Wednesday, February 23, 2011

The super is back on the ground and running.

It hasn't been that long since I posted but I was able to get a ton done on the super. Here is the visual progress.

 For anyone who is repacking the wheel bearings on a late model bug here is a visual layout of the way it all goes together. The stub shaft is on top and from left to right goes like this. Inner spacer. ( you can tell you have the right one if it has a big taper on one end so it will fit on the taper of the stub shaft), the inner bearing.( It is the ball bearing and I think you can install it wrong so make sure it is right), The middle spacer, the outer bearing ( this one is a roller bearing), The part on the bearing is the inner race of the outer bearing, and last of all is the outer spacer. I am a visual learner so this is how I would learn for the first time.
 I put on the back tires and lowered it back to the ground and moved on to the front. I figured I would repack the wheel bearings so they would be done at the same time the rears are. Here I removed the front drum and outer bearing.
 I turned over the drum and removed the seal and the inner bearing. These bearings are impossible to mix up so don't worry about it. The only thing you need to do is do one side at a time because the bearings and the races are a matched set so you don't want to mix up right and left sides.
 This is the advantage of having a solvent tank in your garage. It is important to clean all the old grease out of your bearings and solvent works the best.
                                    
 Here is how you repack the bearings. In the picture you can see how grease is oozing out of the upper side. You just keep pressing the grease in until it comes out like that all the way around the circumference of the bearing.
 Here the bearing is installed with a new seal the drum is ready to be installed onto the axle.
 Drum installed and nut tightened and then backed off just a tad. Make sure you tighten the Allen bolt to lock the nut on. (remember the left side nut on the front axle has left handed threads)
 I also got back the tank form Dee. He installed a rivet where the hole had been and while it was out he decided to paint it. It looks awesome. Now I just have to install it.
 Here you can see where Dee put the rivet. It worked great and has no leaks in it .
 Here is where the fuel tank goes in the car. It looks as if the super was originally orange. it looks a lot better now with it's current paint job.
 Here is the tank installed. It was nice to fill it up with fuel and not here any dripping.
Here is the trunk as it currently sits right now. the spare tire is back in and the old parts that I replaced along the way are stacked in it. With the bright white it looks as clean as a hospital. I think you could eat off that tank.
 well, it was time to move on to the parking brake. When VW parking brakes get a little out of adjustment they have a habit of spilling their guts.
No I mean they literally spill their guts. All the insides of the handle pops out and goes on the floor. This shows what comes out of the handle. I had adjusted the rear brakes and then adjusted parking brake cables at the handle. You normally don't have to remove the whole handle but I wanted to grease it all up so it would be smooth. In this picture there is the locking device at the far left and then the handle, the push rod with spring and button attached to it.
 This is a close up of the rod and spring with the handle. This is what comes flying out.
 You can't really see it here but this is the inside of the handle with the rod installed and the pawl installed in the correct location. When your brakes are loose and there is to much movement of the handle the pawl is the part that comes out of where it should be and lets all the guts fly out.
 A picture of the handle with the ratchet segment and pawl all installed and working.
 Final install  of the handle in the car. The super could really use some new cables but they will be OK for awhile. It is still a little spongy but it works and I think the only fix would be new cables.
 I moved on to looking at the gas gauge that was inop. This is what I found. It is a connector that goes to the fuel vibrator. The vibrator is what keeps your gas gauge from bouncing around while your driving. As you can see it has gotten hot in the past. I installed the wire on to a new terminal and the next picture shows the result
 The gas gauge is working. It was cool to see and when I test drove it the speedometer worked great to. It was right on the money because I went past a sign that shows your speed and it was dead on.
 So, Paris (the super) passed a test drive and once again got kicked out of the garage. All it needs now is an alignment and I will give it back to Dee's daughter. It has been a ton of fun to work on even though I thought I was a dead man at one time when fuel was going everywhere. I may even consider buying a super in the future if the price was right.
  It's a good thing I have a long driveway. Paris is down at the end of the train right now. We picked up a new trailer but that will be discussed in a blog another day. This one is long enough and it's getting late.

Ed is back at home in his rightful place. I have neglected him the last few weeks and have a whole list of things to do on him. There will be plenty of stuff to blog about in the future. So stay tuned.









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