'66 Deluxe

[Marla]

Nice work Bruce! Everything looks great, inside and out. I can't wait to see it again.

[Dual Port]

Here's some old pics from a couple of weeks ago:

First, the rear bumper was kinked pretty good. I made a wooden dolly to straighten it,


Heat it and beat it straight with big C-clamps.


The stupid wiring harness doesn't come with a dome light harness. WTF is up with that?

The whole dome light harness is encased in tubing to protect it from sharp edges, just like the rest of the harness.

Oh, well, make up a harness with polyloom and fight it through the holes in the roof supports.



On to current stuff:

I made a lot of progress this week even though I was out of town a couple of days. I installed the clutch cable, modified the Bowden tube slightly, throwout brng, starter, harness, etc. I put a 40amp Maxifuse in the power feed that heads up front to prevent shorts from burning the bus down. I suggest everyone consider this. I can't believe VW never put circuit protection in millions of cars, they'd all be recalled if they did that today. I don't know of any current mfr that doesn't use a fuse or fusible link in their main power feed. VW doesn't fuse the front parking lights, either, a short up there melts the wires.

There's a weather cover for the fuseholder, too. I'll put a 15A fuse up front in the coil feed circuit, too, when I'm up there. You see I also put shrink tube on the female hot spades for protection. I use sealed crimp connectors almost exclusively, they're expensive but worth it.

The tank went pretty smooth (tight fit!) requiring even the voltage regulator to be removed to barely squeak the tank in place. New sender (checked it, too), and rubber strips cut from roofing material (just like inner tube material) to dampen noise. I used a stud on the right side since the harness is right below the bolt. The air seal around the engine went in smoothly, too.
When I was test fitting the engine I found the heater box levers were all over the firewall giving me grief as the engine went into place. After a high level discussion with Master Bill we determined that these were for a T3 or something and not needed. 10 seconds later with a whizzer wheel, they were history.

The engine slid in like butter! Usually with new air seals you have to fight them quite a bit but this one went smooth. Once the 4 bolts are in, the first thing I do is verify the clutch disengages, that means putting the tranny in high gear, rocking the LR tire with a long broomstick while pushing the clutch pedal up and down. You can easily feel the clutch work while doing this, and there's no sense in going further with the install job if the clutch hangs. I learned this from doing a zillion HD truck clutches, and believe me, you're really pissed after you finish a Fuller install to find the clutch won't release.


The throttle cable stuff went pretty smooth- I needed to shorten the throttle Bowden about an inch.


Cut the end, dig the stub out, beat the tube straight, shorten the cable, stuff it back in with some good glue, crimp it and install it.


All cables were lubed well with both chassis grease and spray Teflon grease.

I installed the new throttle pivot lever, linkage, boot, and those stupid little springs. (WTF?!) Here I hold the throttle to the floor as I adjust the throttle cable at the carb.


I hold the throttle to 100% (with a bottle of oil ) and set the carb linkage to about 90%. This prevents me from wrecking something when I jam it to the floor.
I hot wired it, pulled it outside under its own power and did some circles in the parking lot. Brakes, throttle, clutch, engine, etc all feel good.

Got some positive camber going on, maybe that will settle down with time and more weight. I put the torsion bars back exactly where they came from.

Yahoo! It has insurance and plates but I ran out of time for a real road test. Besides, there's no lights.


First gear pops out so badly it is unusable. Even after adjusting the shifter all the way back it pops out immediately as you slip the clutch. 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and R all feel fine. Tranny time.

Phuck!

[John]

Bruce, your Mistress she s looking SWEEEET

[Mike Kever Kombi]

Awesome. I bet it felt great to pull it out, popping gear and all.

Good work!

[TRL]

Sounds like a bad syncro... Hopefully the other gears are ok and you can do some driving.

[Dual Port]

Big day today. Roecker came by with his 1300 in a basket for me to inspect, normal rebuild needed, case bored, nothing out of the ordinary for a 48 year old 1300. He has some NOS Mahle jugs it will go together with.

Over the last couple of days I restored the rear taillight assys, front TS assemblies, installed the headlights, installed the battery and fabbed a strap. Today I got the dash wiring pretty much complete, the speedo head back in and the dash tray in. All lights work, all warning lights, high/low, tail, stop, turn signals, horn, etc. I had 3 frigging bad brake light switches in a row! Good thing I have 5 on the shelf. I put an accessory fusebox in place in addition to the OEG one to spread out loads and put fuses where they need to be. I used a 6 wire '58-'65 turn signal switch and wired it with a modern flasher instead of that antiquated old flasher that mine had, and put a dimmer switch on the floor instead of running them through a relay. The idiot lights work and the gen was pushing 14.5v, perfect.

Today was a huge milestone because it left the shop under its own power and went for a 12 mile road test around town before I ran out of time. I've been waiting for this day for about 16 months and 850 hours. Aside from the bum first gear, it ran, drove, shifted, felt, and sounded beautiful. Smooth ride, no noises or clunks, tracked well, quiet (or as much as expected with no interior and 8 windows missing), no surprises. Lots of looks and comments from other drivers at stoplights (easy to do with no side glass!) All in all, an exceptional day.

[Six Volt]

Very informative. All that maxi fuse talk has my head spinning. Can't wait to see it in person.

[TRL]

Sweet! Congrats!!!

[sweeth20007]

Congrats Bruce! We would love to have seen that smile on your face on that first major shakedown cruise! The first ride in your own Splitty only happens once in a person's life! Priceless!!!

[Don from Canton]

I've been following this thread in silent awe of your amazing talents. Congratulations on the successful test drive! I can't wait to see this Bus in person!