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Originally Posted by Lane Anderson - Mt. Pleasant, SC:

       

So I'm gonna reiterate, Ted, that you should join us in Carlisle.  I can think of no more fitting intro into the Speedster Madness than that.  Seriously consider it.


       


I'm out of state on work that weekend. Maybe I catch a flight over that way! Oh man, my wife would have my hide. Ha! I'm trying to ease her into the SLO weekend. We will see how that goes.
Originally Posted by Troy Sloan:

Glad you finally found what you are looking for.  I notice it doesn't have heat.  Is that on your list of mods?

Yeah, she has no heat. I didn't think I would need it, but the drive into the office this morning had me thinking it'd a worth while upgrade.

Speaking of the drive in, I noticed a bit more fuel smell than I was comfortable with. I opened the deck lid and found that the fuel line from the tank to the fuel pump was 'sweaty'. It's sweating fuel from where it exists the body, clear down to the fuel pump.

Need to replace that tonight/tomorrow. I'm going to take it easy going home tonight. It's not so bad that it's dripping, but still - not something to mess around with. (Step 2, get a fire extinguisher put behind driver seat.)

 

The dual carbs should arrive in a week or so. Just go with a standard rubber fuel hose for now? What's the preferred long term hose?

 

Had it die twice when I had to come of the gas quickly and onto the break. Sudden stops. Goes to idle and dies. Not sure what that's about. Couple of back fires out the pipes with sudden transitions.

 

Other than that, runs like a champ. Brakes are great. I'm looking forward to stepping up to front disks.

 

Jim - thanks for picking out such a great car.

 

I'll start cleaning the body/paint this weekend.  Initial signs show it should clean up nicely.

 

Ted

Hey Ed,

 

Thanks for the kind words. I've ordered a replacement exhaust, carbs, and distributor. I may even replace the dog house shroud for a 36hp dog house without heat ducts not sure yet. As Troy asked earlier, Heat is a really nice luxury.

 

Here are some photos from the night the car arrived and over the past week:

 

 

 

Cleaning up the paint:

 

Lots of orange peel:

 

Took 'er out for a drive last night:

 

 

 


 

I really need to raise the front end up. I tried, but the avis adjusters are at the full 'up' position. The front suspension has 0 travel. If I push 'down' on the front fender there is 0 play. If I jack the car up the there is a ton of down ward travel in the arms.  I'm wondering if the PO removed some springs up front? of if maybe it was put together incorrectly?

 

Any ideas?

 

Thanks for letting me share,
Ted

 

Last edited by TRP

Hey Art!

 

Thanks. The plates were one of the first things I did. The Gilroy DMV was excellent about getting them registered and on the car. In and out in 15 minutes.

 

The reservoir is Anderson Dam in Morgan Hill. About a mile from the house. Before all the talk of the drought, there were going to drain it to retrofit the dam. Looks like they are going to put that off for a year or two.

 

 

 

I can't remember the correct number of torsion bar plates in the front, but it's made up of something like 6 or 8 of them in a particular lay-up configuration to fit into the keeper in the center of the tube as well as into the notched tube in the trailing arms going to the wheel hubs.  It's an all-morning deal to check them, since you have to remove the shock, then remove the trailing arms and then count the number of flat bars you see, both top and bottom, and then decide what to do next.  You can check them by pulling the trailing arms off of just one side, but if you want to add torsion bars (if some are missing, now) you'll have to pull the other side as well.

 

If it's a ball joint front end, this is best done by popping apart ONE ball joint so then the trailing arms are independent.  Then, with the trailing arm neutral (no pressure on it) loosen the locknut and then remove the grub screw on the trailing arm (you can keep the locknut right on it) and then jiggle the trailing arm off of the torsion bar to see what you've got.

 

 

Art, I'm running 185 65/ R15. Nothing crazy.

So I put the car up on jack stands and found the right front trailing arm grub screws and lock nuts are almost falling out. Not even finger tight. I also found that the car has no front sway bar. Something tells me its been apart before.

The car will remain off the road until I figure out what's up. The suspension, as it sits, is beating the crap out of the car and driver.

The images above, where I am cleaning the paint - the right side has been cleaned. The left has not. I just used a very light cut. Followed up with a quick foam pad and swirl remover. Nothing drastic, yet. I may get it blocked to cut the orange peel. We will see.
Last edited by TRP

Ted- To expand on what Gordon said, a ball joint torsion leaf stack will have 4 large flat bars stacked together, and on the top and bottom of the stack 3 small bars (2 side by side, 1 on the outside). One stack in the top tube and one (identical) in the bottom. Before the select-a-drop and torsion adjusters were invented guys would pull some of the small leaves out to achieve that Cal Look stance.

 

What they look like (pics stolen from the Samba)

 

 

torsion leaves, ball joint front end

torsion leaves, ball joint

Attachments

Images (2)
  • torsion leaves, ball joint front end
  • torsion leaves, ball joint: what they look like close up...

And.....There is one set of those stacked-up bars for both sides of the front end.  The stack-up is inserted into one side of the torsion bar tube and pushed in to slide through a hole in the center anchor ( that moves with the adjuster ) and all the way to the opposite side.

 

The trick to getting them through the center anchor is to grease them up liberally with regular automotive grease and then put a small rubber band on one end, about an inch from the end, to hold them all in place.  Push it in, make it align with the hole in the center and then push it through.  The rubber band will just slide along the bars and then be captive in the middle and be harmless.

Thanks gents. I'll get a ball joint tool and tear into this one night this week.

I can't imagine Al drove the car much with the front end bottomed out like this.

Let's say ole crazy Al pulled a few springs. Should I buy a new beam or buy new leaves? Do they sell just the spring steel inserts?

Thanks again,
Ted

Ted- Just a thought; see if you can tighten the grub screws into their appropriate dimples in the torsion leaves and drive it. I don't know if it will help or not, but it's worth a try. Al

 

If you end up looking for torsion leaves, check Craigslist for people selling VW parts. If you can find someone close they should be really cheap. I think the leaves for a ball joint beam may be different than ones for a king & link pin front end.

Last edited by ALB

Ted: I second ALB's advice. But I modify: If the screws were loose already, first pull the arms off and see if they were on straight. I put one on whacked 30 degrees out when I pulled springs out of my car. Almost didn't notice, but the grub screw wouldn't seat.

 

So you might have just loose arms. Or you might (unlikely, but maybe) have trailing arms that are on wrong. Or you might have dropped spindles with beam adjusters that are designed to drop it further--a common error, I'm betting.

 

What you will want are either 

 

1. 2 inch drop spindles and a beam set to stock height, or

 

2. Stock spindles with a beam set to be lowerable about two inches.

 

Now a word on the torsion springs:

 

The VW comes with (as pictured) four "big" leaves and six smaller ones stacked in each tube in the beam. These were designed to be removable to adjust the spring rate, depending on the amount of weight riding over them. The Beetle is a bit on the heavy side, being made out of steel. Your car (and mine too, I know this cuz I did it) might just be about 200 pounds lighter over the front wheels than a stock Bug was/is.

 

For this reason, taking out some or all of the small leaves might give you a better ride.

 

You don't want to do it if the car is too low already, as less springs will take it down further. But the ride on my car was dangerously stiff before I pulled all six small leaves out of both tubes. With just the four big ones, it is right.

 

So look hard at what you have. If you have drop spindles and the kind of beam that only allows you to lower the car, you should still be able to adjust it to "stock" height at the beam, which would leave you about two inches lower than stock in front. And that is just about perfect for these cars. 

 

Personally I prefer the stock spindle and the lowering adjuster, with fewer leaves. That setup works on my car.

 

Oh, and: fixing an exhaust leak is usually a matter of gaskets and washers and tightening nuts. I mentioned the carb heat tube because I had that problem too--the engine has maybe 250,000 miles on it, and this sort of thing happens. Fixed it with tape, temporarily. Pulled the engine in favor of a Subaru, but the right fix is to just replace that one part. Cheap and easy.

 

 

 

Originally Posted by edsnova - Baltimore - BCW 52 MG TD:

Ted: I second ALB's advice. But I modify: If the screws were loose already, first pull the arms off and see if they were on straight. I put one on whacked 30 degrees out when I pulled springs out of my car. Almost didn't notice, but the grub screw wouldn't seat.

 

So you might have just loose arms. Or you might (unlikely, but maybe) have trailing arms that are on wrong. Or you might have dropped spindles with beam adjusters that are designed to drop it further--a common error, I'm betting.


 

So this bit caught me and stuck in my head.  I say this because I think something is off with the grub screws in the center adjusters. They don't go in very far at all. Should there be an 'indent' or pocket in the stacked springs for the center screw to seat into? Currently, when I put the center screw in, it only goes in a tiny bit before it bottoms out on the spring pack. I bet it's put together wrong.

 

I'll dig into it in a few days and let you know what I find out.  I'm getting ready to leave town for work next week. Then I will be on vacation with the family for another week. I'm not sure I want to tear into this before I'm set to gone for two weeks.

 

On a brighter note, I did just receive a box full of badges from Sierra Madre! Unfortunately I forgot to order 3 different gaskets (hood handle front and rear gasket, new rear deck lid grill gasket). I'll call 'em up tomorrow and order 'em up.

 

Carbs should be here tomorrow! Distributor too!

True to his word, look what Tiger sent me today!

 

 

 

Not completely installed (no gaskets!?) - I only finger tightened the nuts to see how it would look. Looks like it hangs lower than the old exhaust, but the reality is that it's 1.25 / 1.5" higher than the old rusted scaly original empi 4 tip monza. Best part? No more scraping when I pull into the garage!

 

The carbs were supposed to be here in 7 days. Tiger said 10 days from order to deliver.  Tiger beat the carbs. I called them last week and they said they would ship Saturday. I think someone has some 'splaining to do.

 

Ted

Originally Posted by Rich Drewek:

Ted, just out of curiosity, what type of lead time did Tiger give you?

Tiger said 10 days from the time I ordered it, to the time it would ship. I ordered on the 4th. It arrived yesterday. Turns out to have been about two weeks, including weekends and shipping. Not too shabby. AJ Sims said 4 to 7 days on the carbs. I ordered those the same day I ordered the exhaust. I still haven't seen those suckers show up. They said they would ship them this past Saturday.

 

I'll give them a call today and see what's up.

 

Now I need to figure out what to do about the existing dog house shroud. It has heat stacks on it, but I don't have heater boxes yet. Part of me wants to get the SCAT 36hp dog house without heat tubes (and internal cooling veins)  - just to keep it clean and tidy back there. I'll get the existing shroud cleaned up for when I'm ready to install heat. I just worry about the 36hp shrouds ability to keep the motor cool.

 

Any suggestions are welcomed,

Ted

I hope you don't have any problems with AJ Sims.  He has had some problems in the past getting items to clients on time.

 

The 36 hp shroud will cool your engine fine.  The internal vanes are needed for proper air distribution and if you're going to run your car without heater boxes block off the heater box air tubes with something like this: 

 

http://www2.cip1.com/ProductDe...uctCode=ACC-C10-5439

Originally Posted by Ron O, 1984/2010 IM, B.C. Canada:

I hope you don't have any problems with AJ Sims.  He has had some problems in the past getting items to clients on time.

 

The 36 hp shroud will cool your engine fine.  The internal vanes are needed for proper air distribution and if you're going to run your car without heater boxes block off the heater box air tubes with something like this: 

 

http://www2.cip1.com/ProductDe...uctCode=ACC-C10-5439

Hey Ron,

 

I hope the same thing. I'm going to be grumpy if that's the case.  Regarding the freeze plugs in the shroud - I have those in the existing dog house shroud that's on the motor now. I think I'll go to the 36hp shroud without the heat tubes for a clean sanitary look. Especially if it will cool just the same.

 

I'm going to call AJ after my 9:30 call.

 

Ted

 

 

Yeah, looks like there was some truth to the warnings I received.  I ordered the carbs on the 4th and was told that they would go out in 4 to 7 days. I didn't receive them by the 14th so I called and was told they would go out the very next day. I asked TWO TIMES "Are you sure?... I can get a nice set of baby dells TODAY if you're not sure... " - their reply was "We're sure..." 

 

I called back today and was told that they shipped and that I should have them. I asked for a tracking number and was given one. Turns out that they shipped them YESTERDAY. When I asked about that I was just told "oh... yeah... I'm sorry about that."

 

Long story short - Tiger was true to his word. The guys at Low Buggit were not. Lesson learned. Won't do business with them again.


What's so hard about being honest regarding shipment dates?


Ted

 

 

 

 

Ted, I'd go with the 36 hp shroud without heater tubes too.  They look nice.

 

Tiger makes a quality product.  He screwed up my order (made my header without an 02 sensor) and I had to wait an extra couple of weeks for my exhaust system, which was no big deal, since my car has been off the road for a (long) while.  Still, he felt bad and threw in a quick release coupler/pipe so I can take my muffler offin a couple of minutes.

 

Last edited by Ron O

What disadvantages are there for the 36HP shroud, no heater tubes, (obviously no standard VW heater). And other than aesthetics, what advantages?  I have to pull my engine, to put tins in, so "while I am at it" (BTW the 5 most expensive words in house remodels) what do I gain?

 

And the more I read about  Tiger looks like he's a first cabin supplier.

Last edited by Art

The grub screws should fit in dimples. When you pull the trailing arms you will see. The arms need to fit on the springs just so. When all the springs are present and accounted-for, there is no way to get it wrong. But if you remove the small springs, and are stupid and careless (like me) you can get the arm on there wrong. Then you gotta hammer it off. I used a two pound sledge with a piece of 2x4 as a shield. Two or three whacks.

 

I am told that very hard driving can do this to the arms as well (again, if the small leaves are removed). For this reason, the smart and very careful (racer-type) people fill the space left open by the departed small torsion leaves with either A. cut off bits of torsion leaves or, B. something metal that is the same size. 

 

The good news for you: If you have a couple of wracked torsion arms, chances are good you can just put them back on right and forget about them.

 

Good luck.

 

Oh, nice pipes!

Last edited by edsnova
Originally Posted by art:

What disadvantages are there for the 36HP shroud, no heater tubes, (obviously no standard VW heater). And other than aesthetics, what advantages?  I have to pull my engine, to put tins in, so "while I am at it" (BTW the 5 most expensive words in house remodels) what do I gain?

 

And the more I read about  Tiger looks like he's a first cabin supplier.

Hey Art,

 

I don't know that there are any direct disadvantages, other than nothing cools like an original stock shroud. I will most likely buy the scat shroud, without heater ports, just to clean up the engine until I get some heater boxes. A clean engine compartment is a must have for me. What I have now is the opposite of that.

 

Ted

 

 

GREAT MOTHER OF GOD! The pile of parts that arrived today...

 

So, AJ came through. He has a 14 day guarantee that he will deliver. He delivered in 15. I'm not going to break  his balls over a day.

 

Currently sitting on my work bench:

New tuned Dual 40mm Kadron carbs

Dual carb Linkage
Compufire Electronic ignition

SVDA Distributor (some sort of custom mapping?... snake oil... whatevs!)

Complete new SCAT 36hp engine tin (all of it...)

Fuel pressure regulator

New Sierra madre rubber gaskets for the hood handle

New Sierra madre hood emblem

New Sierra madre side "Speedster" emblems

New Sierra madre front and rear PORSCHE emblems

New Sierra madre rear decklid Grill

New Sierra madre rear decklid Grill gasket

New mirror gasket

New Sierra madre rear 1600 emblem

New fuel hose

New engine tin screws

New tie rod ends (x4)

 

Some other stuff I'm forgetting...

 

Here is the punch line - I leave Monday for a week long work trip, then I return and I'm heading on vacation with the family for a week!?

 

Schwarz Frau will be all alone in the garage for 2 weeks!!?  It hardly seems right.

 

Hopefully I'll get the motor pulled this weekend so can start to tear it apart before I leave for two weeks.  

 

T

 

 

Last edited by TRP

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