collins Colorado!
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| Posted: Sat Mar 02, 2013 11:19 am Post subject: |
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Comes with screws, foam for the back to seal and an oring for the front to seal.
I crimped on a couple of spade connectors, the red is the hot, and the yellow is the ground, I just wrapped the wire around the screw to ground it. I couldn't find a flat enough ring connector to attach to it for under the cover.
Couple of better pics in the sunlight:
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'91 Carat Westy
87' Syncro + '87 Westy conversion coming soon |
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Syncromikey
Samba Member
Joined: September 19, 2012
Posts: 463
Location: Calgary, Alberta, Canada
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| Posted: Sat Mar 02, 2013 11:40 am Post subject: |
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| Sir Sam wrote: |
| Syncromikey wrote: |
Those side side lights look great!! They are so bright. Are you happy with them? They almost look too bright
Have you thought about putting one or two of those LED driving lights on the back to use as backup lights? There never seems to be enough light back there when you are trying to back into a camping spot after you roll in a bit late.
Cheers,
Mike |
Actually I already have. At $10 each I wish I had bought more while I could. This is a set on my dads 91 for backup lights. I might end up doing this with two of them. It just depends on how much light I want up front.
Honesty I don't think the side lights are too bright. If anything I'm a bit disappointed with them, after seeing someone else's photos I was thinking they would be brighter. That said it was still worth the $6 each to replace my old cracked lenses, and get a brighter light. And it's 100% reversible, not a single OEM part was changed, so I can always buy it back to stock if I change my mind. |
Yeah, they look really good! And I like the intensity from the back up lights on your dads van. I'm going to look into picking a set of the sides and the rears as well. Going to have to wait a bit though. Once we get back from the cabin this weekend I'm going to have to get cracking on the conversion. I've now been told that I've got a hard dealine to get the beast going by mid April.
Keep up the great work!!! I'm looking forward to seeing the conversion into a campervan stuff coming along.
Cheers,
Mike
_________________
Love my Westy ...
My build: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=528954 |
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Sir Sam
Samba Member
Joined: July 19, 2009
Posts: 1686
Location: Fort Collins Colorado!
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| Posted: Sat Mar 02, 2013 8:25 pm Post subject: |
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Got my DRLs setup, I'm liking the light output from them. Again I used some spade connectors and put them inline with the OEM wiring, this way I'm not hacking stuff up.
I don't have any setup as backup lights, but I'm wishing I did right now, if I had this light output in the rear it would be fantastic at night backing up. Very pleased with the output of all 6, I wish I had bought more when they were $10 each for the rear, heck even more for the front, or the Jeep, or whatever, so much light for $10.
I have some truck style reverse lights I'm going to setup with some magnets in the rear in case I dont like them.
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'91 Carat Westy
87' Syncro + '87 Westy conversion coming soon |
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Sir Sam
Samba Member
Joined: July 19, 2009
Posts: 1686
Location: Fort Collins Colorado!
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| Posted: Sun Mar 03, 2013 10:21 pm Post subject: |
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Played around with my lights this evening, I like!
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'91 Carat Westy
87' Syncro + '87 Westy conversion coming soon |
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Sir Sam
Samba Member
Joined: July 19, 2009
Posts: 1686
Location: Fort Collins Colorado!
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| Posted: Thu Aug 01, 2013 4:27 pm Post subject: |
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Added some bling:
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'91 Carat Westy
87' Syncro + '87 Westy conversion coming soon |
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uberaudi
Samba Member
Joined: June 24, 2013
Posts: 502
Location: Hi-top Country
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| Posted: Thu Aug 01, 2013 9:37 pm Post subject: |
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| I dig the Fuch's. I was wondering how they would look as I was looking at my Audi, then the van, then the Audi, then the van. I like 'em! |
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