[T3] It lives!

Thu Apr 4 11:23:39 PDT 2013

Hahahaha, OK...   you asked for it. History first:

In March of 2010 I contacted the list regarding a periodic thump coming
from the running gear, this was isolated to somewhere in the final of the
transmission (4 speed early 1970). I've yet to open that mess up and see
what's there...

My "solution", in the light of having a six month old demanding a fair
share of my time, energy & budget, was to just shelf the car and drive my
fastback. So, the cycle of neglect began just over three years ago, during
this span of time, I have *reluctantly* pulled a few parts off the car to
fill an immediate need in the fastback (front calipers being the biggest
pull).

Did I say biggest pull? My mistake. Two years ago I pulled the engine (FI
1600, stock 1970 with fresh heads) to stick in the 70 fastback, because
that motor started sounding a little wonky (deep clunkiness) to my ear. So,
while the car was left to continue gathering dust & muck, the engine was
kept fresh...  until about a year ago when I started in on a longer than
anticipated body work/paint process on the fastback. Once the passenger
side pan is rotted out to half way under the front passenger seat, I
consider it time to do fundamental work on the car as opposed to risking a
total loss.

At which point, besides the very infrequent firing up the car to see if it
would still start.

Then my friend, who had graciously let me park the squareback behind his
equally needy split window T2 bought a new place and rented his house out
in record time. Demanding some sort of action on my part.

So, last Wednesday we pulled the good engine & good transmission from the
fastback.

Saturday: Mike Fisher kindly came over to help the installation of
transmission & engine (after we bolted them back together) with added help
from the new tenant Richard (which is as kind and patient a guy as I could
hope for in this sort of situation). Rest of day involved reconnecting
everything on hand & making list of the obvious stuff I'd forgotten (MPS,
bellows clamps, etc..)

Monday afternoon: New fuel hose rear half of the car, front seats
reinstalled, realize the MPS bracket pulled from the 70 FB doesn't fit the
73 SB body, etc. Observe that the calipers I had swapped over from the FB
are being problematic. Refined list of needs..

Tuesday afternoon: Pull working calipers from fastback to return to
squareback, one pair calipers in queue for rebuilding (I'll contact you
directly on that Jim, once I have everything I need rebuilt pulled &
ready). Fix brakes on square.

Wednesday afternoon: Gravity bleed brakes while tending to finishing
touches in the wiring (what was I thinking, THAT goes THERE sort of stuff).
Install MPS with correct bracket. Pour fuel into tank (it was dry, ugh).
Observe fuel leaking out of seams in fuel pump, explicative deleted - no
point in losing sleep over it, another item for the rebuild box. Run home &
grab the fuel pump on the FB, getting a little bath in the process.
Installed it on the square, at which point, having ascertained there were
no more leaks in the fuel system I connected the battery and turned the key
to the on position.

One relay click only, something wrong, immediately return to engine
compartment. Observe incorrectly connected wire 19 (IIRC) from brain to
rest of car, remedy that and proceed to hear two clicks complete with fuel
pump whine.

I primed the line several times then reached for the starter. No solenoid,
but some starter whir to accompany the fuel pump kicking back on. I had
bodged the wiring a little on that too (available terminals were a little
different in position between the two starters). Sorted that out, and was
able to engage the engine in trying to turn over. No luck, walk back to
look at all the connections, everything looked OK.

For giggles I tried starting the car again, no luck. Losing daylight, my
multimeter is safe at home a mile or so away, I pack up my tools to call it
day. We're expecting rain on Thursday, but at least I've gotten most of the
lying in dirt portion of the job done. Once ALL my tools are back in the
van I shoot the breeze with Richard a little before heading out. He's been
curious about the entire process, and is a hands on DIY guy himself..

He'd like to hear what it's doing.

Cool, OK. Walk back to the car, unlock it, step inside and start
soundboarding my process off him, demonstrating the relay clicks and the
fuel pump, etc.

"That's all it does?"

"Well, no." I say, "OK, if you want the sound of the car turning over here
you go"

Damn thing starts right up. Lugged my tools back out to drop the car (all
four wheels were resting on wheels to facilitate under car access) and then
drive it home.

Now I've got some indicator light work, etc, but by and large it was a
pretty painless process. I did cheat a lot by having a complete car to pull
from, but the little self inflicted goof ups didn't derail me too much.

c

On Thu, Apr 4, 2013 at 9:13 AM, Jim Adney <jadney at vwtype3.org> wrote:

> On 4 Apr 2013 at 5:52, C. Rochambeau wrote:
>
> > I just wanted to shout out thanks to the list, having more or less been
> in
> > lurker mode for about a decade I have evidentally digested a mass of
> little
> > details, tricks, troubleshooting misc that has been a huge assist over
> the
> > past few days as I got my little car going again.
> >
> > Thanks! I'm pretty sure my exposure here has shaved more than a day of
> > chasing red herrings down rabbit holes.
>
> Hey, no fair! Tell us more.
>
> How long has it been off the road? What did you find? What did you do
> about it? We love to hear the success stories.  ;-)
>
>
> --
> *******************************
> Jim Adney, jadney at vwtype3.org
> Madison, Wisconsin, USA
> *******************************
>
> _______________________________________________
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> http://lists.vwtype3.org/listinfo.cgi/type3-vwtype3.org
> Contact gregm at vwtype3.org if you need help with the list.
>

-- 
http://crochambeau.blogspot.com/
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