LEAKOIL Forum

Six Volt wrote:

CraigOnTheBoat wrote:Please Mr Judge "If the gloves don't fit you must acquit"

I know if I didn't take a picture it didn't happen, but how did you know there was a white Bronco parked outside the house today? Seriously, there was!

Anyway, I'm thrilled this oval is finaly moving along. The immediate hangup now is the need to source a '62-'66 pitman arm for the replacement TRW steering box. The replacement boxes were all designed (understandably) for the later (read more plentiful) '60's bugs. They changed the arm after '61, so now I'm treading water. Even WW, at $99 for a little pitman arm, are out of stock. http://www.wolfsburgwest.com/cart/Detai ... =113415371 The big box outlets at $20 to $29 are also out. http://www2.cip1.com/ProductDetails.asp ... D413%2D041 Nothing listed on the samba. Maybe something will show up at Jim's Custom?

I have a couple old beetle steering boxes with pitman arms at the shop. You are welcome to them if they will work.

Super sloppy link pins:

Holy technologically advanced batman, we have video in seans build thread.

Wow, those look a little worn...

Ken wrote:

Six Volt wrote:

CraigOnTheBoat wrote:Please Mr Judge "If the gloves don't fit you must acquit"

I know if I didn't take a picture it didn't happen, but how did you know there was a white Bronco parked outside the house today? Seriously, there was!

Anyway, I'm thrilled this oval is finaly moving along. The immediate hangup now is the need to source a '62-'66 pitman arm for the replacement TRW steering box. The replacement boxes were all designed (understandably) for the later (read more plentiful) '60's bugs. They changed the arm after '61, so now I'm treading water. Even WW, at $99 for a little pitman arm, are out of stock. http://www.wolfsburgwest.com/cart/Detai ... =113415371 The big box outlets at $20 to $29 are also out. http://www2.cip1.com/ProductDetails.asp ... D413%2D041 Nothing listed on the samba. Maybe something will show up at Jim's Custom?

I have a couple old beetle steering boxes with pitman arms at the shop. You are welcome to them if they will work.

Thanks Ken, but Bruce gave the original a good cleaning and he thinks it's going to be good to go with some new seals.

Things went smoothly the last couple of days, time for a short update. I cleaned and blasted bolts and hardware and organized it so assembly will go smoother. I drilled out the stupid cotter pins that broke off in the steering coupler bolts. I dug up two spare T1 St Boxes in my junk but they were later, and different enough I took a second look at Sean's box. I cleaned it up and it looks better than I first thought, some 600 grit brought the Pitman shaft back to usable and cleaning the housing showed the worm gear to have no wear and no pitting. Napa and the usual suspects did not have the Pitman shaft seal available anywhere, but Carquest's regional warehouse is in Brunswick and had it, for $5!



The Pitman rides directly in the iron housing (no brass bushing!) and has only a few thou side clearance, very tight. The worm bearings felt fine once clean and I feel this box has many thousands of miles left in it.




Clean things up and push the seal in with a coating of High Tack.



Yes, that nut looks like shit, I'll change it out.



Lube the seal and install the Pitman, assemble the shaft and cover, torque to 18, fill with 90wt, and adjust the sector.


It feels as smooth as silk!


Parts and box all cleaned up, organized and painted. Stub wire is for the ground that goes around the coupler disc so the horn will work. Still waiting on a rear backing plate, whl cylinders, and axle bearings.

Welded a couple of nuts on the recalcitrant axle bearing and pulled the SOB off.



6 more hours, total 11.

Great stuff Bruce. Rear wheel bearings/spacers came in from WW today. Got the rear drums turned at NAPA in Berea near Bruce's shop. I was impressed by the two old guys, (well they were my age! ). When I walked in they said "Old VW drums" before I could utter a word. How do these guys now this stuff??

I'll leave the pics to Bruce on these items. (Wonder why? )

I'm really impressed with Bruce's attention to detail. Because the whole axle, brakes and steering aspect of this involves SAFETY, this is not something that I can just trust myself with. I would have just bolted stuff on and announced "We're good to go!"

Another update for 6V to look at:

I blasted and painted the second backing plate, and installed the axle bearings. Clean everything up good with a wire wheel first.



I used a couple of pieces of 1" electrical conduit and the axle nut to draw the bearing onto the shaft which is a very tight fit.



As it gets to the axle housing I used a brass hammer to walk it into the housing, which is not nearly as tight. Don't forget the spacer which goes on first!



Don't forget the big washer, which goes on before the seals or backing plates.



Now the seals- a bit of High Tack and push them into the seal housings which were already blasted and painted.


Push it in with the vise and a driver.



Seal must be flush and square.


Put a drum on and burp the nut to make sure everything spins free and fits right before putting the seals and stuff in.



Clean all of the paint off the gaskets surfaces with a gasket whizzer and put FIPG on the gaskets and seal housing.



Assemble and torque to 43.



Install the park cables. I keep a bunch of different wire brushes around for cleaning nasty holes out.



All set, waiting for wheel cyls.



OK, now back up front. Let's get the shocks off and out of the way. I heated these MFers red several times and the upper bolts still broke on both of them, they might have been original. I'll drill the bastards out.



Bye, bye, bitch!



Bye, bye, bitch!




Clean shit up with a wire wheel to get rid of grunge.



We're going to put a dual MC with remote reservoir on like '67 up have.

First, make a template from a piece of Mountain Dew box.





Then transfer to .045 galvanized steel (18 ga?).




The hoses are just trial fit, not on for good.





Views from above, box in and torqued (22? Really? WTF?), ground wire installed, etc.





View from front, need some Polar Silver touch up paint.






The last moron had the MC bolts put in without the spacers. One had fallen between the panels and I fished it out with a magnet, the other was gone. I happened to have a piece of the exact right tube on hand so I made one.





And, he had the MC pushrod hanging by ONE THREAD, and no cotter pin in the clevis pin. Oh, yea, the rod is bent badly, too. I'll make a new one when the MC shows up.



The new MC will get 8x1.25 Gr 10.9 diesel bolts with built in washer heads and the new spacer.




7.25 hours between yesterday and today, up to 18.25.

im really looking forward to seeing the cool car on the road!

So Bruce got back on it today. I'm really amazed at his professionalism and attention to detail. Yes, I was in the way most of the time, but I'm not missing the chance at an education and I got a great one today.

I've been gathering the necessary parts (which is an education in itself) and Bruce is great at explaining what to buy and when to buy it. He likes to use the original German stuff when possible and as an earlier post shows, he saved the OG steering box.

One of my biggest fears in getting this bug road worthy was the entire braking system. I also had major concerns about the whole front end. I love the stock look, but I didn't want to be unsafe.

Bruce suggested we do a full upgrade and I'm glad I listened to his advice. The '57 beetle brake system is just not up to snuff for today's world, even if you're driving in the right lane.

Bruce said "let's get it done right" and he is certainly doing it right.

I bought the WW teflon brake line kit for a complete replacement. Proabably overkill, but if I park this down at Morton Salt for a few weekends, the brake system should survive.

Here's a pic I took of Bruces's install on the original steering box. Really profesional high end work.


And one of the steering coupler that replaced the "rag"


When I talked about attention to detail, Bruce really does it. The backing plates I was bolting on looked like s&%$. Bruce bead blaset and painted them and did the rear seals and bearings so the bug will have a real new lease on life.

So Bruce installed all new brake lines. Really nice attention to detail.

Even got the tab right on the line leading to the right rear wheel.

Line into the replacement wheel cylinder that Bruce said was decent qulaity. The box said Denmark. Maybe the box was made in Denmark!

I learned a lot about the clips. That's mundane and routine to veterans, but I saw how there was a right and wrong way to do things.

I bought one of these, but for the life of me, we couldn't find it. Bruce had a couple old ones and bead blasted this one and it cleaned up nice.
Bruce taught me how to properly bend lines and make sure stuff is installed right.

You can see his overall attention to detail.

Since we're running the wheel cylinders on top, he had to cut the lines, but it was no problem as he had the right tools.


Really productive day. I learned a lot.