Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Miami I
Posted: Fri Apr 18, 2014 8:12 am
I was only 15 minutes late to Jivermo's Shims?WeGotShims! compound. The Miami traffic swarm was just as bad as I forgot. Pulled a cup of Starbucks Dark Verano right out of Jivermo's Keurig coffee maker, and we got to work on a little prescient Crankshaft Endplay Concepts and Physics symposeum. Hied on out to the Westy at 10:10AM and dropped the engine/transaxle/driveshafts.
Our task was to replace the hockey stick ball to eradicate a terribly vague shifter. The camera found the dog fetching, so it refused to focus upon what I wanted to focus upon. A terribly focused shot of the terribly worn hockey stick ball causing terribly vague shifts:
A Man and his Motor:
As is often the case, my hopeful customer had a Nice! New! part that I did not want to use. It was a new nose cone assembly with fresh new bronze bushings, and a new seal too, but look at this original nose cone! It has these trick "roller-array ball bearings" instead of simple bronze bushings. This, because Volkswagen knew that their new (c. 1976) spring-loaded shift design was likely to beat up the shift linkage (they should have known the hockey stick ball was going to hate this spring resistance too!).
A Man Torques his Nose Cone:
"But wait!", you say, "why is the next photograph shot in the dark?"
Remember that "prescient" thing? The morning's discussion of end play and all the ways you can screw it up, and the increasingly urgent need to get thicker shims to allow our older worn engines to stay within factory specs, all came to terrible head. Jivermo followed my prattle as best he could, we did a text book end play check with subsequent math to bring his end play from a measured .014" down to the best we could get > .007". The factory range is .0028" to a wear limit of .006". Well, the engine locked up as we did the final torquing of the flywheel. As I tried to find the cause of the locking up, I noted that the flywheel could rotate a bit then clang to a halt. I thought I found the cause to be the late model bus TDC sensor hitting the signal rivets in the flywheel. That is what it felt like. Did the same thing again, without the TDC sensor. That movement of the flywheel could only be one thing, a loose #1 main bearing in the case, just like Belle Plaine's engine in 2010. Here is the picture of Belle Plaine's bearing movement. This is caused by a failure of the locator dowel in the bearing saddle:
Unfortunately, Jivermo's #1 main bearing moves at least twice as far as Belle Plaine's (I hope you have a photograph of yours that you can post here, Jivermo). After much consideration in the presence of my cheerful fecklessness, Jivermo decided that it is Time To Rebuild The Engine.
Next day, we decide to do other things, like repack the CV joints and stick on new boots, and replace the left rear wheel bearings. The axle nut has other ideas. This was my first Couldn't Remove The Axle Nut. My loyal old 3/4" T-bar + Pipe Cheater could not do it. We drove the BobD to Home Depot to get an air impact wrench." What should I get?" "I am no good at these purchases." "500 ft/lbs?" "Sure." That was a no. The air impact wrench had not a chance against this well-over-tightened axle nut. (People? Do not over-tighten your axle nuts!) So we got out the Makita and a chisel and sallied forth into battle:
We won, too.
These late buses have cheap stamped roller bearing shells that have a tendency to squirt out of the housing bore as you try to tap them in. Thankfully the custom 1948 Dodge Bearing Installer Tool worked,. Allow Vannajivermo to show you:
The appointment had by this time, descended into Utter Entropy. No engine. No transaxle. No axles. No left rear wheel. Parts all over:
And I said, "good day, sir."
Our task was to replace the hockey stick ball to eradicate a terribly vague shifter. The camera found the dog fetching, so it refused to focus upon what I wanted to focus upon. A terribly focused shot of the terribly worn hockey stick ball causing terribly vague shifts:
A Man and his Motor:
As is often the case, my hopeful customer had a Nice! New! part that I did not want to use. It was a new nose cone assembly with fresh new bronze bushings, and a new seal too, but look at this original nose cone! It has these trick "roller-array ball bearings" instead of simple bronze bushings. This, because Volkswagen knew that their new (c. 1976) spring-loaded shift design was likely to beat up the shift linkage (they should have known the hockey stick ball was going to hate this spring resistance too!).
A Man Torques his Nose Cone:
"But wait!", you say, "why is the next photograph shot in the dark?"
Remember that "prescient" thing? The morning's discussion of end play and all the ways you can screw it up, and the increasingly urgent need to get thicker shims to allow our older worn engines to stay within factory specs, all came to terrible head. Jivermo followed my prattle as best he could, we did a text book end play check with subsequent math to bring his end play from a measured .014" down to the best we could get > .007". The factory range is .0028" to a wear limit of .006". Well, the engine locked up as we did the final torquing of the flywheel. As I tried to find the cause of the locking up, I noted that the flywheel could rotate a bit then clang to a halt. I thought I found the cause to be the late model bus TDC sensor hitting the signal rivets in the flywheel. That is what it felt like. Did the same thing again, without the TDC sensor. That movement of the flywheel could only be one thing, a loose #1 main bearing in the case, just like Belle Plaine's engine in 2010. Here is the picture of Belle Plaine's bearing movement. This is caused by a failure of the locator dowel in the bearing saddle:
Unfortunately, Jivermo's #1 main bearing moves at least twice as far as Belle Plaine's (I hope you have a photograph of yours that you can post here, Jivermo). After much consideration in the presence of my cheerful fecklessness, Jivermo decided that it is Time To Rebuild The Engine.
Next day, we decide to do other things, like repack the CV joints and stick on new boots, and replace the left rear wheel bearings. The axle nut has other ideas. This was my first Couldn't Remove The Axle Nut. My loyal old 3/4" T-bar + Pipe Cheater could not do it. We drove the BobD to Home Depot to get an air impact wrench." What should I get?" "I am no good at these purchases." "500 ft/lbs?" "Sure." That was a no. The air impact wrench had not a chance against this well-over-tightened axle nut. (People? Do not over-tighten your axle nuts!) So we got out the Makita and a chisel and sallied forth into battle:
We won, too.
These late buses have cheap stamped roller bearing shells that have a tendency to squirt out of the housing bore as you try to tap them in. Thankfully the custom 1948 Dodge Bearing Installer Tool worked,. Allow Vannajivermo to show you:
The appointment had by this time, descended into Utter Entropy. No engine. No transaxle. No axles. No left rear wheel. Parts all over:
And I said, "good day, sir."