Transaxle Transition

I heard once that the most productive time in the US is between Labor Day and Thanksgiving Day.  Something like 40% of all work is performed in this period.  When I think about it, it makes sense.  Come Thanksgiving, the holidaze kicks in.  Shopping, vacations, etc through NewYears.  Then, the Winter blues take hold, and sun-seeking vacation get-aways.  Not that I take those, mind you.  Then there's Spring Break, Spring fever and then end-of-school Summer break.  Family vacations end at Labor Day, school starts, so no one is taking vacation, etc.  With this in mind, my work load is peaking, so I've been too distracted to get back to the blog.

Transaxle Arrives

starter adapter on new

I've already mentioned the gearing, etc. in another posting, and that I got it from AA Transaxle in Seattle. Daryl shipped it in a basic cardboard box wrapped in bubblewrap.  Crazy, but simple.  Since I'm living in a condo without a garage, I was in a bit of a spot for doing the work.  Boo had a funny idea of doing the work in my real estate agent's (we'll call him MS) driveway as a motivation to get a house solution.  So... we asked and that's where I did the transaxle swap.  Since I packed my storage space thinking it was only going to be a couple months, finding my tools and the ATV jack adapter was a fun adventure but I was ready to go leading into Labor Day weekend.

Out with the Old
Dropping the engine has become a bit of a predictable system now.  Disconnect the coolant, fuel, and support the engine with the adapter/ATV jack.  Disconnect the axles, lower electrical, exhaust and intake (with intercooler).  Last disconnect the rear engine support and bellhousing support bolts.  Lower the engine and transaxle as a unit.  Once on the ground, I removed the starter and the other 3 bolts between the engine and the transaxle.  Separating the 2 components was simplified with a furniture dolly (covered with a tarp) under the transaxle and simply pulling on the front mount.  The input shaft slide off of the clutch.  I pulled the transaxle into MS's garage, cleaned up my workspace and called it a Saturday.

Prepping the New

'72 stud on left
'75 stud on right

The nose (front) mount on a '75 transaxle is not identical to the nose mount on a '72.  Fortunately, the mounts attach to the transaxle the same way: 2 bolt holes.  The '72 has longer studs, though, so if you do the swap, the studs need to be swapped with the mounts.  The new transaxle was completely redone, but came without a throw-out bearing.  I know the one that was on the original 002 was relatively new, but I put on a new one anyway.  It made a racket during the initial tests at first, but its nice and quiet now.  Getting the wire clips from the throw-out bearing onto the arm takes a little willingness to get after it, but its much easier if you put a longer crescent wrench onto the clutch activation arm and press the bearing hanger away from the depths of the bellhousing.  Attaching the starter and adapter were straight-forward. That old fast-forward adapter needed the custom detailing to fit the '75 002 as well (I did this before.  There's a post in the archives).  I replaced the radiator fan switch, but I haven't seen it actually work yet.  Too paranoid; I hit the manual switch first.

Mating
When mating a transaxle to the engine, it is important to remember one key thing: remove the mounting studs first.  In reading this, it seems obvious, but when you're removing things, its easy to overlook.  After some sweaty attempts to get the transaxle on (input shaft aligning with the clutch), and a beer in the shade, I remembered.  They were easy to back out and slide back in through the ears of the bellhousing easily too.  Once the studs were out, the input shaft slid easily into the clutch and with a little twist of the transaxle, the stud holes were aligned.  Minutes later, the transaxle was torqued down, the starter was wired and the deal was ready for re-install.  I took the opportunity to get the engine harness buttoned down right, and put a new c-clip on the temperature sensor.

In with the New

new throw-out bearing
on input shaft

Classic instructions: install is the reverse.  hahaha... it was that instruction for the control arm replacement in the Type2.com library that started this blog all those years ago.  Raise the nose of the transaxle more aggressively than the engine.  The shifter needs to get over the rear beam.  If you planned ahead, and put the shifter cage on first, you'll appreciate it later.  I hadn't planned, and regretted it.  Once the shifter clears the beam, raise the engine with the ATV jack into place.  Test alignment with the bellhousing mounts, and when its aligned front-to-back, install the rear mounts.  Then install the nose mount, and then do the bellhousing mounts.  That takes a second to write, but many minutes to get done.  I packed the tranny-side of the CV joints, peanut-buttered grease into the valleys where the CV joints mount, and wrenched it together.  All the remaining electrical bits from underneath were all i had energy left for and I called it a Sunday.  Finish the job by reconnecting the coolant lines, fuel, electrical.  Install the intake and exhaust.  Fill with coolant and burp the system.
I've been having issues with that burping bit.  In fact, I spent Monday wrestling with coolant leak issues, and trying to get a replacement c-clip onto that coolant sensor again.  That thing has been killing me.  I think there's air trapped in my cooling system that's creating funky pressure issues and the weak point is the temp sensor.  So, that's where the coolant leaks out.

What to Do with the Old?
On Labor Day, I drove the bus home.  The coolant leak appeared to be resolved, and he drove unbelievably well.  The amount of pep even in the lower gears was fantastic.  We played it safe at first, taking city streets, but he was able to cruise at city speed limits in the low 2000's (RPM).  Just to see how he'd respond, I spun onto the freeway for one exit, and I got up to 55MPH on the onramp with RPM headroom.  Fantastic drive home.  Since then, I've returned my tools to storage, and I have the old transaxle... sitting on the floor of the bus.... making the bus smell like axle grease..  What to do with a viable 002 transaxle?  Sell it to a dune buggy guy?  Sell it to someone who wants a rebuild core?  Welcoming ideas.

Okay, so this was ridiculously long.  Once I add the pictures, this will be epic-long.  Sorry.  I could have done this over the course of multiple postings, but its been 2 weeks already anyway.

One Small Step for Van....

So, the maiden voyage of the TDI-powered microbus has concluded.  It wasn't without its scary moments, but it was a great success.  I'll hit the mechanical road-digest stuff today, and I'll come back around to the human-side stuff tomorrow.

liftoff from home

Houston, We Have Liftoff
Tuesday started with loading up camping gear and bikes (2 on a rear strap-on rack, one in the cabin).  The load-up was not terribly interesting, other than I forgot all the little things that used to go without mention before.  Things forgotten: dish towels, body soap & shampoo, extra towels, for example.  There were plenty of other things, but we didn't leave our positive attitudes, our extra coolant, bag of how-to-fix-it books, toolbox of ratchets, screwdrivers and wrenches.  This proved very important later.  From the house, we went straight to Fred Meyers for last minute "oh, yeah, we need that" stuff, like a solar lantern, ice, propane and of course fuel and air for the tires.  It was a little surreal to order diesel.  The guy looked at me a little funny and said "you mean regular".  "No," I say with a grin. "I mean #2 diesel".  I then photographed the fill up like a total geek.

yes, I meant Diesel :)

Loaded for bear, and ready to roll, I couldn't find 1st gear, so we pulled out of the shopping center parking lot uphill in second.  The engine didn't like that and acted like it dropped into "limp mode".  Aw crap.  Pull to the side, kill the engine.... Fret.....  Fret some more...... Restart the engine, and everything's fine again.  Hmm... something to ponder while I watch the UltraGauge.

Apollo 13
As I mentioned in my last post, the boys and I gave thanks to each of you who have helped us on this journey when we turned onto Roy Rogers Road towards Sherwood.  The drive through the highland cow country of Washing ton County was beautiful, and the engine temp finally reached the magic 185* mark.  It held there, then climbed some more.  By 190*, I had flipped the fan switch, and the temp dropped back down to 185*, at which point, I turned the fans back off again.  This cycle repeated a few times as we entered Sherwood.  That is, until we reached 99W and I suddenly saw white smoke billowing.  "Houston, we have a problem".  I flipped the fans and the smoke cleared, but I knew something was wrong.  I made the turn onto 99W and into the next parking lot: one for a NAPA.  What luck!

hose on ground not so good.

Once parked, I jumped out to see what was wrong.  The return hose from the radiator had separated from its coupling and one end was now lying on the ground.  A small puddle of coolant had appeared.  Good times.  Seeing how we were in front of a NAPA, though, getting more coolant and a hose clamp (missing from the hose now) would be an easy task... and a very short walk.  No need for the lifeboat, but exposing the coolant bottle means emptying the rear deck of our belongings, and removing the rear bike rack.

One Small Step For Van
While shooting the breeze with the guys at NAPA, I described my engineering failure: there are no barbs on my coupling, so it would just be a matter of time before this happened again.  They leaped to the phones, calling different parts suppliers until they found a company in Tualatin that had 1-1/4" double-barbed couplers. "2 please," I say.  NAPA went an got them for me from them within 30 minutes.  During that 30 minute wait, we walked next door to the Safeway and had lunch.  Perfect.  No sooner had we returned, the couplers arrived.  They were installed, coolant fed into the bottle, system bled and we were ready to roll within an hour.  Knowing more air bubbles would appear, we pulled out of the NAPA parking lot.
 

new double-barbed couplers

Later on, while driving down 99W, I was unable to influence the temperature.  We pulled over, re-exposed the coolant bottle, and topped it off.  Dang air bubbles.  Re-bled, and we were off.  This time for good.  The rest of the trip was temperature cycling, laughing with the boys and enjoying the corners of Yamhill and Marion Counties.

One Giant Step for Van-Kind
After being parked for 2 days, there were no fresh fluids under the bus before we left the campground.  The coolant bottle was a touch low, so I topped him off again.  I expect a few more air bubbles to appear before its all done, but I think the worst is past.  The under-mount radiator has proven effective, and the TDI engine has proven to be an effective power plant for a microbus.  As many have pointed out along the way "that transaxle isn't well suited to that engine".  Very true.  At 3k RPM, the bus is moving around 45mph in 4th gear with 14" tires.  I have a set of 15" rims that I plan to use for tires in the future, but I'm sure a re-geared transaxle is in the future.  That's a $1500+ statement.... and it reminds me that no bus or project vehicle is ever finished.  Just some portion of it is.  Today, the engine transplant project is complete.  Tomorrow, some other project will begin, but for today at least I dance and sing in celebration that my bus lives again.

true satisfaction. greetings from Champoeg State Park