Reviving a Syncro

[joetiger]

[joetiger]

I hadn't planned on spending most of the weekend working on the van, but sometimes I get lucky. I went out to the U-pull-it yard Saturday to check out the new arrival, and much to my surprise, all of the dash plastic was intact and pristine.

Just before a liberal dose of 303 protectant:

I did spend some time gluing a bunch of my broken pieces back together and painting the last of my brown stuff black last weekend, but was happy to cast it all back to a spare parts tub.

New and matching and beautiful. All black except the shift boot and the turn signal stalk (the left side stalk is black, a replacement from before I got this van.)

Please excuse the weeping, but in 22 years of Vanagon ownership I've never had a steering column cover in perfect, unbroken, original condition.

I also scored the steel engine hatch from the yard.

These are so much easier to work with than the plastic ones. The insulation is wedged in behind the rods, so no adhesive to deal with.

Cleaning it up.

Then I put in a layer of Prodex backed by hood liner and added the Blazecut tube.

I had just enough old adhesive-backed seal lying around from the last hatch project to do the edge (necessary with my odd setup) and it worked out perfectly. Except the duct tape on the corner. (I couldn't find my 3M adhesive sealant so that's temporary to hold that corner of the seal in place.)

It is MUCH quieter inside. I don't know if it's because of the heavy steel hatch or because I did a better job sealing this one, but the difference is very noticeable.

A few other odds and ends to replace broken/ripped/torn stuff.

I grabbed this because I thought it was cool and didn't want it to end up crushed. I have no use for it but thought a diesel guy might dig it.

Pulled out my cabinet temporarily and put in another jump seat for the upcoming Red Rocks shows.

I also replaced the haggard old ground strap from the motor to the chassis with this bigger, better one, sanded the contact spots and de-oxed. Is it idling better or just my imagination?

That poor, compacted motor mount is eyeballing me...

I painted my table leg and bracket.

Sunday was transaxle oil replacement day. I found a use for the leveling blocks--my driveway slopes down.

It's been a couple of years and maybe 15k miles. After reading horror story after horror story, I was quite concerned with what the drain magnet might reveal; in that spirit of dread/anticipation, this procedure took on a quiet, deliberate, almost monastic quality as I went about testing the fill bolt (OK) and dropping the skid plate.

I had some swarf, but no chunks. I ran a strong magnet through the oil in the drain pan and few tiny bits but nothing big. Good enough for me.

With leftover 202 from last time and a fresh jug, I had enough to also drain and fill the front diff. (It still had 210 from 2017.)

All buttoned up and ready to go. Trans shifts smooth, van is running good, interior is alarmingly quiet. Now I just need to use the damned thing.
_________________
Joe T.

'86 NAHT Vanagon GL Syncro/ supercharged ABA 2.0 "Pigpen"
'04 GTI 1.8T
'04 Golf R32

"get metaphysical with it. if it's simply a means to get to and from places, it will let you down. if it becomes your zen, it can't fail you." -dabaron

"Still, it's good to be afield."--VWagabond

Available Now! Vanagon to Louisiana--A Two-Lane Reckoning Through Past and Present

www.josephtrussell.com

[Jake de Villiers]

Please excuse the weeping, but in 22 years of Vanagon ownership I've never had a steering column cover in perfect, unbroken, original condition.

Awesome!!!
_________________
'84 Vanagon GL 1.9 WBX
'86 Westy Weekender Poptop/2.5 Subaru/5 Speed Posi/Audi Front Brakes/16 x 7 Mercedes Wheels - answers to 'Dixie'
@jakedevilliersmusic1
http://sites.google.com/site/subyjake/mydixiedarlin%27
www.crescentbeachguitar.com
www.thebassspa.com

[Schnippzle]

[joetiger]

We did our Labor Day trip up to Wellington Lake again this year. It's such a great way to end the summer. I was in a wedding that Saturday so I handed over the keys to my wife and daughters on Friday afternoon. It's so weird to see my van roll out of the neighborhood without me in it.

Thankfully they had a non-eventful trip up, A/C on full blast in 95 degree heat, they screamed up the mountains with nary an issue. My wife drives the piss out of anything she gets behind the wheel of, so I was a little nervous.

I joined them on Sunday. Now that we've pretty much outgrown the van as a sleeper for four adults, I've become the lucky occupant of a more rustic sleep space.

I didn't think to acquire a sleeping pad. A full day of paddleboarding followed by a cold sleep lying on the actual Rocky Mountains was a bit more rustic than I was looking for.

Thankfully I had Man's Best Friend to keep me comfy. Oh wait...

Along those lines, I'd replaced the foam in the 30-year old rear mattress pad with a new on from Foam Factory a few weeks back--it got rave reviews. Transformed the sleeping experience, from what I've gathered.

In any case, it was a lovely time in the mountains. Our old Camp Sherpa kitchen (the rectangular orange thing with the stove on it in this pic) is on its last legs. It's been used and abused for around fifteen years now and will likely be retired. What a great piece of gear it's been. I think I'll get another one.

The van has been vibrating to the rumble of the ABA more intensely lately; the Diesel Dasher/Audi 4000 mounts (set #2 if you're keeping score) have again collapsed. They obviously aren't the correct solution.

Enter Ford Ranger V6 mounts that have been sitting in my garage for months waiting for me to get the courage to try them out. They're a bit taller than the Dasher mounts, which uncompressed are the perfect size, but they're hydraulic. I figured once I got them in there, they'd compress and hopefully fit well.

Admittedly, as the days wore on and I eyeballed the fitment time and time again, my faith waned. But on Friday afternoon I decided to bite the bullet and go for it.

Installing these angled mounts on this setup is an absolute bitch. I have not found an easy way to do it. I hang the motor from an engine bar at the top, then un-bolt the carrier bar. I remove the driver's side mount with the engine bracket attached, then the passenger mount from the top bolt. Install the new mounts and bracket loosely on the bar. Attach the passenger mount loosely.

Then, on my back, I fight like hell to pull the bar over enough to get the driver's side bracket reattached to the block. Knees, elbows, crow bar, blood, foul language, sweat, and eventually I get one of the bracket bolts started and it all goes together from there.

Long story short, this is what I ended up with.

Crooked and bulging. (Please ignore that fresh oil leak.)

Same on the driver's side. I added a chunk of heat shield due to the mount's proximity to the downpipe.

The engine was lifted almost a full inch. The puddle of coolant is from the coolant head flange pulling away from the head after being pushed into the engine bay rim when I lifted the engine too much trying to get the carrier bar bolts started, a moment of severe panic.

After all of that work (even though this is not a viable long-term solution) I wanted to drive it just to see how it felt. I found that most of the chassis vibration from the engine is gone. Also gone is most if not all of the drivetrain vibration at 55-60 MPH. It is smoother than it has ever been, by a mile.

So, the concept of running hydro mounts, which I know has been proven by many before me, is certainly valid.

I had planned on taking the van on a long trip next month, but don't feel good about the bulging mounts. The van will probably stay home. Bummer.

I know that the mounts will compress a bit over time, but those angles look too severe to correct on their own.

Why not just add holes higher up on the bracket to make the mounts align, you might ask? There's no room on the brackets for the mount bolts to come through. I'd need new brackets. I suppose I could also move the brackets out on the carrier an inch or so on each side, but I'd need to remove it and have it fabbed.

I'm done wrestling with this bar. I'm so sore I can barely move. (Better than crossfit!) I just think that angled mounts like this create more problems than they're worth. It's a dumb design and my back can't take it anymore.

Yesterday I entered into talks with a guy about building me a 15 degree carrier bar from scratch that will use standard hydraulic mounts. I'm tired of messing with this. I'm also considering getting the engine and supercharger rebuilt at the same time.

Might as well throw money at it.

In other news, with my elder daughter now driving a Forester, Bubbles is back in the service bay. Three years of high school trashed it pretty good, but with new interior bits, shocks, brakes, and soon a timing belt and trans flush, the old girl will be good as new. It's such a pleasure to go to a junkyard and see a fleet of cars with every part you need, just pick and choose. And everything fits and is designed to go there. So simple.

It's an '02 with 70k miles. It's not worth selling, it's not worth anything really, so I'm keeping it around.

I'm a bit perplexed as to how I started the summer with a 928 and ended the summer with a New Beetle, but here we are.
_________________
Joe T.

'86 NAHT Vanagon GL Syncro/ supercharged ABA 2.0 "Pigpen"
'04 GTI 1.8T
'04 Golf R32

"get metaphysical with it. if it's simply a means to get to and from places, it will let you down. if it becomes your zen, it can't fail you." -dabaron

"Still, it's good to be afield."--VWagabond

Available Now! Vanagon to Louisiana--A Two-Lane Reckoning Through Past and Present

www.josephtrussell.com

[joetiger]

Now that the soreness has subsided, I'm finished pouting, and negotiations over a new carrier system have frustratingly stalled, I'm back on the job. I think if I take it apart and drill a fresh hole in the top bracket, I'll still have room to start the nut on the top of the mount and get it aligned.

One concern here is that the motor might end up riding too high. It's right at the top of where it can be right now, but if the mount is aligned I'm thinking it will compress uniformly and settle in at a useable height.

Of course I could be wrong. It's happened before.
_________________
Joe T.

'86 NAHT Vanagon GL Syncro/ supercharged ABA 2.0 "Pigpen"
'04 GTI 1.8T
'04 Golf R32

"get metaphysical with it. if it's simply a means to get to and from places, it will let you down. if it becomes your zen, it can't fail you." -dabaron

"Still, it's good to be afield."--VWagabond

Available Now! Vanagon to Louisiana--A Two-Lane Reckoning Through Past and Present

www.josephtrussell.com

[tjet]

What size tires are on your Beetle? I have an '02 Jetta. It's also not worth much, but I do average 44 mpg with the TDI

[joetiger]

[bobbyblack]

[quote="joetiger"]
One concern here is that the motor might end up riding too high./quote]

Any chance you could put spacers at the bar-to-body bolts, to lower the bar a bit?
_________________
'87 Westy 'Flossie','86 Westy 'R1','86 tintop GL - Subi2.2 'J2','83.5 stock tintop L 'ZoomBus','74 Karmann Ghia, '63 Notch

[joetiger]

[quote="bobbyblack"]

[tjet]

[joetiger]

[tjet]

Skid plate is a great idea - I also installed one. Oil changes are much easier too

[Sodo]

[Zeitgeist 13]

If you guys are on FB, you should sign up with a group called Lifted Water-cooled VWs. Lots of interesting rigs out there.
_________________
Casey--

'89 Bluestar ALH w/12mm Waldo pump, PP764 and GT2052
'01 Weekender --> full camper
y u rune klassik?

[joetiger]

[joetiger]

Got back in there Friday and took the carrier bar off. I drilled holes a little lower down in each top bracket and, in the process of doing so, noticed that the notches in the motor mounts lined up perfectly with existing holes in the lower mount. It just fit right. With the mounts flipped, (upside down? I dunno) I put it all back together.

I was stunned as how easily it all mounted up. There was no pulling and fighting against tension. The mounts and the carrier bar ends lined up nicely.

I also gave the undercarriage a nice "how's your father" before jumping in.

However, the engine was still riding too high and that created another problem: the hose coming off of the head coolant flange was pressed hard up against the firewall.

I took bobbyblack's advice and started looking around the garage for something to us for spacers on the carrier bar.

Very temporary solution: a sawzall and a couple of 7mm aluminum wheel spacers.

It brought the motor down sufficiently so that the coolant flange/hose is free and clear. While I lose 14mm of ground clearance, a test drive showed that engine vibration through the chassis was even more diminished than before.

Now I'll figure out some real spacers and go with this for awhile.
_________________
Joe T.

'86 NAHT Vanagon GL Syncro/ supercharged ABA 2.0 "Pigpen"
'04 GTI 1.8T
'04 Golf R32

"get metaphysical with it. if it's simply a means to get to and from places, it will let you down. if it becomes your zen, it can't fail you." -dabaron

"Still, it's good to be afield."--VWagabond

Available Now! Vanagon to Louisiana--A Two-Lane Reckoning Through Past and Present

www.josephtrussell.com

[erste]

[joetiger]

[dobryan]