Franz, the thunder pumpkin! - SOLD

[bajaherbie]

try a different battery....


go get the one in fuser's glass buggy, i think he is out of town for a day or three......

[namelesswonder]

^worth a shot if I can get the starter back in. I don't do well with textual instruction and Muir seems to be all that for the section on removing/installing starters. We'll see what me and the padre can pull off this weekend, hopefully some magic!

Another guy is interested in the car, the guy from the other day passed, so that is some good karma anyway, and a job is looming in the very near future!

[vw505]

you should join the NAVY!

[namelesswonder]

The Navy:?:

[Sneaks]

This is where Lotrat starts singing The Village People...

[Lotrat]

The who? Me? Never...

[namelesswonder]

Two new e-brake cables installed, but not adjusted. Driver's side rear brakes have brand new shoes and are fairly well adjusted. Passenger's side could not be completed because those little posts that hold the springs in place on the brake shoes (yeah I don't know what anything is called) are too short. The shoes we put on 3 years ago were much narrower than the ones we bought at Autozone today, which appear to be the "right" size (approx 1 1/2" wide as opposed to 1 1/4" wide). So the passenger's side rear brakes are on hold till we can find those posts in the right length. We just happened to have a random complete rear brake assembly in the garage to steal posts from for the driver's side. And now I have two e-brake cables that are in very nice condition to measure and sell!

The "new" exhaust is attached, really wish I could hear it =( There were plans for putting the muffler on tomorrow, but the forecast calls for rain and we ran into a little problem with making a gasket to go between the exhaust and muffler...

Twisting off the cap to find that red cone coming out of the tube was hilarious until I couldn't squeeze anything out of the tube. =(

ALSO found a very nice looking ratchet that we might put in the e-brake lever assemebly

But I can't tell if it'll work because I can find NO pictures online of ratchets that look like this one. Most have a flat part below the teeth, not an indent...

Looks like another potential buyer is coming by this Wednesday.

[Sneaks]

somewhere I have a spare one of those ratchets. Let me look for it this weekend.

[namelesswonder]

somewhere I have a spare one of those ratchets. Let me look for it this weekend.

It's not a huge deal, the one in the car has some worn looking teeth which is why I was considering this one. I just can't tell if it'll work or not...but I'm kind of hoping to sell the car before I get around to installing it =P

[namelesswonder]

Cheap re-manufactured starter was located at NAPA, my dad is being a dear and fronting me more money by buying the parts to finish the rear brakes AND the starter. If he installs it tonight and the guy who was gonna come looking comes by tomorrow, Franz might be able to start with his new muffler. =)

[BBoudy1215]

The problem wasnt with the starter. there were a few problems. one, loose wire under the drivers seat that i believe went from the ignition to the starter. that was the reason the started wouldnt turn. two, one of the wires in the distributor cap was loose and therefore the engine make no spark. once we put in a new starter (thank god fuser has so many parts) and reconnected the wire in the cap (i was able to connect the muffler while fuser did that), the engine started turning. once we got some gas into the carbs, a huge cloud of smoke emerged and the engine was working. while trying to get the engine to start, we found that there was a gap somewhere between the heads and the cylinder on the side where the oil leak was that was now letting gas escaoe. this must have been happing as long as the oil leak had been occurring. it was not recognized before because the oil leak concealed the gas leak. it was sad news but the engine ran.

I took it on the road and started having trouble. since it was my second car i had driven standard, i just thought i was being dumb and making the car stall. when i tried restarted the car just back fire and shut off. out of gas (even though we had just put in 1.5 gallons and ran it for maybe 10-15 minutes) fuser ran to the gas station and we put another 1.5 gallons in it but the battery was dead/dying and couldnt supply enough power. time for a bump start. we got it going again but the after driving a block, it shut off. we thought that maybe there wasnt enough fuel getting to the engine because we were on a hill but after it shutting off again, fuser thought that maybe the car had been sitting too long and the fuel filter was clogged or something wasnt allowing enough gas to the engine. at idle it did fine but anything more that, it had trouble. lucky for me, fuser agreed to follow me home so i ended up letting him drive the car and i got to drive the dune buggy (which was freaking awesome. 40hp but man does thing move. i was worried about Franz like crazy but it was just so much fun i couldnt resist).

it was down hill most of the way to my house so luckily we could keep the momentum going and Franz made it to my house. i was hoping that an installed starter and a fix oil seal would make him run again but after today, it seems like ill need a new engine (or work on the existing. not enough time to take a look at it now. well check it out if fuser and i have a weekend we can maybe come home from school and look at it). i go to school this saturday so unfortunately i have little time to work on him at home before i go.

fusername has to be the kindest kid i know (even though he blames me for all that went wrong with the Moab trip) cuz he said that i could take the engine from his dune buggy and put it in Franz temporarily. so that means tomorrow, i will drop the engine out of Franz, cut away some sheet metal in the engine compartment (his engine runs an exhaust that comes around the side of the valve cover instead of under the engines in order to get more ground clearance) to make room for the new engine. take the engine out of the dune buggy and then put it into Franz. (the first dune buggy i am talking about is fuser's dads bug with a fiberglass body instead of a bug body. the regular dune buggy conversion. the engine i am taking is out of the car he built from scratch. not to confuse). i do not know how to thank him for letting me do that. his first car! the one he built in high school. he's lending me the engine. i just dont know how i thank him. i mean i have done slave labor for him for the past year (i only made a total of $12 from him. which i have to give back for the gas cap i left in Ohio.) like helping him lift his bus and work on the new engine and i have just done odds and ends where ever i could to help him but the work i have done for him in no way can pay for him lending me an engine. he is the best. he also said that i can give him 20 for the starter (altho i may be getting the new one that was ordered).

after the engine (or before. dont know yet) i will hopefully get the brakes all squared away. apparently the pad in there before were not as wide as the new ones (wide referring to the width of the surface that makes contact on the drum). this means that the old ones wore on the drum about 1/4" less than the new ones. probably not good thing for the new pads. fuser said that i can get them [insert technical term] (resurfaced for lack of tech term) for maybe $10. hopefully i can find a place that will do it for the price and that will solve the problem with thinner wear pattern (until i get enough money for that disk brake conversion kit i want to get). on the passenger side, there is still the problem of having a spring that is too small but hopefully i can make it work for now until the parts get in. after i do that i will readjust the brakes (so there is the spec play in the pedal. not you press the pedal 60% before making contact. the starter is already in there so dont have to worry about that. if all goes to plans, Franz will be on the road tomorrow

i hope that i can turn up a good deal for and engine at an upcoming car show (transporter fest) in october. i hope that a closer look at the engine will reveal good news but i am already trying to fit an engine into my budget. i hope tomorrow goes well for me (and i hope i can do most the work without needing fuser's help. im trying to save him for when i really need him. he's always willing to help but i would hate to take advantage of his helpfulness.) he will be preforming surgery on the bus i think or at least finish cleaning her out. and hopefully updating the Moad thread. i really need to get all that done tomorrow so i am going to be busy busy. the car needs to be ready for me to pack him up friday night or early saturday and drive the 33 miles to Lowell. i at least need that out of him. once i gt him to lowell i hope i can just buy a parking sticker from the school ($175) and leave him there until i have the cash to pay for insurance and all. i still have to look at my finances and see if i have enough to insure him and drive him around. my plan is to do what i can with the money i have and if he breaks, let him sit until i can fix him. i hope that my idea of paying $175 for a year of free parking works. (really hope i dont run into trouble with having a car sit for awhile like namelsswonder did.

tomorrow will probably be the only thing that will happen for awhile. if im bored i might poke around some and try to fix some things up. if im driving in the winter and i get too cold (i consider myself a true new englander and hopefully wont need heat) i can patch up the heater channels so the heat works better. in the spring i might be tempted to put in the pop out windows in the back. but im driving it so why would i care. if people in the back dont like it, they can put them in. at least that my attitude now. there are so many things that can be done with franz but im gonna take things as they come. i hope to be able to drive it because i know that driving him will give me energy to keep going. plus driving him, i might realize things that are worth doing. i.e. the car has no radio or music of any sort. maybe after driving the car and being force to sing as my option of entertain i might decided to install something that i can listen too (altho the revving of an engine is all i need).

i still have to decide about what modification i want to do to franz. if i get the money, i think ill go to disk brakes first then maybe do some lifting? im still on the fence about that. i was considering doing a body lift. if i do that, i might consider replacing the heater channels too but not sure yet. i am also think about taking the front end apart and modifying that to get lift (just like fuser did with the bus. i dont now the names so im not able to describe it really. he cut the mount for the torsion bar housing in the fromt and rotated it so that the angle would increase the height? i did it with him and im sure that ones i get under there ill know what to do. ive done it with fuser before so i feel pretty confident doing that (anything i owe him for. i have worked a ton for him but man he has shown me A LOT!). i have the options of doing tha but im still not sure. i am kinda against it because although seeing that lifted bug in Moab and seeing how kick ass it was, i dont think having a lifted bug all the time will suit my daily needs. it would look B.A. and would help significantly of road but i still plan on driving it around town a lot so having regular tires and a regular height would be nice. so there is that option but an option that would be better suited for me is to put (i think) an air ride lift in there (the concept is right but i might be wrong on how its done. i am still a newb) that way i can have my regular ride height, but when i want to go offroading, i can lift it, throw some big boy tire on there and ill be ready to go. this option cost a lot more (the first one is free!) but it will give me more of what i want. thats so far in the future so i dont know yet. the back has be lifted to fix the camber and its not to hard to raise and lower. i think what ill do is either just decided to raise it and keep it up there or wait til i can put the adjustable ride height on there.

i was gonna put on better carbs but ill have to wait for a new engine maybe. if the current engine is fixable i will upgrade the carburetors so i can get more power.

in conclusion, i will fix and upgrade Franz based on my income and availability of parts. i hope one day tho to turn Franz into Franzkenstien!!! i think the name speaks for itself.

oh and did i mention that yes Franz was sold and yes I am the new owner? that means that you guys still get to watch the progress. and namelesswonder will be able to not worry about Franz anymore and how hard he was on her. Dont go and spend all the money in one place! i hope this new chapter in Franz's life can be better than the last. wish me luck! thanks again nameless

[bajaherbie]

i'd say that the starter is worth at least $25, right fuser?

[Sneaks]

Yay!!!
Ok, Franz stays in the family, awesome. You wrote more than 3 sentences, you sure you are a friend of fuser?



Have fuser touch bases with me on what that motor might need, I have some stuff up here i might be able to spare. Also, if you are serious about going disc in the front, I have some rotors and calipers from a Ghia that I got from Stray Catalyst that might have your name all over them. You need to get Franz mended so you can do some off roading with us up here in NH.

[Big Dave]

I think that has to have broken the record for longest post in STFOR history

I'm glad Franz has a new owner that is thrilled to have him. My suggestion though....keep him as stock as possible and focus on reliability while you learn about him. A bone stock 1600 with stock carb and distributer will help to keep you on the road and out from under the decklid all the time. Some decent 30x9.50 15 rear tires will keep you going pretty much wherever you want.
Always remember, whenever you modify one thing from stock, you will have to modify or replace three others, and the more problems you will end up having down the road.

[namelesswonder]

yay! Awesome post. Franz just HAD to make a fuss, he liked that driveway so much. I am going to sort through parts and dump as much as is fitting on you, which I think might be a lot. I'm not in a mood to deal with selling stuff, so you're lucking out =P

Might I suggest a new thread? I can edit the title of the first post (will change title of the whole thread) for you, but I think it might be better for you to claim your own. You can see how many pages you build up compared to me, over 3 years =P