Move vehicle without a tranny?

Yep! It's the beauty of irs, Ron!

Thanks Al.

My pleasure, Ron; how the heck are you?

Just put a tranny in your car



> On Jan 23, 2015, at 6:32 PM, SpeedsterOwners.com <alerts@hoop.la> wrote:
>

The car looks nice, the tranny....not so much.

You might ask why is this not a problem?

 

Because the rear diagonal arm, along with the other side of the triangle made by the spring plates, holds the rear hubs in place, NOT the axles (which are allowed to float in and out as the wheel/hub goes up and down so, basically, they're just sitting there).  

 

Remove the axles and you could tow it coast to coast w/o issue.

I have a thing with a wheel that fastens to the two big trans mount bolts.

 

If you were closer you could borrow it.

Thanks Michael.  I only need to roll it 30 feet to a flatbed truck.

.........." I have a thing with a wheel that fastens to the two big trans mount bolts''

 

What a simple and great idea, Mike !

Ron: I hope this means what I think it means. Get that car back, it's going nowhere with the guy who has it.

 

If it was me, and I were you- I'd trailer it right down to Intermeccanica and have Henry fix it right. You'd be driving by this summer.

Yes, it's coming home.

When Henry did the restoration he also installed the engine.  Unfortunately, I had someone else, AVR of Abbotsford, who I thought was very competent, build the engine. 

I was wrong.

The rings never broke in, and the engine smoked, because of a cracked piston ring.  The rear flywheel seal also leaked oil.  The shop did replace the piston ring, but they didn't bother to replace the flywheel seal.

Henry installed the fuel injection, but he could never get it to run properly.  His mechanic spent a fair amount of time on the phone talking to CB's Pat Downs, but the fuel injection still had issues.

I am NOT a big fan of CBs fuel injection kit.

 

I would have been MUCH better off ordering a CB build the engine (with carbs, not fuel injection, through Henry.

 

The last time I drove the car it ran so poorly I barely, and I mean barely, made it home.  The engine would not idle below 3000 rpm for the last 10 miles.

The next day I pulled the engine (August, 2012).

I delivered the engine to my new mechanic and had the car flat-bedded to his shop in May of (this is going to be hard to believe) 2013.

 

The guy is very talented and really knows his stuff, but over the (almost) last two years I've slowly come to realize that something was not right with this guy.  He'd work on in here and there but just couldn't get the job  finished.

 

So, she's coming home.  I have no idea how much work has been done.  I'll find out on Tuesday.

 

Stay tuned.

 

 

 

Ugh! I'm really sorry to hear of your troubles. Do any SOC members live near by? Come on gang, lets get Ron back on the road this spring.

Really sorry to hear of your troubles and poor service, Ron.  If it's any comfort, there are lots of poor performers out there.  These are usually guys who have the skills to build a great engine, but have insurmountable time management problems, problems significant enough that if you or I had them, we wouldn't have a business to run.

 

I don't see the problem decreasing, nor do I know how to avoid it.  Many of us may never meet the mechanic face-to-face that works for us.  We operate on word of mouth recommendations from sites such as this and others, and guys we know who used the shop in question.  However, sh*t happens, doesn't it?  The guy who gave me such good service has sold the business, or the mechanic who was so talented now has personal problems, yada, yada.  

 

Guys who have shipped work to remote mechanics and shops know what I'm talking about:fewer talented, experienced mechanics and parts suppliers as the a/c industry shrinks and quality of parts nosedives; lack of new apprentices as other types of automobile engines become more popular; being physically far away from the shop, and the list goes on.

 

No one that I have ever found will give an honest estimate of how long a job will take.  There is really no reason for that.  You know, these are NOT new shops.  Their name may have changed in the last 10 years or so, but there are no new shops opening to work on our types of engines.  These guys have all been there, in one iteration or another, for decades.  Any of them should be able to look in their records and see how long the average complete build or rebuild took, short block vs. long block, head work vs. block only, etc.  I'm not talking about a time estimate to the day, I'm talking to the month!

 

If you can physically visit the shop, you're miles ahead of the game.  But, when phones or (gasp!) e-mail is your only connection, all bets are off.  Joe brings in a blown engine in the back of his pickup, and starts jawing with the mechanic, and now whose job is the mechanic working on?  You guessed it.

 

All of us derive an inordinate amount of pleasure from our cars.  This is how it should be.  We just need to keep in mind that driving something unique does have some drawbacks.  As long as we can accept that, we're still good to go.  That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. 

Good for you Ron! Now maybe you'll have some forward progress. I wish you were closer, and I could help. We had an east coast intervention/SWAT team, how about a west coast version?

To Jim's many points (all good), my wife often asks me why I drive all over creation to find a part or someone who can do something special for my car, when she would just as soon look them up on-line and save all that time and effort.  It's MUCH faster than my approach and it's what I do when what I'm looking for probably isn't local.

 

OK, fine....I can understand that.

 

On the other hand, I get to meet a lot of those (still left) in the hobby/industry around here, sometimes they can help, sometimes I get other leads and sometimes I find people who do other things that might come in handy later on.  There really is no local network for these people on-line so you have to nose around and find them.  

 

For example, the best Hot Rod Upholsterer in New England is in Warwick, Rhode Island.  His work is Museum-quality and his vision is amazing.  He does not advertise, does not get on-line at all (although he now has a computer (PC) to run his business), hardly ever answers his phone, does not even have a sign in front of his house/shop (and you can't see the shop out back from the street).  If you want to talk with Fred, you have to GO there to do it.  And he has jobs waiting about 2-years out, from those who knew how to find him and are happy to get onto his queue.  He wishes he could find a kid or two who share his passion for upholstery and work ethic (that's the hardest) to keep the business going.  

 

I always drive the Speedster to their shops if I can, and that makes a HUGE difference because, yes, you have to shoot the s#it with them for a while before you talk business because they all love whatever they do and like to talk about it for a short while - the least you can do is show your interest, too.  Often I get free materials that I need or, as Jim alluded, preferential treatment.  Tony, the Hot-VW kid who did my last alignment, did a fantastic job.  It took him all morning, it was perfect and it cost me about $60 bucks (a bargain) and a case of Sam Adams Summer Brew, later on (still a bargain).

 

"Schmoozing" makes people feel good.  It shows that you care for what you're doing and care for what others do, too, and at this stage of the history of this hobby, it's often the best thing you can do to keep your car(s) alive.

 

So get Schmoozing, Ron - I went through something similar when I was building Pearl.  Got very busy at work and farmed out the body work and paint to a place that soon lost interest and put her in a tent out back and forgot about her.  Finally, after way over a year, I pulled her out of there, dropped her off at a different place recommended by a street-rodder friend and had her back, ready for the finishing touches, in about a month.

I picked the original engine builder because:

-His shop has worked on air cooled engines for over 20 years and they drag race a beetle.  I thought he would know how to build a high performance engine.

-His shop is close-only 25 miles from my house.

-I taught two of his kids.

I thought I'd made a smart choice.....I was wrong.

He did fix the cracked ring, but didn't bother to fix the rear seal leak.  To do that the case would have to be split and I guess he didn't want to do the extra work.

If by rear seal, you mean the seal near the front of the car, you don't have to split the case. You do need to pull the flywheel.

Ron, I sent a personal message to you. Call me when you have a moment

Maybe the original builder did replace the flywheel seal, but if he did it was still leaking when I pulled the engine.  Lots of oil on the clutch.

Make sure you check the camshaft end plug while you're looking back there, too.

 

gn

This thing is really two separate issues: the engine woes, and the EFI. CB or Blackline can (and will) do a good job for you. Tony is posting here, and has a good reputation with guys who have used him. Terry Nuckles and Joel Schlotz have had great success with Ken Jansen. The engine is the easier part of the puzzle. It's money, but it sounds like you've got some good stuff to work with.

 

The EFI is another deal altogether. If you want EFI, I'd do run a different software package and do the whole thing: Mega-Squirt doing the injection and crank-fired ignition. You can run all of the hardware from your CB kit (your throttle bodies, injectors, etc.) but get a software package that a lot of guys are using with 100% success.

 

I'd recommend using Mario at thedubshop.net. He's close to you (Seattle area), and really, really good. If you want a (bit of a ) deal on a controller, harness, etc. shoot me a dialog. I've got a Micro-Squirt set-up I'll not be using.

Dr. Clock and others, here is the thing I was talking about:

 

http://vwparts.aircooled.net/V...rn-Dolly-p/vw-12.htm 

When it comes to rear seal oil leaks, sometimes it's not the seal, but other factors. 

One being the flywheel has a groove or has been machined under size of seal contact area, or someone did not use a o-ring in the flywheel contact area with the crankshaft

the seal is not in place correctly, the drain hole at the case haves is plugged.. Then there is the cam plug not sealing and last the case has a crack.

Mike, that's a pretty clever way to move a Speedster without its trans & rear wheels! 

The frame horn dolly is a copy of the genuine VW tool most dealerships had.

I had the shop completely disassemble the engine and check for overheating damage.

He told me everything looked good and reassembled the engine.

 

At this point I'm not sure what has been done, or if the engine is ready to go back in the car (I have my doubts).

I'll know more on Tuesday, when I visit the shop.  Hopefully, I can get a final bill, pay it,  and bring the car home on Wednesday.

Hope they replaced the bearings while it was spread out on a bench~