Day Four-Let's Split a Case

On the last day of my four-day staycation we split the case open. Split the case open!? Yes, split the case open. Unlike any other engine design I know of (Subaru engines, of course, being of the same design), air-cooled VW cases are composed of two halves, a left and a right, which are machined to fit together exactly. There's not even a seal or gasket between them, they're just bolted together. I remember in high school telling a gearhead classmate, then-owner of a '65 Mustang, about this set-up and he was completely incredulous; it took the shop manual's description and diagrams to convince him. It is kind of weird if you think about it.

Just as I suspected: a broken crankshaft. The fracture rent the flange asunder just forward (front is front!) of the 2nd main bearing, between the rods for cylinders 1 and 4.

Where? Right there, in other words. Apparently once in a while a Type I engine will run--like, still move the car down the road, albeit very noisily--with a broken crank. I can report that a broken Type IV crank generates no power, only noise. The noise of a couple bocce balls bouncing around amongst a full set of cast-iron cookery, in fact.

This is as deep into an engine as one gets. Those who are following Ludwig's story across several vectors are probably sick of hearing this, but I'll repeat it anyway: "If you can ruin [a Type IV bottom end, i.e. crankshaft and rods] with spirited street driving, you could probably destroy an anvil with a rubber mallet."--Tom Wilson, from How to Rebuild Your Volkswagen Air-Cooled Engine. I don't know whether I'm to take this as a compliment.

Day Three-Stripping Down

ACVW engines are shrouded in a puzzle of bent steel sheets which form a convoluted system of ducts and passages through which air winds, picking up heat on its way back out. At 4,600 rpm, a Type IV fan moves 1,700 cubic feet of air (that's a box of air about 12 feet on a side), per minute, through this maze with the sole purpose of shedding the engine's heat. 

(A snarky aside: Those who are inclined to affix scoops to their ACVW (any model) should let their beast idle sometime and put their ear up to the air intakes. Even at low rpms, you can hear that fan sucking plenty of air in. An ACVW mechanic I know told me once that those scoops often rob the engine of some air; VW never had a problem getting fresh air to the engine--if anything the problem they had was getting rid of the used air. If the air is already leaving at some set rate (which it is), no amount of trying to shove more air into the intakes is going to make the stock fan more efficient.) 

Anyway, all that ductwork has to come off.

The idea is strip this...

...down to this.

A lot of little stuff comes off during this stage. Tater Tot thought these intake manifold spacers looked like sunglasses.

Dismantling it is pretty straightforward. One piece, however, calls for bigger guns. I don't have a flywheel lock, nor the means to fabricate one, which means I can't get the flywheel off by myself. It's held on by those five bolts in the middle of the big round thing. They're on there really tight. So, we plopped the engine in Gertie and headed down Russell Street to Mountain Imports.

Melissa ran in and asked if they'd hit it with an impact wrench to loosen it. They said they would, just pull it around. Zraap, zraaaap!, zap!, zraaap, zaap and it was loose. No charge.

During this brief operation, Gertie got to sit next to a younger first cousin. I asked the guy zrapping the bolts off if it was just me, or was this not the ugliest color a 911 could possibly be. He smirked in knowing agreement.

My Wife, the Hack

Melissa's not letting Ludwig get all the attention. We got Freida's old seats months ago and this weekend's warm weather allowed Melissa to work on getting them into Gertie. 

rear seat backs and bases, left to right: Gertie (1971), Freida (1967)

1971

1967

They don't look the same, do they? No, they don't. They aren't. The new base has a bite out of it for the hump, the old one doesn't. Also, the seat itself attaches to the base in different places; '71=wide, '67=narrow. What to do?

My thought was to de-upholster them and re-upholster the black frame with the white vinyl. My wife, the hack, said we should just drill holes into the new base so the whole old seat back could mount to it. So we did.

And it worked! This should serve as proof that we aren't totally stock Nazis.

Day Two, with a Big Helper

Tater Tot has been keenly observing the teardown process. Melissa suggested that I should tell her what I'm doing as I do it, and I've been trying, but I think some of the concepts are over her head (many of them are over my head).

But she remains interested, for the most part.

Maybe she's come to terms with the fact that all this activity is (eventually/allegedly) going to make Ludwig feel better.

Here she's telling me I need to be using a screwdriver, and that it needs to go "'round and 'round and 'round".

I put a bunch of hardware in a little jar with some degreaser. When she wants, she can help out by shaking the jar.

Staying away from the oil, as requested.

After examining the jack, she decided her block cart was a similar enough device that it deserved a place in the garage too.

Big Helper

Engine Out

Submitted for your approval, a 1800cc VW Type IV engine, less the aspiration system (carburetor and allied parts) and most of the exhaust.

Top

Front (front is front)

Rear

Left (3/4)

Right (1/2)

Bottom (I always think they look insect-like from below)

Let's find out exactly what's wrong with it....

Rebuild Day One

The scene: I started Thursday at about 1130 Mountain Standard Time. The iPod was set to "shuffle".

Work progressed fairly quickly and painlessly. The last time the engine came out I left the exhaust installed out of fear. I don't know what I was afraid of; it came off without the involvement of a hammer or torch. Some sooty leaks make me think the muffler at least has breathed its last.

Its removal also occasioned the first casualty of the project. This was the first of several exhaust bolts that refused to go gentle into that good night.

 "Four bolts and a floor jack!" False. (But he was singing along with Pavement during this photo, so his spirits were still high.)

How does this thing come out?

Melissa ran the jack with admirable attention to my orders--"Back! Down! Stop! Up a little! Back! Stop!" etc.--as I jimmied things from above. The magic moment came at about 1530 MST as some Juliana Hatfield song played on the shop stereo, and the engine was out. Tater Tot watched events unfold with some small degree of enthusiasm, and a great deal of patience.

This short piece of cinéma vérité reveals what I believe to be the root of all this evil. That big round thing I'm wiggling is the flywheel, which is bolted to the crankshaft. It shouldn't be able to wiggle....

4 out of 21,529,464

Northside, Missoula

Anaconda

Anaconda

Sunroof Super, Westside, Missoula

Around the Flint Creek Range, Again

Georgetown Lake

Silver Lake

Picnicking in Gertie

Captives

Notice the weather blowing in from the gulch, left of center

(miles 1524-1754)

The Ability to Stop

Our friend Jody was here right after The Unpleasantness with Ludwig, which necessitated my fixing the offending brake (see two posts previous) toot sweet. Why not put in fresh wheel bearings at the same time?

Often I find it helpful to grok parts and assemblies in situ, gleaning things from them in life that you can't get from a book.

Packing bearings is messy but fun, in a playing-with-big-gobs-of-grease kind of way.

It's weird thinking about how a whole car rides on these, uh, (one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight!) eight little bearings. But then I suppose it's even weirder that a whole car is held up by air.

Melissa said this spindle was as clean as she'd ever seen me get anything. Since it spends its life encased in grease, it's actually easy to achieve this level of shine: just wipe the grease off.

Here it is almost all put together,  with even more grease. Nothing like a "new" 41 year-old part.

Fresh organic pads--yes, "organic"; it says so right on the box--and new spring installed, we pulled her out for a spin. There's some comfort in knowing that if worse came to worse, we could eat these brake pads. Don't worry, I remembered to take that 7mm wrench off the bleeder valve before we went anywhere. If you do this yourself and don't want to bleed the brakes, make sure you only open the bleeder when there's pressure on the pistons and tighten it up as fluid is steadily coming out.

The no-hubcaps look ("rally-ready", I like to call it) has always appealed to me, and Gertrude is no exception. I suppose Melissa'll have the final say--Gertie is, cough cough, her car and all. The long-term paint plan includes painting her roof the same color as the wheels. She pulls to the right during braking now, which I suspect will be cleared up when I replace the left pads this week. I know, I know, you're supposed to do them at the same time.

Update: both front brakes and bearings are now done and she doesn't pull so much anymore.