Getting the syncro back on the road

[fusername]

You lucky dogs have bolts in the front, right? He deff has the studs i want, but they are made out of gold! But i do get to keep my lugs assuming the taper is right, so that is a plus. I still have an eye out for merc rims, but they needed spacers due to the offset anyways, at least what i found. And if they are alloys, as soon as you space, you need longer studs and i am back where i started.

/hyjack //for now

[ajdenette]

Wellll 2wd Vanagons have bolts in the front Syncro's like the bus have studs on all 4 wheels

[MDenetteSr]

That vanagon was originally purchased by my wife over the telephone; sight unseen, and charged to a credit card. I hope to see the "new" engine in it by the end of January.

[fusername]

uh oh, now you got someone to hold you to it!

[ajdenette]

Well the Engine is ready time to get ready to pull the problematic one out.

[fusername]

I have no clue how I lived w/o an engine hoist till now

[ajdenette]

well we made the goal of having the fresh engine in the car yesterday and got it running with no blinking lights today more details when I have more time

[fusername]

lookin real nice! the Heep just exploded, so maybe we are on for another race see who finishes first? life can never be simple can it?

[ajdenette]

that had a Boston Bob engine that had 65 miles on it butte oil pressure system was going haywire and the po just disconnected it, the wiring for the oil pressure system was taped together and in really bad shape the engine had a no name Fram imitation filter on it and oil all over it including a pretty heavy flywheel seal leak

well after the nail in the coffin of the last motor was time to take this engine that I had resealed and been cleaning up and get it in the van Saturday I started at 7 pulling apart the motor to get it out of the van, had it pretty far at about 10 but realized one engine bracket was almost rusted in 2 and wanted to be able to mount the Subaru bellhousing to my engine stand so I took a break and went to the hardware store for some metal.

My friend showed up about 11:30 and we finished pulling the old engine out of the van he is the blurry guy in the pic



My Syncro once again with no engine in it:



next we worked on installing the new engine in the back of the van:



Then we took a break for lunch and ended up going to look at the next toy my parents (MDenetteSr and his wife) are trading in their 2006 Chevrolet Uplander for a 1975 International Travelall 4WD unfortunatly I only have a few detail shots:



It does have a Winch Mount front bumper that will need to be filled:


then we got back to work and finished installing the engine we had it all assembled except for the exhaust and had it running about 7PM and worked on installing the entire exhaust. After starting it and running it for about a minute the oil light would not stop blinking so it kept starting and getting shut off. we pulled the spare port on the oil T to make sure it was pumping oil and it was and called it quits for the night.

[ajdenette]

So on Sunday My father and I were both pondering what to do about that Pesky oil light and what to do to solve it I was worried that those oil pressure problems the PO talked about had caused some damage and the engine was a goner after all that work I was going to be left with no engine. We talked about the oil pump and the oil pressure relief valve but he was sure there was oil pressure he said he had a hard time getting the T to stop gushing oil when I had started it so we went to the Go Westy Oil pressure article http://www.gowesty.com/library_article.php?id=810 and read over that and my father was convinced it was a problem their likely with the wiring. So I went at it with a multi meter and verified some continuity. after proving the wires were fine I remembered from my reading that one sensor was normally open and one was normally closed so went to check the sensors and both were showing normally open so I went to the engine just pulled that had none of these issues and checked the sensor under the push rod tubes that was the low pressure sensor and it Was coming up as closed after pulling both that sensor and my relocated one on the new engine and found the one on the engine was a 1.4 bar normally open and it needed the .3 normally closed switch swapped them out and tried firing it up and the battery wont start it get the battery charger set up and no more blinking oil light gave it a bit of running and moving topped off the oil with a little marvel mystery oil because the engine has been sitting for a while and topped off the cooling system and went for a ride. I filled the cooling system with the Liby bong until the radiator started to spew and closed it off 2 top offs and the system even pulled some coolant in correctly and things seem to be running good MDenetteSr texted me and said he drove it around for 45 minutes without any issues

[ajdenette]

With the snow storm going on and being sent home from work early and my wife wanting me out of her hair I went to my parents house and used my extra time to tackle the front diff on the Vanagon. I had what looked like leaking gear oil and the mounts needed to be replaced trying to get rid of the vibrations the car has had for a very long time.

Diff out


Ready for some clean up


Trying to empty the gear oil did not go as planned and I ended up making a real mess I also discovered there is one loose direction on each U joint on the drive shaft likely the real source of the vibrations unfortunately it is loose in an axial direction and not the radial direction going to be tough to resolve


Seeing as my parents don't believe the gear oil in the front diff has EVER been changed not too bad for the drain pug on factory fluid


I will grab some more photos and tell more about today's work after I actually do it.

[fusername]

sas long as that is over 60k wotrth of sgavings, id call it not too bad. did you bother to strain the drainage for any surprises? actually, since that is only a diff, maybe post that photo in the trans section, along w/ miles on the clock and see what folks say, i bet its fine tho, just not pretty. you have hthat spare no one knew about anyways to keep you company should it be bad .
oh and it was damn expensive w/ shipping, but i ended out getting the rim wrench. figure ill get more than one use out of it. lemme know if you wanna borrow it.

[ajdenette]

it is at least 150,000 miles but could be over 200,000 miles on the oil and diff. got one flange off and resealed and the second flange off but broke on bolt holding the plastic lock on and had to drill the head off the other.

[fusername]

oof, never easy is it. so you need to pull those to re-do seals? never gone that far into a 091 style case, Irealize it is the diff, but I bet it's the same. and yeak, 200k, I wouldn't worry about that much hair!

[ajdenette]

finished installing the front diff and cleaned up and re packed the inner CV Joints to help with the clicking that had started the diff also got new mounts and hardware. I also found each U Joint had the slightest of movement in one axis so my father and I tightened them up with a slightly thicker cir-clip if it vibrates I will try the VC centering technique but I understand it may need to be re balanced:( ended up needing to replace both sway bar links as the bottoms broke off trying to remove them to get the axles out waiting on them from Burley. Finally installed the LED lights over the Odometer and Tachometer so much better defiantly a good upgrade.





Also worked on getting the sliding door to close better here are some pictures of the before gaps:





no pictures of after and the gaps are not perfect but it closes correctly now