'71 VW Bug truck w/Subi WRX eng/trans...Buga-Truckaru?

[RonW]

sorry to hear that man, good thing you didn't ignore those symptoms. hope you feel well soon.

[GS guy]

Yep, good catch and glad to hear the patient survived! Time to pull out those parts catalogs sitting around (and going on-line) and start planning what other things you'll need to get your Truckaru together. No engine or transmision lifting for a while! Get well soon.

Jeff

[ambrynmc]

Thanks guys!

I was already planning for next week....

New fuel rails



And a billet timing belt guide



Getting closer to having most of the major parts....

[Humble]

Welcome to the appendix-free club, good to hear you're doing okay. I had mine yanked out about 12 years ago, so I know what you're going through.

As for the build, did you just get the r&P treated with REM or the whole gear stack? I've been thinking about the same but I was sure on the cost.

[ambrynmc]

Thanks, I'm finally going to go to work tomorrow. its been tons of fun....

as for the REM finishing, I'm just getting the R/P done. Weddle charges $95 for the R/P. they are actually sending it back today. I should have it back on Monday.

As for all the gears, I didn't want to take all the gears apart to get them done...Weddle charges $5 each for small gears that they can just drop in to the machine (not mask off). Not sure if the stack gears would be more or not.

[ambrynmc]

Well I haven't lifted anything over 15 pounds...but I'm going stir-crazy...

Got my ring/pinion back from Weddle, I think it looks really good! SHINY!



Got a question for you all, anyone have any opinion on brands of AN fittings/hose? I'm liking the stuff from XRP, but wasn't sure if anyone has had experience with them (or someone else?).

Also still toying around with making an in tunnel clutch master cylinder setup. Looking for compact hydraulic master cylinders...Hummm

[Humble]

I've used just about every fitting out there and have yet to run into any real troubles with any of them. Some brands assemble more easily than others, I've had a lot of luck with aeroquip and summit. I've only had one fitting strip out on me during assembly and I think that one was a russel. If you don't have a set already you should get or borrow some kool tools, which really make hose assembly so much easier. If assembled correctly the hoses won't leak, and I can give you a hand if you like. If you want the fittings to stay pretty, get a set of AN wrenches or aluminum AN adjustable (crescent) wrenches.

[ambrynmc]

Good info, Humble. I purchased a set of AN wrenches off Ebay and they seem really nice ("cheap" at $70...). I don't know anyone with the Koul Tools assembly tools. I've got some time though.

RonW came to visit this weekend and FINALLY picked up his Subamount...

He got me thinking of using the stock ECU instead of aftermarket...it seems like a better idea from a lot of different angles. Ron knows a guy who has a wiring harness and I think I found an ECU for $100 shipped Try finding an aftermarket one for close to that! Not sure what else I need....

[GS guy]

Good looking R&P!
I've been using Aeroquip and sometimes some Earls on my buggy build. One thing I've found is the NPT side of the adapter fittings is made a little different between the two. One is cut a little smaller than the other - can be helpful if you need a little larger or smaller NPT fitting for an existing F-NPT fitting.

Jeff

[RonW]

Ron knows a guy who has a wiring harness and I think I found an ECU for $100 shipped Try finding an aftermarket one for close to that! Not sure what else I need....

not much else dude, you are almost there, time to start buttoning it up now that youre sans appendix and on the mend! btw, that r/p treatment was BLING!

[ambrynmc]

Hey guys! So I've been really bad about updating the thread...

First the good stuff! I've finally got the tig welder setup and operating. I bought it a while ago and had to get a new torch, a foot pedal, and a gas bottle...etc, etc...good news is it works and I'm not as bad as I remember!

Here is my first shot at re-directing my coolant crossover towards the back of the motor.



Too sharp of a 90 (thanks Ron... )

Here it is now all welded up

[ambrynmc]

Todd said he cut/ground 8 of these end cases in one weekend

I probably have 6-7 hours just on this one what a pain in the butt!!



(But it's pretty) still need to weld the plug in (that should be easy!)

Also got the transmission case painted (except for the end case)



And I setup the pinion depth!



Not as scary as I thought it was going to be...still have to setup the differential. Hope that's uneventful...

[ambrynmc]

Ok, so I do have a rant for you...I am not a huge fan of the quality of the machine work on the OBX LSD. As soon as I got it, I bought the "upgrade washer and bolts" and found 6 of the 9 (grade 12.9) original bolts had damaged threads.

I assumed that the threaded holes needed to be re-tapped since the new bolts wouldn't go into the existing holes. So I tapped them! Also looked inside the LSD and saw that the machining was very rough on the inside of the housing and on all the small gears. So I ground on the housing to remove the high ridges and sanded the ends of the gears to remove the ridges.

All in all, probably spent 3-4 hours cleaning this thing up. Finally, I'm ready to put it together! It's all pretty inside, right? (Notice the nice flat ends of the gears? They don't come that way...)



I go to bolt it together and I'm getting resistance on 6 of the 9 bolts. I go ahead and start tightening it up because I know that I cleaned all the bolt holes. 2 of the holes are really tight...so now I'm pissed and just crank on them I calm down after asking myself why the hell did you bother cleaning it all up for if you were just going to do that....

I take it apart and find that I've just destroyed two of the bolts...



So I start looking at it closer and find the the holes don't line-up from the top half of the housing to the bottom. They are off a little, just enough to mangle the threads of the bolt on the top housing while the bolt is threading into the bottom housing. So the threads get mangled and then straightened....nice. I then spend close to 4 hours with the Dremel grind the top housing bolt holes to open them up so they wouldn't mash the bolt threads.

Not happy. Finally got it together though and it looks to be in good shape. All the bolts thread in easily. Put blue loctite on the bolts, should be fine.

Just a side note, Todd mentioned that he had seen some OBX LSDs that the Subaflanges wouldn't go on easily. Very good information! I again spent time grinding on the splines to get them to fit! That would have been a real pain trying to do that under the car on my back!

Not cool, Chinese junk...

Alright I'm done crying now, it looks good now!



One more thing that is worth noting. I saw a thread about making sure the helix of the gears go in a certain direction or something. That might have been something to keep track of on a different version, but the Subaru version will only go together ONE way, all 5 of the one direction helix gears only fit the one stub axle and vise versa. And the stub axles are different lengths to match the housings. In other words, long axle goes in the long housing, short axle goes in the short housing. That was the only easy part to this thing!

[schming]

Nice job on the coolant manifold and the CDH.
Is there another choice for the LSD that wouldn't require all the prep work ?
I'm curious how accurate, in R&P tolerances measured in thousanths of an inch, are the OBX's ?

[KR250]

Thanks for the tip on the OBX LSD fitment issue. I had considered it but after reading about your trouble with it, will definitely go with the Cusco LSD.