My new Bus Murphy

[wcfvw69]

Good job OP for saving this rusty bus AND having the patience to see it through. I agree with Skills in that body shops don't make much doing this type of work vs. collision work.

I think this bus is an illustration as to why the non-rusty buses in good mechanical condition are continuing to escalate in prices. It's much easier and quicker to get them completely dialed in and back on the road to enjoy.
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Decades of VW and VW parts restoration experience.
The Samba member since 2004.

**Now rebuilding throttle bodies for VW's and Porsche's**
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**Restored Porsche fuel pumps or I can restore yours**
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[andrewtf]

been about two weeks...... so an update of sorts.

The body shop is making pretty steady progress. They decided to remove the engine since there was so much to do in and around the engine bay. I posted earlier this week about finding a left side battery tray, but there was no joy to be had. So the shop is going to make that piece up. A couple of shots of the body as of yesterday:

And the engine as it came out.
It is really a mess. It has the original engine, but the heater boxes are from a '74 (I think). I suspect when they changed to carboration, they found the boxes to be too rusted to keep (like a lot of the rest of the bus was). I think I got my work cut out for me (along with the eventual help of Asiab3 and Colin)

what is this thing? It is in the fuel line, downstream of the filter. You can see it in the photo above. It has a dial the you can adjust, so I assume it is some sort of fuel pressure regulator? Perhaps when this bus was changed to a single carb they left the old fuel pump and had to alter the fuel pressure?

In closing, one of the several items I have been working on during the body shop days. Here is the finished front tub (The red blob on the left is a reflection). I have to keep doing things to urge this project along and feel accomplished about something!

If anyone sees and 'holy shit' things in any of the above - I'm listening.

more... much more.... to come
Thanks - Andrew
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'75 Riviera - 'BIG EMMA' (Pan American highway trip paused for a make over)
'77 Riviera - Murphy' (being reborn.... slowly)
'63 Austin Healey

[andrewtf]

Ahh... found the answer to my own question.
A fuel pressure regulator. Thanks to a bit of searching.
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'75 Riviera - 'BIG EMMA' (Pan American highway trip paused for a make over)
'77 Riviera - Murphy' (being reborn.... slowly)
'63 Austin Healey

[KentABQ]

I have to admit I had a "holy shit" minute when I saw the disassembled back of Murphy. This project is waaaaaay bigger than I expected. And if Chloe had been that way when I bought her, I doubt I would have had the cajones to proceed.

More power to you for the work you're putting in to rescue Murphy.
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-Kent-
1976 Riviera, 1.8l FI chrome yellow VAN - "Chloe"

"I must say, how can you be in a bad mood driving this vehicle full of vibrant color.
Cars of today are so bland in comparison. It's like driving a celebration!" ---WildIdea

Bus ownership via emoticons:
---williamM

[andrewtf]

More of a question/opinion item right now.

I got my engine to my house now. It is just sitting on a cabinet and I'm waiting for a VW yoke (which is on the way) before I put it on the stand.

I remembered from KentPS's thread how pristine his clutch plate was when he opened up his engine.

Well - here is what I'm dealing with:

As well as you might be able to tell in the photos, is this worth cleaning up and reinstalling? If so, are there any things I should pay particular attention to? Not worth it? Bad idea? I have measured the plate thickness. An 8mm will fit over and just have enough free play to barely feel it.

So for one small victory in my glacial schedule.... I refurbished the heater fan.

I'll probably have another body shop update in about a week.

thanks - Andrew
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'75 Riviera - 'BIG EMMA' (Pan American highway trip paused for a make over)
'77 Riviera - Murphy' (being reborn.... slowly)
'63 Austin Healey

[SamboSamba22]

You are making great strides sir, in regards to the clutch, I would take a gander at the disc, throw out bearing, internal section of the pressure plate to see if its as nasty as the back half, I’m not a professional, more of an idiot with ambition than a methodical mechanic, but if you’re not doing a complete tear down on the motor, I’d see what the efforts of cleaning up the clutch components would present to you, could save you a couple hundred, from the sights of the body, that monetary means of encouragement can be used elsewhere.
Eager to see this project become a driver, keep them after it Andrew,
Sam
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The Bus Barn Ltd. Co.

Oct. ’67 Double Cab (’68 Crew Cab)
[url=http://www.vw-mplate.com/mplate-44412.png]Click to view image[/URL]
March '69 Delivery (Panel Bus)
[url=http://www.vw-mplate.com/mplate-44414.png]Click to view image[/URL]

[Xevin]

you rock brother. Hope the kids are well.
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Keep on Busin'

[Tcash]

Your Flywheel and pressure plate don't look right.
Note how in the pic above of the clean one. How the pressure plate sits in a machined recess in the flywheel.
Pull the pressure plate, post measurement and pics of the pressure plate, clutch disc, and flywheel.
Maybe someone with more knowledge can pipe in?
Good luck
Tcash

[Spike0180]

The pressure plates are different pressure plates (see the number of rivits on the outside ridges, along with a number of other things that I didn't bother to keep looking at). But the pressure plate looks installed correctly to me. At least from the one straight on picture we get.
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Brutis Patches Izabich: 1970 VW Transporter - 1776cc DP
Current State: Projects never truly end...
Location: Grosse Pointe, Michigan
Other cars: 2003 F150, 2003 Jetta GLI vr6-6sp

Sambastic: adj; the quality of being nit picky, elitist, expecting everyone to do things the way they believe is best with no regard to situation, "sambastic"

[andrewtf]

update - outside of body work status. But progress has been made!!

I got the engine home but had to transfer it from sitting on a big box to an engine stand. I got a basic stand from Harbor Freight, and ordered the special VW yoke to mount it to. The yoke came with no holes in the round part that goes into the stand, so I had to drill those into it. I got all of that but needed to lift the engine and then lower it (by myself). I went and got a small chain hoist and hung it from a beam in my garage ceiling and used straps to lift the engine, making sure it was reasonable level. This worked out pretty well. I got it on the stand without any significant trouble.

Harbor Freight had a tent sale this weekend, so yesterday I bought this (on sale and then got an additional amount off because it had a dented lip at the bottom).

I bought it so I could take care of some of this: I got way too much crap in my garage. Tools are everywhere.

I have proceeded to strip down the engine. I have most everything off now. Under the 1/2 tin I found these. The socket still has half a spark plug in it.

Here are a couple photos of where I am currently.

I had soaked about everything in PB Blaster overnight and everything came off pretty easily. The engine is the original from the bus but had earlier style heat exchangers. The were held on with exactly half the required bolts. geesh.

My only hiccup so far is that the old TSII was still in place. They just left it there when they swapped to the single carb. I wrenched it (and not even very forcefully) and it snapped off. So - what are my options here?

Tomorrow (or at least soon) I will begin to try to remove all the crap off of this thing and try to get it looking like a real engine. Any advice for that process?

As always, if anyone sees something note worthy, please let me know.

Andrew
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'75 Riviera - 'BIG EMMA' (Pan American highway trip paused for a make over)
'77 Riviera - Murphy' (being reborn.... slowly)
'63 Austin Healey

[airschooled]

As far as your TS2 goes, there should be a mirror image hole on the passenger side cylinder head, towards the rear of the head. (Get it, mirror images?)

That will work perfectly fine, unless you want to try the driver side hole with an EZ-Out or something similar. The passenger side hole will require an extension wire, unless you have Kyle build your harness with that setup in mind. I'm not sure if he'd charge extra, or even do it, but it's a fine solution if you're comfortable drilling a small hole in the tin to access the TS2 in situ.

Robbie
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Learn how your vintage VW works. And why it doesn't!
One-on-one tech help for your Volkswagen:
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[andrewtf]

I already have the new harness, so I guess - an extension wire it is !

There is an equivalent hole at each cylinder - could I use any one of them? Perhaps if I use the hole at #4, I won't need an extension?
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'75 Riviera - 'BIG EMMA' (Pan American highway trip paused for a make over)
'77 Riviera - Murphy' (being reborn.... slowly)
'63 Austin Healey

[KentABQ]

Dang.... You got lucky. Murphy looks like he hasn't leaked oil in his entire life. I spent around 30 hours just to clean the dried/baked-on oil from Chloe's drivetrain. It almost looks you could clean yours with a feather-duster! Very cool!

As for the TS2, I think it was TCash's suggestion to drill and tap a 10mm hole at the nearest engine tin screw hole. I had to order the tap (10mm x 1.5?) from drillsandcutter.com, I think. (Edit: Oops! I see Robbie beat me to that one).

It's coming along great, Andrew. You'll be camping in no time!
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-Kent-
1976 Riviera, 1.8l FI chrome yellow VAN - "Chloe"

"I must say, how can you be in a bad mood driving this vehicle full of vibrant color.
Cars of today are so bland in comparison. It's like driving a celebration!" ---WildIdea

Bus ownership via emoticons:
---williamM

[airschooled]

[andrewtf]

I used to think rebuilding a jalouse window was the most irritatingly tedious task possible. I was wrong. This is:

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'75 Riviera - 'BIG EMMA' (Pan American highway trip paused for a make over)
'77 Riviera - Murphy' (being reborn.... slowly)
'63 Austin Healey

[KentABQ]

[andrewtf]

I'll post an update from the parole officer over the weekend.
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'75 Riviera - 'BIG EMMA' (Pan American highway trip paused for a make over)
'77 Riviera - Murphy' (being reborn.... slowly)
'63 Austin Healey

[andrewtf]

Not any sort of real update, but I wanted to share that I actually took some good advice from the people who know way more than I do.

I posted a separate thread a couple of weeks ago about trying to get the ridiculously rusted studs for the exhaust manifold out of the heads, and decided to heed the correct advice of just replacing the heads.

New HAM heads arrived a couple of days ago......
So enjoy some head porn.

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'75 Riviera - 'BIG EMMA' (Pan American highway trip paused for a make over)
'77 Riviera - Murphy' (being reborn.... slowly)
'63 Austin Healey

[Tcash]

Where they painted when you got them?

[andrewtf]

Yes.... below is quoted from the Hoffman Automotive website:


For serious heat protection we recommend a pair of coatings that have proven themselves in race applications time and again: a heat insulating ceramic coating of the combustion chambers, exhaust ports and tops of the valves as well as the underside of the exhaust valve, and a black exterior coating that aids in the heat shedding process. The most critical of these coatings is the ceramic insulation, which greatly reduces the temperatures of the aluminum. We’ve been using this coating on track/race applications for years and have seen it protect heads from major distortion/warpage caused by elevated exhaust gas temps (EGT’s) as high as 1450F*!

Aside from aiding in the shedding of heat from the fins, the black exterior coating, which is a slippery, Teflon like substance, also aids in preventing oil and debris from clogging the small airways that carry cooling air through the fins.
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'75 Riviera - 'BIG EMMA' (Pan American highway trip paused for a make over)
'77 Riviera - Murphy' (being reborn.... slowly)
'63 Austin Healey