Chassis Rebuild

[WildIdea]

My initial thoughts of the power washing was, you don’t get get that filthy cleaning unless you really love something.

All this effort is gonna have a huge payoff, no doubt.

Following this walkthrough as my bus def needs the beam refresh. Thanks.

[Mispeld]

This makes me very lonely. I wish I had a friend like you! Time to go back to the garage... by myself... and continue my clutch install.

Great work and awesome writeup with pictures. Fatdog must be a big help too.
_________________
Tom
1977 Westy. 2.0 Fuel Injected.

[Clatter]

[Tcash]

Damon had'nt showed up yet and Clatter had to make a run. So it was just me and Xevin junior. So under the bus I went, to pull the steering coupler and box.

Tool list, hammer n chisel, 1/4" drive 13mm socket n 6" extension, 1/4 ratchet,
3/8" swivel head obstruction racket, 17mm deep socket w/3" ext., (2) 13mm combination wrenches, 1/2 drive 36mm socket n breaker bar.

First to remove the steer coupler. I would start with the two 13mm wrenches and break the nuts free. Next with a 13mm wrench on top and reaching in with the 1/4" drive 13mm swivel socket. Remove the nuts. Note the bolt and nut is positioned to the left side of the steer box. This was the best position to get the swivel in there.

You do not need to remove the drop arm to get the steer box out. But I did neeed to remove the nut and lock plate. I gentley bent back the lock plate with the hammer and chisel so it could be reused again and removed the nut with the 36mm socket and breaker bar.

Remove the 4 steer box bolts with the 17mm socket, ext and ratchet.

Next slip the mounting plate over the drop arm. Note the position of the plate with the wire clip on the left.

Time to drop the box. That is just an expression. Time to remove the box without dropping it. Guide the drop arm though the frame cutout.

That's all folks. Thanks for the burrito Clatter and Good night Xevin junior!

[Clatter]

Isn't Xevin one of those androgynous names?
Like Terry or Jody or Pat??

Here she was, first thing yesterday morning, again supervising my work.
If car parts were edible, our little Xevin here would find a way..

All of these parts are scattered around the lawn, for their 2nd side painting.

Then, lo and behold, look what shows up!
You know things are going to get better when this rig arrives...

And, just like that, things start happening..

First order of business; the swing lever kit.
A job much easier to do up on a bench..

"Assembled in Germany"..

At this point, I'll remind everyone of the 'Tech Tips' sticky at the top of this forum.
Tim has an excellent, detailed write-up of the swing lever job there.
I'll cover it here in brief, and show a couple of slight differences we found with this particular kit.

Smash down the whole assembly, so the spring washer is compressed,
And the bolt comes free easily.
Using a big "C"-clamp and a coupla sockets..
Ours here was old and beaten enough, that it no longer had spring,
And the bolt just came out.

At that point, everything can just be driven out the bottom.

The old top cap seal was getting gone.

Here it is next to the new one.

Cleaning out in there..

Get the zerk out of the way; it can stick in there and hinder bushing removal.

The supplied bolt in the kit had a longer shank than OG.
Things to look out for...

Here the bushings get driven out.
Being glad this beam is out right now..

This is our 'drift' for bushing removal,
A 3/4" socket, and old extension forevermore devoted to drift service.

Once both bushings are out,
The all-thread tool comes into use.

I'm going to add another post for the rest of this.. If this much gets lost I'll scream..
_________________
Bus Motor Build

What’s That Noise?!?

[Clatter]

OK, swing-lever bushings coming back in..

Here's something not-so-obvious to watch out for with this job..!

The bushings have a seam in them, when they were made.
There aren't turned on a lathe, the are laid over a mandrel or rolled..
Make sure the seam isn't in the fore/aft plane of the bus,
Where it would be subject to the most thrust in use.

Turn it 90 degrees or so,
So the seam isn't getting loaded directly when the bus is turned.

Here's another thing you have to look out for when doing the job.
Make sure to push the lower bushing in first.
Here's why; the upper bushing has to stick out, and locate this odd two-sided upper thrust washer.
Here' we push in the upper bushing, watching the depth carefully.

The Bentley Bible has a little blurb about this.

Our washer was a different thickness,
So we adjusted the depth of the upper bushing accordingly.

Here's the all-thread bushing pusher tool in action:

This upper bushing sticks out -just- the right amount,
To locate the 2-sided washer on top,
Like the Bentley scriptures command..

This shows the dark (slippery) side of the washer facing up, towards the seal.
The light (rough) side of this washer faces down, against he body of the beam.

Above that, the seals go like so:

And above those, this o-ring, and washer that locates against the swing lever itself..

Ready for greasing and final assembly..
But Wait!!
Hold on!
It's not all cleaned and painted yet!!!

Clean, Damon, clean!!

Tim also springs into action,
Wire-wheeling the gunk off,
And blasting things to cleanliness..

Finally, Tim did ground-crew for me as I sprayed,
And we got the rest of the paint on.

Hi Xevin!

This morning, June 10, 2018, I went and looked at it now dry.

There was some dirt in it, because the wind was blowing like crazy,
and a couple of runs,
But everything got 100% covered.

Damon can color-sand and buff everything in the coming weeks..

Anyhow,
I'll be taking the next couple of weeks off to get my family life back in order.
Dedicating this much time to a project can cause some pretty severe damage to a marriage when fatherhood is involved!

Damon will be back next weekend to do up under the bus body itself;
Cleaning it up, and undercoating all around up under there..
Right, Damon?
Start campaigning your dependents early..!


A big, big thanks goes out to Tim Cash, 'TCash' here on this forum!
How many (highly skilled) people out there would go and BUST THEIR ASS on some stranger's bus for a whole day!?!?

A big (YUGE!) day of work, make no doubt.

Thanks for giving so generously of your time and knowledge,
And thanks for the shop apron as well.

Hopefully, two weekends from today, you'll be seeing this big blue bus come back together.. Ready to make some life memories.
_________________
Bus Motor Build

What’s That Noise?!?

[Xevin]

[Clatter]

A few little things to continue last Sunday, June 10..

Un-wrapped all of the presents;
Gotta get the tape off early, so it doesn't set up and get all gummy.

Love the way the phosphoric coats everything that wasn't painted.
This should give a good head start to rust prevention in hidden areas unprotected by paint.

Here's an example of why this all started in the first place.
This wasn't the worst one, the rest got tossed.
All four were like this,
Oddly enough,
Both drive and coast side showed this pitting.
Tim says they must have been flipped during their life.
I have seem them all pounded out before,
But never eroded away, with spalling(?) where the metal is missing in chunks like that.

Go, Damon, Go!!!

Now,
As was mentioned,
Just spewing a few cans of undercoating up under there is bad practice.
That was done by a PO years ago,
And you can see how much of that old undercoating was removed by the pressure washer.
Shooting over dirt and oil isn't going to accomplish much.
More likely, it can hold water up against the floors, as capillary action carries it all around between coating and floors.
In our case here, a super heavy-duty pro power washer, with a professional operator, got things clean clean..
Damon was able to take a bare hand over things up under there,
And his hand came away clean.
No residue.. No dust/grime.

This enables the undercoating to get a decent purchase,
After a weeks' dry time.

Can't be too much longer now...
_________________
Bus Motor Build

What’s That Noise?!?

[Clatter]

Last weekend I was out of town.. June 16/17.

Damon came by and finished up undercoating; will get a few pics of his completed work;
Looks really nice up under there now.

Stopped by Brooke at Grizzly, the powder coating angel.
Damon wanted silver spring plates..

Sway bars to match:

She was sposeta do the front trailing arms first,
because we still need to get them pressed in,
But,
There's this "duct tape issue"..

I was always taught to use duct tape to mask for sandblast,
Because if you use anything lighter, it will fail and let the sand thru the masked areas.
Here, I used some cheap/thin duct tape, and it made a mess.
The tape got so smeared around by the (big badass) blaster, that it made a gooey adhesive smear.
Brooke was scolding me, and told me to clean this up on my own time.

She uses this special red stuff that looks like electrical tape.
Will get a pic of that..
FWIW, my friend Ian at Santa Cruz Metal Polishing always likes to use electrical tape to mask polished things that go into his blasting cabinet.

So,
Here at my desk today at work.
(at lunch of course )

I spent a bunch of time scraping with a single-edge razor blade,
And some rubbing alcohol, which didn't really work all that well.
Imagine if i used some carb cleaner in my 'scent-free' office!

Gotta get these back by her today so she can finish up.
it would be really great if I can get the ball-joints pressed in by this weekend..

Also ordered some other Girling caliper rebuild kits that i hope might work,
And some shocks all around...


So there you have it,
Almost time to start coming back together!
_________________
Bus Motor Build

What’s That Noise?!?

[Clatter]

Last week 6/18 - 6/22 got a few things handled.


The boogery mess of duct tape caused by blasting,
Can be rectified by using this:

A couple more false starts on the Girling caliper rebuild kits;
So far we have not succeeded in getting a set of rebuild kits in-hand.


The week prior, i had failed to get a couple of parts from the blaster;
Not sure how it happened, but i left the rear trailing arms there..

Anyways, drug out the phosphoric and tape and some coat hanger wire,
As well as all of the painting stuff..

Hung them up under the tree and shot 'em;
It's a pig's life...

A batch of fresh powder-coated front trailing arms,
With new ball joints pressed in all 'round!

Here the stuff sits, waiting for the weekend.

The legendary Tim Cash has promised to make an appearance..!
Short of front brake calipers,
Far as i can tell,
We got everything we need to go back together!
_________________
Bus Motor Build

What’s That Noise?!?

[Clatter]

Just as he said,
Tim shows up in the morning,
And the show starts rolling..

After a bit of un-packing of tools and determining where exactly what goes where,
Things start coming together ..

Can't tell you how meticulous Tim is with the details;
He insists upon looking up any washer or fastener to determine exactly what goes where.
I'm more of a 'slam it together' type - if it's a flat washer, split lock, or warpy,
You can usually guess what kind it's supposed to be by the application.
Usually enough..

I made myself useful by wire-wheeling muck off of fasteners.
Trying to clean them up enough to spin together freely,
but, hopefully, not take the protective coating off of them..

Once a set of fasteners is cleaned up, I try and put them near where they go,
Along with related parts - 'staging' if you will..

Anti-seize is the rule of law when working with chassis fasteners.
Pretty much everything gets slathered in high-temp anti-seize.
Here, all of the beam and steering box bolts are wire-wheeled, sorted, and slathered, ready to go on without issue.

Sure enough, right about time for us to stab the beam,
Damon shows up, so we have three hands on deck for the stabbing.

One on each side to guide,
While one runs the floor jack in the middle,
It's all about wiggling and jostling so it doesn't bind going in.

We tried an experiment using a ratchet-strap to pull the upper arms on,
While the floor jack lifted them over the up-travel stop bracket,
In order to save the finish and avoid hitting the shiny arms with a hammer,
But,
It didn't work.
So we ended up just hammering them into place as normal.
Using a big soft dead-blow hammer..
It came out fine.

Tim set to work on the steering box that Damon had cleaned so nicely prior.
It got a fresh o-ring on the fill plug, as the old had deteriorated.
It also got the old oil drained, and a new load of synthetic Valvoline 75-90.
The box got an adjustment per the Bentley;
You basically remove any slack in the box 1/2-turn each side of centered.

He then stabbed it in, along with drag link and coupler.
It's really inspiring to watch a guy like this work.
A seasoned pro at the top of his game.
He gets this stuff in quickly, and perfectly, by himself, just like that.

Now, Damon, on the other hand...
He got an education on the packing of wheel bearings.
New races were driven in (Tim later heckled me for forgetting that I had a press handy), bearings packed, and seals installed.

Moving to the rear end of things,
I handled the re-indexing of torsion bars.
The rear of this bus seems to sag a bit,
So for the correct Zombie Response Vehicle attitude we needed to lift it some.
After hemming and hawing, it was finally decided to go up two 'clicks', instead of just one; We'll see what we got when it's all said and done.
What we call a 'click' is a combination of a coarse spline and a fine spline.
So, to go one click up, you go up one coarse (inner) spline, and down one fine (outer).

First thing I like to do, is grab a level, get it 100% plumb (vertical), and scribe a line through the center of the torsion bar end.

After getting the inner spline re-adjusted, you can check your work by comparing he line to the (vertical) level.
Notice here we have gone 'up' two inner (coarse) splines..

Once you have the inners selected,
The outers are easy. You can tell you have the right outer, by measuring the angle of the spring plate, using the angle finder I showed earlier.
(sorry, didn't get a pic).


Here is another thing I did to be sure we got the right shocks.
Shout out to user 'WildIdea' here..

Assembled the rear suspension without any torsion bar in place,
So we could measure the length of the center-to-center (other end of tape is center of top shock mount hole) of the shocks fully extended:

And fully compressed:

(Notice Tim all "No Paparazzi!!)..

The reason for this, is that it is bad for the shock to be limiting travel,
Either up, or down..

That fully-compressed number is indeed fully fully compressed, because we don't have the snubber (Kong) in place,
However,
Because the arm and snubber mount don't really align all that perfectly,
There is a gap there even with the snubber gone.

It is conceivable that the snubber could compress that much,
Especially when you are ramping the big table top, overshooting the landing,
Or jumping 14 garbage trucks,
When pursuing zombies at high speed..

Here's a couple of pics from the 'morning after'. 6/27/2018.
Tim did a whole 8-9 hour day, Damon and I worked until after dark.
A HUGE day of working for three guys..
We got the basic suspension and steering systems into place,
And,
Far as I can tell,
Into place correctly..

What do you guys think about Damon's choice of silver for the spring plate color?

Again,
A big big shout out to Tim,
Who again drove clear over the hill from San Jose thru Tourist-Hell-Traffic,
And BUSTED HIS ASS on heavy suspension parts,
with no lift, on the ground,
For someone he didn't even know..

Props, brother; We will both owe you forever.
_________________
Bus Motor Build

What’s That Noise?!?

[Xevin]

Tcash is the real deal.
_________________
Keep on Busin'

[wcfvw69]

Great thread! Love all the details and taking the time to media blast and paint the parts with 2 part paint.

What brand ball joints did you press in?
_________________
Contact me at [email protected]
Follow me on instagram @sparxwerksllc

Decades of VW and VW parts restoration experience.
The Samba member since 2004.

**Now rebuilding throttle bodies for VW's and Porsche's**
**Restored German Bosch distributors for sale or I can restore yours**
**Restored German Pierburg fuel pumps for sale or I can restore yours**
**Restored Porsche fuel pumps or I can restore yours**
**Restored Porsche distributors or I can restore yours**

[Clatter]

[Clatter]

[WildIdea]

This is such good stuff, thanks for posting in a way I can follow. Nothing beats knowing that’s bomber up under there, goals!!

I’ll be interested in hearing what shocks and part numbers you go with.

[Clatter]

Last Tuesday, 6/26..

Supposedly my "day off" - didn't get off work until almost 2..

ANyways,
Tim met me and we tore right back into the project..

Tim jumps into wire-wheeling down fasteners and little brackets and whatnot.

I'm digging thru boxes and finding things and trying to get what goes where figured out.

Some significant compromise came along, as rattle-can started flying onto little parts.

Then, we got into that funnest of fun jobs.. CVs..!
I really did Damon a disservice by taking away his chance to be anointed in the Holy Moly.

The rear backing plates got found and assembly started;
Making 100% sure that everything gets coated in high-temp anti-seize.

Sure enough, even though those backing plates were blasted,
The -one- most important spot got missed.
Even with all of the pretty-pretty, there was this crap in here trying to seize the adjusters again!

I hit it with a Dremel stone,
Followed up wit a polish using a rolled-up piece of emery cloth.

Shocks showed up from aircooled.net right as we were rolling away on the project.
(at least the rears did, fronts are on back-order).

These ---> http://vwparts.aircooled.net/Rear-Shock-1972-1979-Type-2-Brazilian-211513031-p/211-513-031rbz.htm

Cofap is an OEM from way back when,
And,
Unlike some of these aftermarket parts,
OEM stuff tends to typically work well.

Contrary to the previous KYBs,
Both extended and compressed lengths are proper,
so the shock won't be limiting suspension travel.

We'll see how these ride and work.


After about five hours, we were both getting tired of Damon's bus.
Some PO in the past decided that washers weren't needed in the rear suspension assemblies.
(Those pesky washers... ).
Luckily (I guess) i had a rusted-together core rear suspension from a late bus handy.
This ripped apart should provide us a set of OG washers where needed,
As well as verify their factory locations and all.

But,
It's,
Um,
A LOT of work to rip it apart..

Where IS that damn Damon, anyways!?!
This would be a perfect job for him..!


Anyhow,
I'm going to be in/out this weekend, as we have some friends in from out of town.
(Bus friends, even. Who woulda guessed! )

Tim has volunteered more time this weekend(!)
I'm more than happy to let them all use my tools/facilities while I'm gone.
Tim totally knows his way around by now it seems to me.
Plus, I'll be in/out/around... Just can't get dirty, or too distracted.
So,
Could Damon have _any_ excuse to NOT help with his bus this weekend?

What do you guys think?
If this was your bus here, you would come help, right?


_________________
Bus Motor Build

What’s That Noise?!?

[Clatter]

Sure enough, Tim showed Saturday morning,
Brought everybody breakfast, even!

Damon showed up a bit later.

I tried to dig up all of the tools and chemicals out of my mess-of-a-shop so they would have whatever they needed.

Started off by boogering in a broken clutch cable tube support bracket with the old zap zap.

Not pretty, but it looks like it will hold..


They took to digging around looking for all of the parts;
Between the three of us, we managed to have everything in it's own "makes sense to me" location.
As far as keeping track of things, "there are as many methods as there are carpenters".

I have done a few of these before,
So, I use one bin for the rear axle assemblies, one bin for front,
And that's about it.
Damon, on the other hand, has never had a bus 100% apart, so anything he took apart (like brakes) goes in it's own labeled bag.
Like three bolts in one bag labeled 'backing plate bolts'..

And Tim, well, Tim knows that someone was in there already;
Someone who lost washers and put things together wrong.
So he is all about looking up the right order of parts, and what goes where on the microfiche.
He likes things laid out on a bench is the correct order.

So call us Bin, Bag, and Bench..

The one thing we all decided was a good idea,
Was to lay front end stuff on a bench up by the front of the bus,
And rear end stuff on a bench by the rear.

Wait! That's Tim's method, isn't it..?


As Mom is yelling at me "We're leaving.. Come ON!!"
Tim used this candle wax trick to get the rear axle parts off just like that.
Never heard of such a thing, or got any details, but whatever it was, it worked.
There was NO way that thing was coming apart last time with just PB Blaster soaking and a BFH.

So I was away all day at Big Sur with the family,
And I got back and Tim was gone and Damon was just finishing cleaning up..
Looking at the bus, I'm like "It looks the same as when I left"!

But then, Damon opens the door...

Oh... That's different..
Everything IS actually ready to go together now!
Every nut, bolt, washer, part, cleaned, anti-seized, and it it's place ready to go on..

Oh Man Oh man Oh man... This next session is gonna be fun...

So there you go.
Here's a lesson for you about these old buses,
Something I seem to repeatedly re-learn.
Call it the "PO Lesson"..

There is a TON of time to be spent figuring out what a PO did wrong;
What might be missing, what might be on backwards.

With a PO Bus, you can't trust anything, and have to verify everything,
And that can take a bunch of time.

If you want the thing together correctly, that is..

Nice work, gentlemen.
_________________
Bus Motor Build

What’s That Noise?!?

[Xevin]

I’m giving Damon a swift kick in the ass when I’m down there in a couple of weeks That dude is so fortunate to have awesome bros like you and Tim in his corner. Really well done guys, love seeing all that bus love
Was nice that Damon bought you, Tim and the family an all expense paid trip to Hawaii awesome thread guys. Damon, I expect you to be there this time when I’m in town.
_________________
Keep on Busin'

[Hoody]

After all of this awesome work is finished Damon should consider using several aerosol cans of Noxudol 750 in all of the enclosed channels and unibody braces on the underside of his Bus. It will preserve them and prevent them from rotting out from the inside. It’s simple to apply and not that expensive.