1957 Oval

TRL
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Re: 1957 Oval

Post by TRL »

Great looking work Bruce!
The Rick Lang
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Ken
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Re: 1957 Oval

Post by Ken »

Good stuff. Having a few 6 volt busses myself, I have come to realise) (often the hard way) the importance of good wiring connections. :D
1963 Single Cab
1964 Bowman & Sons Camper (Vegas Bus)
1966 Westy S0-42 Hardtop
1967 Westy SO-42 Pop Top
1968 Single Cab
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Dual Port
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Re: 1957 Oval

Post by Dual Port »

Here's part of the reason the fuel pump outlet fitting was leaking repeatedly: the OEG ferrule has a taller height than the replacement WW fitting. This would obviously cut down on the clamp pressure the nut applies. Once we changed from a new fitting to a used German fitting the leakage stopped. :?: The upper is the replacement.
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The way these are wired from the factory has the power feed from the battery coming to the dashboard, then piggybacked off the ignition switch to the headlight switch, then piggybacked from that to the fuseblock. This created multiple points for bad connections. My update for this is to make a 4 way solder joint where the 10ga input splits off into 3 10ga outputs, each feeding a component. Obviously this eliminated several potential spots for problems. It's covered with shrink tubing and Polyloom for double protection.
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Here is the headlight fusebox that's mounted on the LF wheelwell. Like everything else, it needs attention, a quick ride through the beadblaster should take care of it, right?
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Until:

https://youtu.be/2s7oOX-PTL8



Here's the finished repair:
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A Power Probe is a pretty cool tool to use if you understand electricity and a WMD if you don't understand electricity. You probably won't do a lot of damage working on a non-computerized vehicle like an ACVW but if you're working on a modern car you can blow up modules if you push the button at the wrong time. I tell my students to steer clear of them unless they understand what they're doing.
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Bruce Amacker
'66 Deluxe Bus
'65 Standard Bus
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Dual Port
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Re: 1957 Oval

Post by Dual Port »

I took the speedo out to clean up stuff so I figured pics would help.

Here it is before servicing, the brass tabs would not have provided a good connection.
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Take the plastic thing off, bead blast it, and the colored gels fall out. Unfortunately I didn't have them on hand :( so I just reglued the old ones. I put them on my WW wishlist.
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Cleaned:
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Ditto with the bulbholders.

I didn't use the bulb on the left which was mostly done.
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Here's the final product:
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The big solder splice is on the left above the ignition switch. Everything is labeled, ty-wrapped or secured and covered with Polyloom. The auxiliary fuseblock on the left came from Columbus last week and makes the job look a little more "period correct" than a replacement blade-style fuseblock. I made a bunch of notes and modified schematics for Sean to put in his big book so the next guy knows what I did. Even without it it's not hard to figure out what changes were made.

I put a big Maxifuse in the fat power lead that feeds the dashboard. All mfr's do this for the last 30-40 years but VW did not. It prevents burning of the harness if something major goes wrong up front.
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Then I went to set the rear seat and saw the positive terminal would have been a little too friendly with the seat strap so I flipped the battery around. How do you like those blocks of wood? Pretty hillbilly, eh?
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I went for a ride and heard a clicking noise which turned out to be the oil slinger thing hitting on the shoe holddown. No sweat, easy fix.
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Sean has it and hopefully will drive it without issues!

:D
Attachments
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Bruce Amacker
'66 Deluxe Bus
'65 Standard Bus
Six Volt
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Re: 1957 Oval

Post by Six Volt »

I learned a great deal from Bruce about automotive electronics when I was able to stop out and watch his work. That said, I made myself scarce during some of the important periods when Bruce was doing wire tracing and workarounds. The last thing someone who knows what they're doing needs when studying wiring diagrams is a chirping inquisitor in their ear.

I had a lot of fun talking and hanging with Bruce. SInce we're from the same generation, conversation was, and is, simple. We had a lot of give and take. With all that, he is the consumate professional who really set this car up nicely.

The fuel pump and brake issues (we had them) aren't covered here in super detail, but I learned a great deal from the troubleshooting experience on both. We must have looked at 10 different fuel pumps and learned there were VW German, US made and unidentified aftermarket fuel pumps for the 36hp engine. Bruce did a lot more than just distinguish those flanges, there were all kinds of variations on those pumps.

So to rap it up, I needed someone to give this Oval a good starting baseline on the electronics and I got that and more from Bruce. I would have been throwing money and time at electrical problems for the next three years and still been left scratching my head. So because I'm bull-headed about having at least one six volt vehicle, I'm glad Bruce gave me that baseline.

Considering that I "reassembled" the engine and it is actually running is kind of scary. I didn't need any other high risks on the electronics front with a "Sean engine build time bomb" waiting to happen! :lol:

And the best thing about this was the $50 "unknown" '57 non-syncro slitcase transmission I got from a guy in W. Va. who got the trans from Randy in KY and it works flawlessly! And it doesn't leak. :D

So I'm driving the bug around West Park and working out the kinks.

I fixed one problem with hard starting and the carb float today, so right now its running fine.

I've got to get it back out to Bruce's for horn diagnosis. Can't drive it without the "beep beep"! :D
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Marla
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Re: 1957 Oval

Post by Marla »

Way to go Sean and Bruce. What a great car. I can't wait for you to bring it out so we can all see it in action.
It's Marla with an " L"
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TRL
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Re: 1957 Oval

Post by TRL »

Awesome! Happy to see this thing on the road!
The Rick Lang
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Re: 1957 Oval

Post by Six Volt »

I've been driving the heck out of this thing for the past 3 years with no issues until a couple weeks ago. I pulled it out of the garage to get something and noticed a trail of fresh oil along the driveway to where I stopped it. I fired it back up and crawled underneath and sure enough a stream of oil was coming down between the pushrod tubes below the oil cooler. Oh well, at least I didn't drill a hole in the oil cooler this time! :lol:

I immediately ordered new seals from WW and they arrived this week.

Anyway, these little 36HPers have the old 8mm oil cooler inlets. You can use the later 10mm coolers, but you need to use the right adapter seals.

So I pulled the motor on this enjoyable 4th of July and got into what I thought would be a cracked or compromised oil cooler seal(s). But to my surprise both seals looked good and were plyable. The nuts seemd to be the right tightness and I had no issues prior to the sudden leak. Could it be the oil cooler itself? The block?

Anyway, the case looks ok around the mounting location but I don't have a torch to check it. Maybe thats a good thing! :lol: The bottom of the cooler was wet with fresh oil, so it could be the seals were loose? Or maybe the cooler itself s bad. How often does a cooler go bad? I have many of these early coolers, but don't really remember which ones are, or were, any good.

Is there an easy way to check them? Can you just plug the inlets and drop them in water? Do you need to pressure test them? How do I do that?

Motor out
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You can see how #3 and #4 cylinder were getting soaked.
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Seals semed to be ok and were still plyable
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Bottom 1/4 of cooler was soaked.
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You can see the difference between a 8mm cooler and a 10mm cooler here.
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Pressure plate isn't wet
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But I've got something going on in bellhousing. Tranny fluid? or oil?
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I had one exhaust stud pull out. Gonna need Chuck or Bruce in that! :D
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Dual Port
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Re: 1957 Oval

Post by Dual Port »

In my experience, if the cooler is wet it's the cooler as airflow won't bring oil upwards if the seals are leaking. If you want to bring it out we can do a hillbilly pressure test of it. I'd change the cooler and probably the tranny shaft seal too. If it's the same as later trannies I should have it.
Bruce Amacker
'66 Deluxe Bus
'65 Standard Bus
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Karl Kombi
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Re: 1957 Oval

Post by Karl Kombi »

Deja vu all over again! :P Bruce did both of those things on my bus at the same time also.
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