Making an 82 Rabbit pick-up not suck at moving

Well, not a lot of progress from me...

I bought a cup wheel to machine the old flywheel and tried it out on some really rusty discs that were laying around outside. 

Better, I didn't go far enough to make them usable, just a proof of concept. 

They look like a really rough surface but they are actually quite smooth to the touch in the center. 

I also tried out some of the suggested aluminum cleaning methods. 

Before:

And after: 

I also had the purple stuff laying around so I tried that for comparison.

Both seemed to work but the Zep purple  took grease off better and the eagle cleaner brought shine back better. I think I'll use both on the transmission but I want to wait until It's warmer and use the pressure washer outside.  

Also in new developments, my brother bought this for 1400$!

It runs fairly well and only has a few dings, dents, and scrapes, also looks like very little rust anywhere. 

I think he got a steal of a price! I'll try to talk him into posting about it as he goes.

Good wheels on that Porsche.  Are they always set in so far into the wheel well on the rear?  Looks a little odd from here.

In reply to BirgerBuilder :

Nice!

Porsches starting 79 were fully galvanized, so they don't tend to rust very much, just some of the steel underpinnings.

What kills the 944 and 924S is leaking fuel hoses and broken timing belts.  Take care of those and you'll have a decent GT.

I believe the rear phone dials are from a different generation 944.

In reply to BirgerBuilder :

Hey I know that car!  I am really excited about it.  Hoping i can keep this project at a reasonable level.  Maintenance and improvements while I drive it.  

Billy_Bottle_Caps said:

I believe the rear phone dials are from a different generation 944.

hmm- I had not even noticed until you guys mentioned it.  I'll have to get out there and measure the width of the Fronts and rears.  The car is an 86, not sure what years had the phone dials, but they are my favorite 944 wheel, so I'll probably keep them.  

Stefan said:

In reply to BirgerBuilder :

Nice!

Porsches starting 79 were fully galvanized, so they don't tend to rust very much, just some of the steel underpinnings.

What kills the 944 and 924S is leaking fuel hoses and broken timing belts.  Take care of those and you'll have a decent GT.

The PO said the timing belt was just done, and if the title is accurate, he could not have put more than 3k miles on it during his ownership. So hopefully I can put that off for a while.  This one needs CV boots (hopefully not new joints),  the power steering leaks, and to rebuild the ball joints.  Other than that it seems to be pretty good shape.   Only 85K miles!

With regards to the rear wheel tuck it's an offset thing.  Don't remember the year cutoff but there were two different wheel offsets used on these.  Always like this under rated P car.

Back on track this past weekend to try and get the belts sorted on the engine. With out power steering or AC, neither the serpentine belt or the V belt will fit anymore. I guess I'm gonna have to hook up the air conditioning, but I really don't want to bother with the power steering. The truck only weighs 2100# and it's not necessary. 

So for now, I'm just gonna block it off. 

The return is a much larger diameter pipe than the supply and I couldn't find a hose that would fit both. So here is the rubber hose connector, or what's left of it. After I drilled out the rubber hose bits, it fell apart so I'll have to weld it together. 

Here it is welded together and also welded to the return pipe. Moments like this remind me that I really need to buy TIG leads. That weld bead is never gonna find a man looking like that. 

I ground it down but it's still pretty ugly so I ended up welding a second layer and grinding it again. 

Finished product is... finished. 

Also, there's this. 

The bracket that holds the pump was broken, then welded poorly, then broken again...

Well, I guess they welded the aluminum better than I could since I have zero ways of welding aluminum. So JB weld to the rescue. Will hopefully hold, the reason it was broken is because a spacer was missing and torquing down one of the bolts twisted it out of alignment. 

On Sunday I was also able to power wash the transmission. Sad to say that neither purple power or the Etching cleaner did a ton of good. I think I got the most results just through the mechanical work of the pressure washer. 

Also I probably should have dried it since the whole thing looks like it's been to the salt flats now. At least it's clean...er. 

Lambin_Lionout said:

Billy_Bottle_Caps said:

I believe the rear phone dials are from a different generation 944.

hmm- I had not even noticed until you guys mentioned it.  I'll have to get out there and measure the width of the Fronts and rears.  The car is an 86, not sure what years had the phone dials, but they are my favorite 944 wheel, so I'll probably keep them.  

Those are the late-offset wheels for 85.5 and up. The 85 and older cars have a different offset that has a more dished appearance at the rear. The wheels do not interchange.

Things are still progressing slowly the last two weeks. 

Probably because a lot of my free time has been used up remodeling the dungeon. 

But I was able to get some work done, I bead blasted the coolant and oil hard-lines.

Then sprayed on some Silver powder coat. 

Much Better! Remind me to pick that nail up. 

Saturday I was able to focus on the flywheel.

I started out using water as coolant and taking it slow which ended up taking forever. Also the tool holder wasn't absolutely perfectly flat so it ended up grinding the outside more than the center... 

So I ditched the coolant and moved the tooling and started over. The work still didn't get that hot and here you can see the two different cutting angles coming together. 

All in all... success? I guess we will find out but I can say this, just pay the machinist 50$.

Other bonus/ downside. I got water into the channels on the mill and inside the rotary table. So silver lining, after I took it all apart and scrubbed it, it's never been so clean!

off-topic for VW but on-topic for brother's 944:

the early-offset wheels were used through the 1986 model year.   1987 is the first model year that uses the late-offset wheels.

Great job.  That looks like exactly how the machine shop does it.

I don't know about early VWs, but many flywheels require you to machine the the upper step where the bolts go the same amount as the lower surface .  Most pressure plates bolt there and and need to maintain the proper distance.  But, this may not apply to yours since I'm not familiar to these.

In reply to f6sk :

Hey, good call! Too bad I didn't measure the step between the two before I started so that I could machine them evenly... Well I guess I'm just gonna have to eyeball it. Not sure I'll be able to find that info anywhere. Anyone have a TDI flywheel laying around in the open? ha!

What is the liter, model and year of that engine and I'll look up the specifications on the flywheel.

I'm not dead! Over a month since I've posted though...

So The guys on the TDI forum page were able to confirm that the step height on the Flywheel should be 500 thousandths.  Next problem though, I've got the get those pins out to do it. 

So I made a really E36 M3ty looking slide hammer...

And this really nice looking, but totally worthless collet type holder to grab the pins.

So, yeah, no success there. the nuts are too loose on the threads to clamp down tightly on the pins. However I should have just googled it before I started because here is the easy solution...

So I ground a few thousandths off of the top and put it back together, shiny new clutch included of course. 

And other than some odds and ends, that's about it...

So why have I been moving so slow?

Well, I epoxied the basement floor. Which is really easy and I recommend it as far a floor coatings go. 

Still a lot more work to do down there.

And I took the kids on a quick trip to Disney.  But when we came back... there was this in the driveway.

What's that? It's a huge freaking sink hole!

Here it is after I opened up. What's it from? It's a 100 year old cesspool of course! So great news, there's another one!

I didn't want that one to cave in as well so I found it. 

And caved that sucker in too. Only took 4 hours. Now I just need 10 yards of dirt to fill them back in. and to cut up the rest of the driveway. And to build a patio/ walkway to replace the torn up driveway. 

Good times.

How come in the picture with the washer and dryer there looks to be a gas meter behind them? Also purple power does about the best at cleaning grease off of anything I've done.

brad131a4 said:

How come in the picture with the washer and dryer there looks to be a gas meter behind them? Also purple power does about the best at cleaning grease off of anything I've done.

Probably is a gas meter. In many areas of the country, it used to be/still is legal to install the meters in the basement. I've heard repeated complaints of gas smell will typically get the gas company to move it outside for free as they don't want the liability if something happens.

Yup. The gas company (BGE) even replaced the meter about 5 years ago and made no offer or suggestion of moving it. This is my first house with NG so I didn't think anything of it. I should call and complain though for no other reason than the meter is in a pain in the ass place, since there is nowhere else to put the washer/dryer/sink. 

My meter Is also in my basement, but atleast it's in the back corner out of the way! Looking forward too more progress on the truck!

Those look like karst sinkholes. I see you’re in MD so I’d bet that’s the case. 

Fortunately, the "sink holes" are man-made, left overs from a hundred year old septic system so no chance of them coming back or growing. 

Ok, so I got some work done this week!

I put the engine back in and found that the AC compressor wouldn't fit, (I knew it wouldn't already). So I cut another hole in my truck!

Better! but now we have a new problem. 

The radiator wont fit. That rubber bushing I cut out was a mount for it. Also it's just huge and unwieldy with the stock fan and shroud. 

I don't have a before picture but here's one I stole off the interwebs to give you an idea. 

Takes up way too much space, plus likely leaks. 

so lets fix the fan first, I ordered a cheapo electric 12". 

Way more compact. Now to make it fit...

Cut along the tape line, and, easy fit. 

At this point I didn't have any other parts on hand so I wasted 2 hours at the sand blast cabinet. 

At this point I found out that the MKII radiator is 3 inches shorter than the one I had and will fit the space perfectly. So I ordered an all aluminum one for $125. Will it fit the old shroud? who knows! Probably not! Will I try and make it fit anyway? 2 hours of sandblasting says I will! 

While I am waiting for the new radiator to show up, let's fill some holes. 

Step one is to bend some sheet metal. I actually just smashed this over that same piece of pipe that came from a floor post, now installed in a dodge Ram frame. 

Cut an end cap, and tack it together. 

Once it's all trimmed to size, I can finish the weld. 

And then get the other side, and weld it in place. which didn't look nearly as nice. 

But hey, that's what flap wheels are for! 

Much better, just add paint...er, primer. 

Also, happy birthday to me! Not bad for $125 I think.

In reply to Lambin_Lionout :

86's are early offset, but phone dials were an option.  Just not late phone dials

Good news! (I hope) There's a VW swap meet/ car show/ drag race coming up on Oct 14th at Maple Grove Raceway. With help from my brother and approval from the wife, I think I can get this lump driving before then. Wish me luck, we have a deadline!