Catching up to update this thread. Basically copying the posts over from the Germanlook forum where the main build thread has been...
So, completed the machine work on my Version 1 adapter piece. Actually finished that up back in
January 2016 but got swamped with other projects.
…and it was at this point that I realized I’ve screwed up. Somewhere in my initial calculations I carried a one, or something equally silly. Bottom line, there is definitely no where near the space I need to make all this work. The yellow line you can see on the splines is roughly where the face of the bearing is. If you look inside the bearing, you might be able to see the pink dot (or the yellow one close by)…yeah, that’s where the pressure plate spring fingers are with the motor installed. OOPS! I’m roughly 0.585” out. That’s 14.7mm for us metric folk, that is a smoking huge error. I went back and dug up my rough notes, and some how had figured I’d be 0.120” (3mm) short of the space I needed, and figured I could make that up with Rev2 of my aluminum mount. But 0.685…yeah, that’s not gonna happen.
So, back to the drawing board…or Google. First stop, Windrush Evolutions aka WEVO. They make the Porsche 901 hydraulic adapter in gold that pictured in my last post. I believe, from internet searching, that it was originally a Tilton product but ended up under WEVO license/control. Regardless, the WEVO unit is part of their full kit that uses a Tilton multi-plate clutch and custom flywheel. The kit is over $3k USD, and since it’s setup for a Porsche motor not an option. They’ll sell me a hydraulic throwout bearing, but the cost is more than I’ve spent on some vehicles…Porsche tax!
While I waited for the my solutions to ship (which you’ll read about soon), I hammered along on a number of items the car needed. After four years of running, I seemed to have added quite a bit to the electrical system. Heated seats, oil-cooler sprayer, GPS, Phone connections, second intercom system, interior map lighting (red), interior lighting (white), GPS speedometer & antenna, the list goes on. Problem is, each install was done right before an event with the intention of “cleaning it up later”. Basically, zip-tied on top in a hurry. I had a new electrical system to add, and I’ve reached my limit. It was all torn out, and put in cleanly and properly…
The newest electrical system is a dash cam setup with front and rear cameras. I don’t live in an area where fraudulent insurance claims (Russian style) is a huge concern, but I’ve always thought I need one. You see, if I ever DO have an accident…who is going to believe me that I was driving responsibly? Thus, dash cam system. Picked up a used Blackvue 5500 system and did a permanent install. All the wires are tucked away and hidden.
I’ve run out of room for switches on the dash, so the oil-cooler sprayer and interior lighting switch is on the mount for the driver’s seat. Passenger seat has switches in the same location for the red and white reading lamps. The oil cooler sprayer runs automatically with the fan, but I can switch just the liquid sprayer on and off using this switch.
I also tore out the rear shocks and kafer bar, rebuilding as required. Oddly enough, the left spring and right spring were different heights when I pulled them out. So, swapped those out with a fresh pair. One of the Kafer bar ears had cracks in it, so I've started the job of actually rebuilding them all into double-shear mounts. May not be easy to do for each of the mounts, but a good project for later on in the Spring...
And with that, it was back onto the Clutch project. Stop number two on the world-wide-web was much more successful. Kennedy Engineering has a dual-plate clutch system for high-torque applications. Here’s the trick, though: they stuff two clutch plates, and an intermediate plate all into a package that is no deeper than a stock beetle clutch system. Hmmm, that got me thinking. If they’ve squeezed those plates into the same package, the pressure plate must be thinner? A couple of phone calls later, and we worked out that they have a custom pressure plate which is 0.230” thinner than a factory clutch. Kennedy was able to make me one to match the Stage-1 pressure plate I have. So, I’ll use the pressure plate with a single clutch disc by sinking the pressure plate mounting surface 0.230” into the flywheel.
Partway there!
The internet is an awesome, awesome machine sometimes. While looking up the Kennedy double-plate clutch system, trying to work out what the trick was (before I could call them), I found out the current system is actually their Generation 2 system. Get 1 used a standard pressure plate, and a 0.500” spacer between the engine and transmission. Hmmmm…a spacer eh? I knew I didn’t want to go with a full half inch, but I also wanted the proper lip to be machined on either side of the spacer if I’m going to use one. Worked it out with Kennedy Engineering that spacer could be made 0.375”, but probably no thinner. So, I ordered a custom spacer to be made up:
So…
0.120 - Rev 2 of my spacer
0.375 - Spacer
0.230 - Pressure plate
———
0.725” -> More than enough space. You know, presuming my math is correct this time.
For the moment, however, I think I need to shelve the Hydraulic clutch system. My first event for Classic Car Adventures is the end of April (Hagerty Spring Thaw), followed three weeks later by the Colorado event (Hagerty Silver Summit). I have a lot of work to do before them, with route books and other details! Warwick’s Escort Rally Car is project #1, he’s hoping to race it in early April…and as you can see I have a lot of work to do. I’m concerned I won’t have enough time to setup the pedal side of the equation, test it all, and swap back if it’s not working correctly.
Having said that…I can’t stop thinking how quickly I could get the engine and and out to see if there is space. Plus these puppies just arrived. More modifications to be done!
-Dave
June 2016:
Not much new to report! With everything I had going on, I've taken a pause on the Hydraulic Clutch adapter. I've got the engine end sorted (I think), but when it was time to do the pedals I realized I really don't want an adapted-stock pedal setup. I've got my eye on a Tilton reservoir-under-foot floor setup, but the price is hefty. Figure about $1k USD, plus plus. So, with that in mind I tossed it all back together with a cable to revisit it this summer. As these things go, it will probably get pushed back to the winter
In the meantime, however, I keep adding to the miles on the odometer. Since Feburary I think I've put roughly 8,000km on it...which for me is a massive reduction from normal. Late last year the motor developed a 'strange rattle' that we couldn't source. When I pulled the motor out and found the destroyed pilot bearing, we figured we had probably found the issue. Problem forgotten, winter passes, and finally I tossed the motor in for the season. Hmmm, the sound is back. And it changes, sometimes its far worse than other times. Hmmmm. It sounds like valve train noise, coming from dead-center in the engine case. We've checked the valve lift (in spec on all eight), and we've checked everything we possibly can without splitting the case. If the motor wasn't 2 seasons, and 90,000ish miles old, I would be tearing it down. But life is busy, priorities are higher in other areas, and thus I seem to start every Classic Car Adventures event with "well, if it blows it blows!" And yet, it still runs like a champ.
I am driving it less though. The odd sounds means I'm more likely to take my truck for a trip around town, or even if I'm zipping into Vancouver. Gotta keep that motor together for as long as possible, still have three more Classic Car Adventures events this year!
This year, for our
Hagerty Silver Summit in Colorado, my mom flew out to play co-driver. We enjoyed an awesome three days of sunshine and mountain driving, with only one minor mishap the entire time. Coming into the small town of Mt. Crested Butte, where the event's second night hotel was, the clutch pedal went soft for three shifts...and then the cable snapped. Fortunately we were rolling in 2nd at the time, so I just blew a couple of stop signs and drove it into the hotel parking lot.
That night I discovered I wasn't actually carrying a spare cable, a problem since my setup uses a short one out of a split window beetle. Not going to find one of those at NAPA!
The morning driver's meeting was pretty funny. "Okay," I began, "so today you're all going to wait here in the parking garage while the Rally Bug starts off on the event. We have to blow through all the stop signs, and I don't want to get caught behind any of you. Oh, and while I think of it...do as I say, not as I do. Make sure you drive responsibly!"
We put the car in 2nd (facing down a slight hill), started the car by rolling on the starter in 2nd gear and we were off! I taught mom that coming up to a stop sign she was only allowed to say two things: "Clear Right!" meaning the road was clear to proceed, or "NEGATIVE!" meaning I had to stop.
Normally, I wouldn't be too worried about driving without a clutch cable. You can easily start a beetle from a dead stop on the starter in first gear, but we had a couple of other factors working against us. The car is normally tuned for Sea Level, not the 5-11,000ft we were driving at in Colorado. I had done a re-jet and re-tune, but depending on the altitude it was hard-starting at times. The battery, as well, seems to be getting weaker in the car. Combine everything, and I just wasn't willing to risk it.
We made it 174mi (280km), before I was finally caught by a red-light. The first restart didn't go so well, but once I figured out the perfect throttle position we were laughing our way through the next two stops. At the surprise of many of our entrants, the Rally Bug pulled into the finish with zero damage. Whew!
Now, a wise man would probably toss the car up in the air, tear the motor out and pull it apart on the five days I have home. I've rebuilt complete motors in far less time...but I think I must be getting older. The prospect of the late-night motor tear-downs and rebuilds just isn't nearly as exciting to me at the moment. I mean, it runs currently, right?
-Dave
June 28 2016:
Whelp, it would seem that worn lifter-bores are the most likely candidate for the sounds that I'm hearing. Guess I will be pulling the motor soon after all. Not sure whether I should try and build up a backup longblock now, or wait until this one is out of the car. Hmmmm...
-Dave
Editor Note: I didn't end up pulling the motor, and instead used the '58 Beetle all summer and ran the Rally Bug one last time for the GCVW show. Anyone who heard it start up cold probably wondered just what was going on inside teh engine. "clack, clack, clack, clack"...
...and half a year goes by.
Well, I didn't pull the motor in June. At the time I was living in Squamish BC, halfway between Vancouver and Whistler. Housing prices are insane, and while I would have loved to buy a house...there was no hope. About the time I was making my last post, I was looking around at houses for sale in another town (Port Alberni), very similar to Squamish but 4 hrs away on Vancouver Island. The price was right, I worked out that I could actually afford it, and put an offer in. Whelp, there goes the next German Look project budget, my offer was accepted. So in August I bought this:
The house came with this out back, but please note two of those 'doors' are white tarps. It's just a bare shell with 2 pads concrete, one dirt. Still, it's an 800sqft shop divided into two halves. The small door has a single bay, and the two larger doors are one big room with a post in the middle.
I closed in August, but didn't move until October once all the Classic Car Adventure's events were done. The rally bug couldn't be trusted for the final two events of the year, so I ran my 1958 Beetle on the Hagerty Fall Classic in WA, and my Dad's '79 Beetle convertible on our Hagerty Maple Mille in Ontario. October, November and December were spent finishing the shop. I had the floor poured, doors installed, and then did all the electrical, insulation, walls and painting myself. Turned out pretty stellar, and I'm super stoked on it.
Bay One is the "storage bay", I've got my shelves of frequently used items, the '58, my woodworking bench and left over wood supplies in here. I also build a super-hefty storage shelf above the garage door that's 8 feet wide and 8 feet deep. Currently it's unorganized crap, but eventually I'll clean it out and store less-frequently accessed items. In some ways, bay one is a bit of a wasted space. It would be FAR better to have this room set up either as a "clean room" for building engines and assembly of cars, or as a dirty room where all the grinding, welding and other dirty work occurs. But, despite all the space I managed to stumble into, I have a space problem! I'm using the garage in the house to store my best friend's Audi Coupe Quattro, and I'm no longer keeping a storage unit where lots of my 'crap' that I don't want to throw out would be stored. In a few years, once the budget recovers, I will probably close in and insulate one of the car-ports and move all my storage over there, thus giving me a clean and dirty side of the workshop.
Bay two and three, the larger half of the shop, is where my general work will occur. I've also brought my 1975 Standard Deluxe out of storage...figuring that now I have the space to finally decide what to do with it.
Security Cam shot with all three cars jammed in, while I finished out Bay one:
Workbench & Cabinets
FINALLY, this week, I started to use the shop for what it was built for. Pulled the motor on the rally bug and tore it down to find the valve-train noise. Turns out it wasn't a lifter bore, they're all tight and happy. The timing gear on the crank, however, was loose. I've never seen one come loose before, and neither had my buddies. Keyway in the crank was okay, but the key was pretty hammered out. Also discovered that after 92,000 miles on the 2110cc engine, it was time for bearings. Rod and cam bearings all looked worn but not damaged. The crank bearings, however, weren't so lucky. Definitely starved the middle (split) bearing for oil at some point!
So, while I wait for new bearings to arrive, I thought I'd go back to the hydraulic clutch conversion...the new adapter is 120 thousands thinner than the original, and so now I just need to figure out what box I packed all the flywheel, pressure plate and adapter stuff into. I know it's around here somewhere...
I keep looking at this box on the shelf wondering if now is the time to do it...
-Dave
So yeah, that's why I've disappeared off of Airspeed for a while. Closed on a house, renovated a shop, built furniture for the house, and now I'm finally back into wrenching on Volkswagens. I should really get rid of the old-grandma wallpaper in the kitchen, but that can wait...there is fun to be had in the new shop!