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Adoom
Samba Member
Joined: November 11, 2004
Posts: 11
Location: Pickering, Ontario, canada
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 Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2018 9:40 am Post subject: 68 SB Shakedown Week |
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I finally got the SB legal, and on the road. There’s been some challenges with the carb, idle, brakes, and electrical gremlins. Also the BN2 is being a bit grumpy, but nothing insurmountable.
I work about an hours drive from home, my “daily” driver has problems of its own, so this week I decided to do a shakedown week. 5 days of daily driving. Work, errands, etc. I put my Kia in the garage and just drove the Square.
Findings so far.
This car has no heat whatsoever. Due to my commute and hours, I don’t have time to fix things at night, so heater boxes are probably just not connected. But I need time and light for that.
Brakes are still 2 pump. The car stops well, on the second try. I need a new rear wheel cylinder. I’ll probably just do both for good measure and peace of mind.
I have a minor gremlin in the tail lights. A quick look at it revealed corrosion at the terminals, so it probably just needs some love.
The “fresh air” knobs don’t do a dang thing. Nothing that I can tell at least. So I need to look into that.
The idle is very poor when cold, but great once it warms up. Keeping the car running when cold is very difficult.
The car handles very nice, I love driving it. It seems to cruise comfortably at 70mph. Anything above that requires a hill, a tailwind and a prayer.
The connection where the metal fuel filler neck meets the rubber leaks. It also has strong fuel smells whenever I fill up, so I haven’t been filling it. The metal filler neck is quite corroded, and the rubber neck looks to have seen better days, so I may have to replace both to get this fume thing under control.
The car has a massive “picnic” pull-out radio, it doesn’t work, so I hope to find someone who knows how to fix ancient shortwave picnic radios.
It was an interesting week of weather in Ontario this week. I’ve driven in high winds, driving rain, see your breath cold, warm sun, and cool sun. So far it’s performed pretty well. The windshield spray stopped, which means I may need to refill my spare tire.
The shakedown continues, and I have a list of wants, (like new bright work)but my list of “needs” is relatively small for a 50 year old car.
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1968 Squareback |
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old_man
Samba Member
Joined: June 19, 2018
Posts: 1381
Location: Newfoundland
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| Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2018 10:09 am Post subject: Re: 68 SB Shakedown Week |
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| For your brake problem did you make sure your rears are adjusted? |
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Bobnotch
Samba Member
Joined: July 06, 2003
Posts: 22396
Location: Kimball, Mi
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| Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2018 12:00 pm Post subject: Re: 68 SB Shakedown Week |
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| Adoom wrote: |
I finally got the SB legal, and on the road. There’s been some challenges with the carb, idle, brakes, and electrical gremlins. Also the BN2 is being a bit grumpy, but nothing insurmountable.
I work about an hours drive from home, my “daily” driver has problems of its own, so this week I decided to do a shakedown week. 5 days of daily driving. Work, errands, etc. I put my Kia in the garage and just drove the Square.
Findings so far.
This car has no heat whatsoever. Due to my commute and hours, I don’t have time to fix things at night, so heater boxes are probably just not connected. But I need time and light for that.
Brakes are still 2 pump. The car stops well, on the second try. I need a new rear wheel cylinder. I’ll probably just do both for good measure and peace of mind.
I have a minor gremlin in the tail lights. A quick look at it revealed corrosion at the terminals, so it probably just needs some love.
The “fresh air” knobs don’t do a dang thing. Nothing that I can tell at least. So I need to look into that.
The idle is very poor when cold, but great once it warms up. Keeping the car running when cold is very difficult.
The car handles very nice, I love driving it. It seems to cruise comfortably at 70mph. Anything above that requires a hill, a tailwind and a prayer.
The connection where the metal fuel filler neck meets the rubber leaks. It also has strong fuel smells whenever I fill up, so I haven’t been filling it. The metal filler neck is quite corroded, and the rubber neck looks to have seen better days, so I may have to replace both to get this fume thing under control.
The car has a massive “picnic” pull-out radio, it doesn’t work, so I hope to find someone who knows how to fix ancient shortwave picnic radios.
It was an interesting week of weather in Ontario this week. I’ve driven in high winds, driving rain, see your breath cold, warm sun, and cool sun. So far it’s performed pretty well. The windshield spray stopped, which means I may need to refill my spare tire.
The shakedown continues, and I have a list of wants, (like new bright work)but my list of “needs” is relatively small for a 50 year old car.
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Congrats on getting it out and driving. Sometimes you just need to do a shake down run or 2 to find it's faults.
We've been having similar weather this week (I'm across the river from Sarnia).
The lack of heat could be several things, from 1 or both flex hoses coming off, to the under hoses not being hooked up, or the heat cables not being attached to the heat exchangers.
It's possible you need to adjust the rears a little tighter, or it might still need more bleeding, or it might need both. Wouldn't be the first time something easy is needed around here. 
Yeah, sounds like you just need to spend a few minutes and clean up the terminals on the light housing, and make sure you've got a good ground.
At this time of year, the fresh air "system" probably isn't really needed. You could probably close it off with some aluminum duct tape. It'll keep leaves and other junk out of the boxes, and also close off any cold air drafts you might be getting.
What kind of carbs do you have? Most don't have chokes (Webers and Dellortos), and some aren't wired up and working (Solex). My Solex carbs are kind of like that, but then I have the chokes disabled, and the carbs set to run correctly when the engine is warmed up. When cold, they pop and snap, unless you've kinda got your foot into it. But waiting a few minutes, and they warm up and everything smooths out.
You might need to do more tuning on it, if it just barely runs above 70. Mine will cruise along at 70+ without issue all day long. Even in 90+ degree weather.  The handling and ride is what really makes these cars so nice, even lowered.
It sounds like you're missing the "rubber band" on the filler neck and the gas tank end. It's also possible that your connection hose has a crack in it that WILL cause it to have a fuel smell. BTDT on my wife's car. But then you also mention your filler tube having some rust, which might be holey. Unfortunately, the 68 uses an oval shaped filler tube (1 year only), so it might be harder to find. A 69 unit is a direct replacement though.
Can't help you on the radio, but you could try asking Keith Park if he knows anyone that works on them. He's an old radio guy who's been working on dialing in his FI up in the FI D-Jet sticky. He's in New York, so he's semi close versus working with someone on the west coast.
Hopefully you'll get a chance over the weekend to do some checking and adjusting to get your Square running better, so you can do more shakedown work on it.
Good luck with it, and I hope this helps.
P.S. Nice looking car. 
_________________
Bob 65 Notch S with Sunroof
71 Notch ...aka Krunchy; build pics here;
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=249390 -been busy working
64 T-34 Ghia...aka Wolfie, under construction... http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=412120
| Tram wrote: |
| "Friends are God's way of apologizing for relatives." |
| Tram wrote: |
| People keep confusing "restored" and "restroyed". |
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Jason37
Samba Member
Joined: April 21, 2004
Posts: 1028
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| Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2018 12:14 pm Post subject: Re: 68 SB Shakedown Week |
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| I may have a spare metal filler tube kicking around,but they have a vent house on them and that could be the source of the leak. |
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Bobnotch
Samba Member
Joined: July 06, 2003
Posts: 22396
Location: Kimball, Mi
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| Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2018 12:22 pm Post subject: Re: 68 SB Shakedown Week |
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| Jason37 wrote: |
| I may have a spare metal filler tube kicking around,but they have a vent house on them and that could be the source of the leak. |
Yeah, I forgot about the vent hose. Those do crack and leak fumes. Jim Adney makes a kit for them too.
_________________
Bob 65 Notch S with Sunroof
71 Notch ...aka Krunchy; build pics here;
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=249390 -been busy working
64 T-34 Ghia...aka Wolfie, under construction... http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=412120
| Tram wrote: |
| "Friends are God's way of apologizing for relatives." |
| Tram wrote: |
| People keep confusing "restored" and "restroyed". |
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Jason37
Samba Member
Joined: April 21, 2004
Posts: 1028
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| Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2018 12:57 pm Post subject: Re: 68 SB Shakedown Week |
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Whoops double post.
Last edited by Jason37 on Sat Oct 06, 2018 2:32 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Rome
Samba Member
Joined: June 02, 2004
Posts: 9637
Location: Pearl River, NY
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| Posted: Sat Oct 06, 2018 1:23 pm Post subject: Re: 68 SB Shakedown Week |
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| Quote: |
| There’s been some challenges with the carb, |
Adoom, does your engine have a single carb, or duals? Sounds like the choke is not working if you have such a low cold engine idle speed.
As to the fuel smell, your spare fill pipe should be oriented so that the vent outlet points upward, not downward. Hopefully the oval-shaped original pipe allows this. The vent hose needs to go upward and curve higher than any other point of the tank so that any fuel which may run into the vent hose during a hard left turn with the tank full does not run through the hose, but stays below the high point. I've been chasing fuel smells in my '77 Beetle (PO converted to dual carbs from the original FI) and even with a high-routed new vent hose, is still causing fuel smell.
On my same '77 Beetle the PO fitted Type 3 rear drums. Last year I had to take them apart to replace a leaking wheel cylinder which caused the brake pedal to go 1/2 way down. Even after removing the two M8 bolts that hold the drum outer section to the center hub, I could not remove the drum section. Hit it with hammer, applied MAP gas torch heat to the hub flange parting line and doused the hot metal with PB Blaster; etc. Nothing worked. So I took the entire drum + hub off as a unit after taking off the 36mm axle nut. Left wheel cylinder needed replacing (got it from aircooled.net) but right side cylinder was still usable so I ordered a 2nd wheel cylinder for a spare and kept the original on the car. I bought a tube of brake cylinder grease from NAPA and lubed the pistons and the cylinder walls of both cylinders with it to ensure good sliding movement. |
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