TikiBarn: 1971 Westfalia

[klcarrie]

Earlier this year I had posted a question as to whether to put my attention toward Teddy (70 Riviera-esque with frame rot) or Velvet (68 Westy rolling chasis, hit during transprot.)

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=622125&highlight=

Some advice directed me to look for another bus to transfer parts to...

Well, I purchased a 1971 Westfalia Camper for a daily driver -- well at least for the summer months in Edmonton Alberta.

Both Velvet and Teddy require significant work, body and mechanical that I decided to postpone eithers' resurrection until I had the appropriate resources.

So introducing 'The Tikibarn'. Its named so as the PO replaced the Westy curtains with Moo-cow fabric curtains; I also found a drink umbrella in the glove box... so Tikibarn it is.

It is a rough body but surprisingly solid for an Alberta Farmer's Van. The nose looks like its taken a hit as there is some bondo and the low lights are smashed in.

Engine is a VW of Canada remanufactured 1974 Type 1 with 8mm studs

The above pictures are as purchased. The oil filler cap was off for some time... and gummed up the whole of the engine compartment.

The interior was reupholstered in black vinyl. + no rips, - not OG.

There are some other gremlins:

#4 Exhaust BOLT!

Missing nut on the lower stud

self-tapping screws on the heat-risers

Dizzy drive gear 1 tooth out (?)

Its not clear from the photo, but the Dizzy rotor points to about 2 o'clock (not shown), when at #1 TDC. PO redistributed the wires to compensate.

I have tackled some issues since purchasing the bus. I will update progress to the van accordingly as it's late...

Enjoy!

Kevin
_________________
Pritchin'
--
Currently looking for:

- Bay Bus Pinion Nut Socket

- 64-67 big nut (rear) drums and brake parts, 46mm axle nuts (Big Nuts)

--
'55 Wolfburg Pannel Project
'55 Wolfsburg SC Project
'71 Westy

[TomWesty]

Nice score! Looks like a pretty solid starting point.
_________________
If you haven't bled on them, you haven't worked on them.
Visit: www.tomcoryell.com and check out my music!

[camit34]

Man, that's a great Bus! Enjoy!
_________________
In search of a Vanagon
1971 Westy (SOLD)
1971 Deluxe (SOLD)
1967 Freedom Camper (SOLD)

[klcarrie]

Earlier this week I replaced the brake vacuum check valve to the proper ATE unit. That allowed the van to idle without dieing when I braked. Also checked the spark plugs. They're old champions and I will need to replace them. #'s 1 and 2 appear to be running rich, while #'s 3 and 4 appear normal.

I'll have to do a compression and leak-down test to get a better handle on the status of this engine.

Added a new rotor and set some new points in.

I also found some good wires and a Blue Coil to bolt on; Engine felt immediately more responsive.

To celebrate, I took the Tikibarn for a short test drive.

I made it to the Home Depot parking lot on gateway by Marks and the Parts Source, about 2 km away. I like my van, but am testing urban driveability in a heavy construction laden area of town, so I didn't push far before turning home.

Today, I wanted to do a lot but got round to what probably is the most important job on the bus: replaced the fuel lines.

I took my time, but with having to drain the tank, pull the hoses and clean the hose clamps and install the new lines, the job took me a few hours. Time flies when thrown under the bus. I used an old filter in line to make sure that the fuel from the tank wouldn't dirty the gas can.

Here's the old line from the tank to the hard-line:

It was rotten and splintered at the hardline end; Pretty scary stuff.

Here's the old lines to and from the fuel pump:

All are cracked and were a deathtrap in waiting.

I replaced the soft- and hard-lines with genuine vw 5mm braided hose,

and OEM hard-line;

Every end was hose-clamped; worth the peace of mind.

Can you believe the PO was driving the van without a fuel filter? I added two. One between the hard-line and the fuel pump, the other between the fuel pump and the carburetor.

Pretty normal stuff, but in its past life, this engine was maintained by hippies, or something. I'm just trying to bring this engine back to life step by step.

Oh, yesterday I spent some time at the bead blaster; after 2 hours I was able to make one old valve cover into one 'new' valve cover:

A couple coats of paint on the exterior, and it installed pretty like.

Lots more to do...
_________________
Pritchin'
--
Currently looking for:

- Bay Bus Pinion Nut Socket

- 64-67 big nut (rear) drums and brake parts, 46mm axle nuts (Big Nuts)

--
'55 Wolfburg Pannel Project
'55 Wolfsburg SC Project
'71 Westy

[dabble]

I would get those fuel filters out of the engine compartment if I were you. Otherwise nice find.
_________________
1973 Westy with a 78 FI 2000cc
[url=http://www.vw-mplate.com/mplate2-9157.png]Click to view image[/URL]

[71whitewesty]

Get that thing to Doug's Beach! Good score!
_________________
71 Westy 1600 DP, all stock Bus 1
1970's Snow Trac 1600 SP (sold 12/2016)
1968 Tucker sno cat, sold 2021
1969 Tucker Sno cat 542
2017 VW Alltrac
71 tin top stock 1600 DP (project but runs)
Twin 71 White Westy, Bus 2, that I pulled from a 15 year slumber in a dry eastern WA field in 2015.
1966 Sundial Camper "Boomer"

[Alan Brase]

Sorry to tell you ths but the previous owner was NOT driving without a filter. Take that screw out of the top of our fuel pump and pry (prise, if you speak British) and there is your filter. And it needs cleaned. I just blast with or WD40 or Brakleen.
If you have taken the gas out of the tank, you really ought to undo the nut under the tank with the hose barb on it. There is a filter in there too. Might just want to buy a new one before you open up that can of worms.
I personally do not like a filter IN the tank. Instead of a filter getting clogged IN the tank, I'd rather it plug up UNDER the tank in throw away filter.
Al
_________________
Al Brase
Projects: 67 sunroof bug, 67 Porsche 912 Targa, 70 Westy
Dec 1955 Single Cab pickup WANT 15" BUS RIMS dated 8/55, thru 12/55
To New owners: 1969 doublecab, 1971 Dormobile
Vanagons:
80 P27 Westy JUL 1979, 3rd oldest known US
83 1.6TD Vanagon, 87 Wolfie Westy daily driver, swap meet home

[borninabus]

[klcarrie]

Well, I stand corrected. Thanks 69.
I should not be sur[prise]d; I did not do my homework. I should have consulted my Bently guide regarding the in-tank filter, and of course, I should have remembered from the Idiot's Guide to unscrew the top of the fuel pump and flush the screen.

I did neither.

Its probable that neither are effective in their intended purposes.

Guess who's the hippy now!

My first bus.

I have 20 litres of fuel in the tank right now. I'll run it before I tackle the in-tank unit.

71

I still have brakes to do and new rubber to buy. Hoping for a July adventure. Soak in the sunshine and wind for me 'til then. On a side note, do you know who does polyester glass surfboard repair in the Gorge? The guy in Lyle does strictly epoxy now, and I have to go all the way to Burlington WA to buy my own supplies. PM me if you know a guy.

Aloha,

Kevin
_________________
Pritchin'
--
Currently looking for:

- Bay Bus Pinion Nut Socket

- 64-67 big nut (rear) drums and brake parts, 46mm axle nuts (Big Nuts)

--
'55 Wolfburg Pannel Project
'55 Wolfsburg SC Project
'71 Westy

[klcarrie]

[quote="borninabus"]

[borninabus]

the correct size line is 5.5mm.
if you moved the booster hose out from behind the coil then there would be plenty of room for the fuel line.
_________________
88 Van WBX, A/T - 13 JSW TDI 6M/T - 2012 Touareg TDI Sport

[klcarrie]

Thanks borninabus for that info. The closest hose ID I am able to purchase from concept1.ca is 5mm. I'll be keeping an eye on any future deterioration. Its a tedious but relatively easy maintenance to do so I am expecting to renew my lines again in a couple of years.

That said, I wont be going far for the near term.

Yesterday, I decided that I would tackle rear brakes because my right rear brake cylinder was puking fluid down onto the tire.

I thought I'd try to remove the composite drum by adjusting down the brass adjuster stars. No dice. Those stars were extremely stuck. In fact I broke the spade on one of my screwdrivers trying to budge the star.

I oiled the adjuster stars, the 46mm axle nut, the wheel studs and the hub/composite drum flange and waited over night.

This morning, I removed the composite drum retaining bolts and gave the drum a few blows with my brass hammer.

I saw some movement between the drum and the hub, so I proceeded to see if the stars would adjust. They did not do so after an overnight oiling soak, so I brought in the big heater to see if I could motivate the adjusters 'thermally'.

I avoided prolonged exposure to the oxy/acetelene as I didn't feel prepared to deal with an imminent bus fire starting from a burnt out drum. The adjusters were still stuck after a quick application of heat.

The next step was to drive the drum off while attached to the hub assembly.

I undid the axle castle nuts... with suspicious ease. I am 235 lbs, but I hardly had to ad much leverage to crack those nuts. You all know the tools to use, but here's a photo of my persuader:

Once the nut was off, I installed the tire on the hub/drum again and gave mild blows to various locations along the inner rim edge with my brass hammer. I had suspected that, with the adjusters frozen I would not be able to motivate the drum/hub off the axle. but to my surprise, the drum(s) each came off the axles with ease, so the brakes must have been minimally adjusted by the PO.

Removing the hub/drum revealed the greasy surprise that awaits me.

With the level of gunk accumulation in the drums I became motivated to do the 30K bearing service so I thought that I would tackle that before continuing my brake service.

I decided to check for axial play of the stub axles. below is a picture of me pushing on the right rear stub axle. There is moderate radial Play but no apparent axial play.

When I pushed on the left stub axle the stub axle IMPLODED inwards toward the CV shaft, and moved the Left outer CV Joint along with it.

That's not cool... so I'm in for some major investigative surgery in the coming days.

I'll probably do inner and out bearings. I hope the stub axles are in good shape and my spacers are ok.

More to come...
_________________
Pritchin'
--
Currently looking for:

- Bay Bus Pinion Nut Socket

- 64-67 big nut (rear) drums and brake parts, 46mm axle nuts (Big Nuts)

--
'55 Wolfburg Pannel Project
'55 Wolfsburg SC Project
'71 Westy

[mnskmobi]

Nice cracks in the sidewall of that tyre! I assume you are going to check/replace all the rubber bits as you go.

[klcarrie]

Yeah, the meat is pretty rotten.

I'm sandblasting a set of rims. it takes forever though. For now lets keep that between you and me.

I'll update you on new rims and tires when I have pictures to show.

I'm looking for commercial rated tires;

BFG's AT might be the only thing currently available in Canada though.
_________________
Pritchin'
--
Currently looking for:

- Bay Bus Pinion Nut Socket

- 64-67 big nut (rear) drums and brake parts, 46mm axle nuts (Big Nuts)

--
'55 Wolfburg Pannel Project
'55 Wolfsburg SC Project
'71 Westy

[klcarrie]

I had been waiting on parts to arrive from German Supply and Concept 1 for the past couple weeks.
The bulk has arrived; I'm just waiting on a brakeline set to show up from Toronto.

I decided to start in on deconstructing my axles for a bearing swap and brake job.

The first bit of sus that I ran into was on the left outer cv joint. Notice that the cv Bolt stress plate is missing here! Looks like the PO was too thrifty to replace a missing/broken part.

Looks like I'll have to get at my spares.

As previously described, I was able to push the stub axle out with one finger. Here are images of the stub axle depressed.

Side:

Stub axle half way out:

Stub From behind:

An images of the stub axle removed:

Is there any indication of wear on this stubaxle? maybe the spacer and inner bearing inner race spun.

Brake components are a mess but it only took a little heat a drift and some mild prying to get the backing plate off and the e-brake dislodged.

Off to the degreasing bucket for a good soak!

Get a look at that bearing housing... it looks from the rust and cake like its been heated something hot:

I pried the outer seal off and found gritty, rusty grease on the outer faces of the roller bearing. I did not notice a circlip in place, though it might be there. That'd be a cause for concern if it wasn't there!

Got the roller bearing out.

Looks like rust and dirt has penetrated the grease.

That's all the imagery I have for now.
I was working on driving out the rear seal and bearing, but didn't get far.

Will update with more work as I progress.
_________________
Pritchin'
--
Currently looking for:

- Bay Bus Pinion Nut Socket

- 64-67 big nut (rear) drums and brake parts, 46mm axle nuts (Big Nuts)

--
'55 Wolfburg Pannel Project
'55 Wolfsburg SC Project
'71 Westy

[notchboy]

Yeah, that looks no bueno.
_________________

[klcarrie]

Completed removal of Roller and Ball Bearing today.

Here's what I did:

First I found out that my 71 Westy's left outer roller bearing is not held in by a circlip; the Bently Guide is in error here FYI.

I tried to follow the Itinerant method (http://www.itinerant-air-cooled.com/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=11737) for bearing seal and bearing removal, but since the bus has never had its roller or ball bearings replaced, the seals were stuck pretty well in place.

I broke my screwdriver prying the inner seal so I fabricated up a rudimentary field pry from the broken screwdriver and a length of square tube with help from the MIG welder.

Harpooned me a good seal!

Once that was done I removed the circlip with ease, and got to look at the inner 6207 ball bearing.

I started to tap out the ball bearing with a hammer and drift. The 6207 bearing started out of the housing with relative ease but got stuck on rust on the 'environment-side' of the sealing surface.

Tap, Tap, Tap, and yet the bearing wouldn't budge... So I field pressed out the bearing using some of my large sockets and a 3 arm puller. For the Inner bearing, I drove out the bearing with pressure on the inner race. I introduced the socket 'backwards' so the press was not contacting the balls.

The field press method worked well enough that I repeated it for the Roller Race.

As shown, I pressed the race out with the socket positioned 'normally'.

No apparent damage to the race:

The race popped out of the hub and into the dirt with vigour, If you intend to keep the race for reuse(?), be carful that it doesn't hit concrete or other hard surface when it pops out.

Remeber, roller bearing looked to be extremely gritty on removal (above). There is no bluing, but the roller surface on the race does have a slight mark. I'll probably end up using my new roller bearings (at least test them out).

Here are some images of the bearing seating surfaces in the hub. No discolouration so I don't think the hub was overheated.

Inner:

Outer:

Now I am concerned about the rust propagation on the 'environment-side' of each the inner and outer seal surfaces. you can see the rust on the outer-most edges of the images of the seating surfaces.

Will a soda-blast from my pressurized soda-bomb affect any change in rust propagation? Or alternatively should I consider bead blasting the hub. I am not yet considering removing the hub from the spring plate but now might be the time to engage in the process.

Another question I have is: should I score the bearing seating surface so as to encourage the newly seated bearing to remain seated and not spin in the hub? I saw a friend Wheelie Pete do this when we rebuilt his transaxles on his 66 split. He chose to score the surface rather than apply Loctite to the bearing surface (as directed in the Itinerant method).

Its 93DegF, 34C in the shade this evening in Edmonton, so I am calling it quits for the day.
_________________
Pritchin'
--
Currently looking for:

- Bay Bus Pinion Nut Socket

- 64-67 big nut (rear) drums and brake parts, 46mm axle nuts (Big Nuts)

--
'55 Wolfburg Pannel Project
'55 Wolfsburg SC Project
'71 Westy

[klcarrie]

Over the winter I had repacked my bearings and hubs.

I don't have any images of the repacked hubs and axles, I'm currently refurbishing the backing plates with POR15:

A couple of issues with the backing plate refurbishment are: one of the backing plate centering dowels came out with the the backing plate. I did not extract it because I did not want to damage the dowel on its OD, so its been POR15'ed as well. I also had to weld a new retaining spring to the adjuster housing.

When I pressed in the repacked ball bearings (inner) I did notice that they were an easy (non-interference) press fit. So I have been searching for new to me hubs.

I found a pair from a local guy that was dismantling a 1973 so he could put the body on a school bus: think double decker bus.


I'm soaking the 46 mm nuts in preparation to crack them off the axle

Not an easy feat to burp them off when the hubs are not attached to the spring-plates. I've tried to whack them off in the vice with a BFH and the EMPI Sledge Tool, and to torque them off with the breaker bar: No dice yet.

I am loath to heat the nut as that will distemper the axle. Will probably have to take them to Fred's at Westside Automotive to try to burp them off with a big impact driver.

Now, What I noticed is that the hubs on my 1971 are threaded (top) to receive the brake cylinder retaining bolt. You can see it here:

See in the following image, the 1973 hubs are not threaded:

The retaining bolt for the 1973 brake cylinder threads from behind the backing plate into the cylinder.

Has anyone applied 1971 rear Brake hardware onto 1973 or later hubs?
How did you do it?

Thanks,

Kevin
_________________
Pritchin'
--
Currently looking for:

- Bay Bus Pinion Nut Socket

- 64-67 big nut (rear) drums and brake parts, 46mm axle nuts (Big Nuts)

--
'55 Wolfburg Pannel Project
'55 Wolfsburg SC Project
'71 Westy

[klcarrie]

those Axle Nuts are Strong!!!!

I Just broke my PA vise pounding on the nut.

I did chisel in an indicator mark between the nut and the hub, and am seeing movement, but this job is harder than normal without the hub being attached to a bus...

Off to replace the vice this week
_________________
Pritchin'
--
Currently looking for:

- Bay Bus Pinion Nut Socket

- 64-67 big nut (rear) drums and brake parts, 46mm axle nuts (Big Nuts)

--
'55 Wolfburg Pannel Project
'55 Wolfsburg SC Project
'71 Westy

[klcarrie]

Rear Brakes Installed
New German Brake Cables Installed. Channels Greased
New Brake Pads
New Brake Cylinder (not yet plummed)
Anti-seize applied
Hardware painted and re-installed
Bolts Torqued

Not shown: Hubs Bead Blasted and installed
New German Brake Drums installed.
Big Nut Torqued but no cotter pin inserted yet.

Have to get the hydraulic lines set up and bled.
_________________
Pritchin'
--
Currently looking for:

- Bay Bus Pinion Nut Socket

- 64-67 big nut (rear) drums and brake parts, 46mm axle nuts (Big Nuts)

--
'55 Wolfburg Pannel Project
'55 Wolfsburg SC Project
'71 Westy