Gas flap latch repair

[Lars S]

After Ray's excellent "Gas flap cable rebuild tutorial"
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=656055&highlight=deformation
there is not much more to learn about the gas flap.
However on my 411 I had a broken flap latch finger (due to a gas theft attempt ) and I
wanted to try to repair it since theese mechanisms are WERY rare
This is what I did:

this is what is left of the latch when the finger has broken.

...I suspect the latch is made from some aluminum alloy material
so welding in a new finger would be hard...instead i planned to schrew in
a new finger...drilled a 3.3mm dia hole STRAIGHT in the center of where
the finger hade broke off...

...tapped a 4mm thread in the hole...

...now comes the tricky part; to make the new finger.
I had luck and found 2 long 4mm steel nuts with 4mm schrews in the
ends which I could screw together at a 90 degree angle...but I could
also have welded something together as a "raw" finger to start with...

...my intention was of course to schrew the new finger into the
tapped 4mm hole in the latch mechanism...

...some careful grinding was needed to make the nuts more
"finger-like"...lots of comparing with another latch finger and more
filing, grinding and also some welding...at last I had it pretty
close to the original...

...finally I put a spacer with the correct hight between the new finger
and the latch so that when I thightened the finger it would point in the
correct angle (wery important to test out the angle!) and it would stay there and not want to twist.
When I was happy with the function, at the final assembly, some LocTite was added to the threads to secure it even more.

...not to bad looking..

...comparision with an original latch finger.

Works wery well so far and of course, at the same time, I also made all the service to the latch and wire pointed out in Ray's excellent "Gas flap cable rebuild tutorial"
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=656055&highlight=deformation


//Lars S
_________________
Porsche 914 -72, Bahia Red daily driver
VW411 2-d -70, White, sold
VW412 4-d, -73, Gold Metallic, daily driver
Suzuki T500, -69, Candy Gold, sold
Suzuki K50, -77, Black, daily driver
BMW R69S -69, White, sold
Husqvarna 118cc, -47, Black, Sold

[raygreenwood]

Excellent! That is the hardest part to repair! I have several attempts laying in a box...but I was doing it the hardest way...by trying to hand shape a piece of metal from the ground up in a jewelers vise with files and small hammers

I gave up mainly because I have enough spare parts that I did not need one....so I didn't want to continue my pain!

If you don't mind...I am going to add a link to this thread into my gas flap thread to attribute your work and keep it all in one complete place!

Ray

[Lars S]

Thanks Ray, go ahead and create any links.

Another small tip about the flap is to make sure the inner edge of the hole in the flap is not to sharp..if so it can carefully be rounded off just a wery little with a file...this will make the edge smoother slide over the finger.

Lars S

_________________
Porsche 914 -72, Bahia Red daily driver
VW411 2-d -70, White, sold
VW412 4-d, -73, Gold Metallic, daily driver
Suzuki T500, -69, Candy Gold, sold
Suzuki K50, -77, Black, daily driver
BMW R69S -69, White, sold
Husqvarna 118cc, -47, Black, Sold

[raygreenwood]