[T3] The road trip blues

Jim Adney jadney at vwtype3.org
Sun Aug 27 18:12:15 PDT 2017


On 27 Aug 2017 at 17:42, Daniel Nohejl wrote:

> We made it home at around 9pm yesterday without the other shoe
> dropping: not a single other miss. Though in the 1k miles since
> Madison, we accumulated a laundry list of things to address, 2 of
> which we´ve already gotten to: 

Glad you made it home safely. We enjoyed having you here, but next time 
let's spend our days having fun, rather than fixing cars.  ;-)

> 1. We had to reconnect the hot start relay. On two occasions, the
> starter worked after a highway run and that was when we turned off the
> car, waited a few seconds, started it back up for a few seconds, and
> then turned it off again. The wasn´t foolproof b/c on one occasion we
> tried this right after shutdown and the starter didn´t engage at all.
> Relay is on now but we havenTMt done any driving. I hope this works,
> b/c solo bump starting doesnTMt sound like much fun. 

Hope that does the trick for you.

> 2. In Madison, I thought I heard a loose valve on the 3/4 side of the
> motor. We checked the valves and they were fine. After 1k miles, the
> sound turned into a loud metallic clanking which would go away if I
> pushed against the muffler with my boot. Turns out, we have a huge
> exhaust leak out of the clamp/donut/ring on that side. The rear of the
> heater box is black with soot. While the exhaust is tightly secured
> everywhere else, we can rock it such that it slides fore and aft on
> the heater box pipe there and that seems to be the source of the
> noise. While the clamp is tight, itTMs awkwardly situated over the
> joint. Since I have a spare, I took off the clamp to check things out
> and the donut and ring are fine. We put some FLAPS exhaust leak junk
> and a new clamp on it and weTMll see how it goes for now. 

I've had better luck than I expected with muffler repair stuff, but in an area 
where parts can move with respect to one another that's not too likely to last. 

The problem is that the OD of the HE has rusted away under where the 
sealing donuts have to go. This makes the tube OD smaller, so that the 
donut has to chance to grip it. To fix this, I make a small shim out of thin 
alum that I can wrap around the HE pipe where the donut will go. I butter up 
the shim on both sides and then slip the donut over it. If you need a new 
donut, you can cut them in half, then seal the cut faces with the muffler putty.

If that part of your muffler is that free to move, you may also need to look at 
the joint between the upper HE and the muffler. That may be loose. If so, you 
probably won't be able to tighten it now, as that threaded fitting will be stuck 
solid, but on your next muffler make sure they are tight. If you really want to 
fix this now, get a muffler shop to weld the big hex nut to the pipe that comes 
down out of it and into the muffler. If they do that, without welding to the rim 
of the upper HE, it won't damage the upper HE for the next time you need to 
get them apart.

> 3. Our steering box has been on the edge of taking a dump and now it
> has. It thunks loudly and it has a weird "skip", especially when
> turning right. Got under there today and there was no play in any
> suspension part but for the output shaft of the box which thunks
> loudly when the wheel is turned all the way right. I put my hand on
> each part while Jessica turned the wheel and itTMs clearly the box
> thatTMs thunking. Much less so to the left i? tha? means anything. 

Do you get the same amount of steering wheel turning to full left lock as to 
full right lock?

Is this a gearbox you got from me?

> 4. Suddenly, upshifting into 3rd gear is strange. Sometimes it goes as
> smoothly as usual and other times there´s resistance and the trans
> thunks very loudly when it goes into gear. No grinding, just a slight
> bit of resistance and a thunk. If I spend a second or two in neutral
> between 2nd and 3rd it shifts smoothly. Synchro on the way out? 

Syncros live a hard life, so it's always kind to give them a little time to do 
their thing. Pausing in N while you take your foot off the throttle gives the 
engine time to slow down, so there's less syncing to do; then it's the N to 
gear transition where the work happens and you want to allow some time for 
the gears to sync.

-- 
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Jim Adney, jadney at vwtype3.org
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
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