Returning to Oliver

The last week or so has been busy with lots of not-car stuff. We have had our young niece over a bunch while her mom had surgery on her wrist, and a bunch of social events. Of course, with the return of spring comes the return of recurring yardwork as well. So, I have not had the dedicated time for wrenching that I always seem to think will be available. I was able to get out to the shop for a few hours on Sunday, though. I focused on Oliver, the 1978 MGB, letting Hapy ('72 VW microbus) sit until Justin has his time with the injection pump in April. The rate at which the price of diesel fuel is climbing (passed $6US/gal around the corner), I may find that it costs more to fill his tank than to pay Justin for his time. That's totally upside-down. Anyway, back to wrenchin.

 

Voltage Gauge

remember Oliver?

I installed a Smith voltage gauge into Oliver where the original analog clock used to sit. The clock didn't really work very well, and it ate voltage from the battery when I let him sit for too long. This made the clock less accurate, leading me to pull the positive cable off the battery while not in use. This led to the clock being completely worthless. So, I pulled it out and swapped in the voltage gauge. It seemed like a valuable bit of info to have, but I had wired it into the "purple" or always-hot circuit. Like the clock, the voltage gauge slowly drained the battery down, albeit not as quickly. So, again, I pulled the positive cable while not driving. I changed that on Sunday.

 

Bearing in mind that any entry back into working on cars may not seem like a big deal to regular wrenchers, but I have really not done much car stuff in over a year. So, any steps taken are a big deal. Removing the gauge was simply unwinding the knurled nut holding the rear support and the gauge flopped forward out of the dash. I removed and taped-off the "purple" wire and started seeking a viable switched "green"source to tap into. Switched is available at a few spots, but I decided to run a dedicated line from the fuse box instead. I could say I did that to remove variables or variability in the voltage signal. The truth is that Oliver is parked so close to the side wall of the shop that getting in and under the dash was virtually impossible. I was not going to just start grabbing an unplugging things.

 

Smith voltage gauge

Running another wire is simple enough. I started at the gauge and worked my way behind the dash, center console, and glove box to the firewall pass-thru. From the pass through within the engine compartment, the bundle of wires run along the left fender to the fuse box. I tied the new wire into the existing green bundle and tested continuity with the multi-meter. Success! I installed the gauge, hooked up the battery and tested by turning the ignition to "run". The voltmeter slowly crept up and I could hear the fuel pump banging away. I recall that it used to get quieter with fuel in the pump. Satisfied, I turned off the key and looked for any other parasitic drain on the battery. The wires in the engine compartment need some containment. I am not liking the scattered multi-colored angel-hair look in the picture below right.

 

Battery Drain?

technicolor angel hair pasta wiring

Testing for a parasitic drain on your battery ought to be relatively straight-forward. Disconnect one cable. Set your multi-meter to test for Amps and then place one probe on the battery post and the other on the cable end. All 0's? Switch to milli-amps and try again. According to the internets, if the drain is less than 50mA, it is not enough to drain your battery. I got 0mA, which, honestly, I do not believe. I tested it multiple times, and even after cleaning the cable and the battery post, I still got 0mA. So, I checked voltage across the 2 posts (12.08V) and left the cables attached. I figured if the voltage drops overnight then my battery-drain test will be proven faulty. I have since tested the voltage the last 2 days. The battery loses 0.02V overnight, which I think I can attribute to the stereo. Regardless, I will need to add a float charger.

 

Red Rollie

new lock, locked

I have this old red Kennedy tool cabinet we call "Red Rollie". It houses a bunch of tools, and for most the nearly 20 years that I've owned it, the lock didn't work. Well, I didn't have a key for it. We got the cabinet at an estate sale without the key. Anyway, some tools were stolen from my next door neighbor's yard a few months ago, so that changed our vector regarding the shop. We were perfectly fine using it without doors, but I can't leave entire tool cabinets unlocked if thieves have found our quiet little neighborhood. While I think the theft next door was an inside job (they run a construction business out of their home), one can never be too sure. So, I found a lock that fits this old Kennedy cabinet (Kennedy 80403 High Security Tubular Lock), and replaced it.

 

Replacing one of these locks is actually easier than on newer cabinets. The lock is held on with a U-shaped tang that slides off to the side. The hard part is you can't see anything. With my fingers I was able to determine which direction the tang needed to slide to be removed (facing the cabinet, slide right), and then set a stubby slotted screw-driver against the lip of the tang. It only took one well-leveraged push to get the tang removed and the lock to pop out. To install, orient the lock so the little inner divot on the outside facing part of the lock where the key goes in is facing down (unlocked). Set the lock into the hole with one hand while guiding the locking rod into the rectangular hole on the back of the lock. Then, push the U-shaped tang in place to hold it.

 

Red Rollie

This worked great, and effectively locked the top 2 drawers. The 3rd drawer down, however, had been bent where the little hook pokes out the back. To remedy, I got a framing hammer and a 1/2" ratchet extension and beat on it until it was more-or-less flush with the rest of the rear of the drawer. For years I wondered why that drawer always set deeper into the cabinet than the others. Now I knew. Once the drawer had been persuaded, the drawer fronts lined up and that 3rd drawer locked as well.

 

Wrap

That's how I spent my Sunday afternoon. The shop still needs the 2 largest doors, but my tools are secure, and I am really starting to get comfortable in there. For example, there was a period of time while working on Oliver that the skies opened up and it started pouring rain. I never felt it. In fact, I could only hear it hitting the trees. The insulation on this shop stops the sound of rain on the steel roof. I absolutely did not expect that.

 

That's it for today. Next week is Easter, so I may not get out to the shop for much. I hope to put a little gas into Oliver and at least back him out to where I can give him a deep cleaning. 

The Doors

Yeah.. not the band, but I really like Ray Manzarak's keyboard. It has been a very busy year, and I have not been playing with cars much until very recently. Zed, the 1979 Datsun 280ZX remains covered and completely unchanged since we moved into the farmhouse. Oliver, the 1978 MGB, on the other hand, has received some of my focus. I'll start there, and then get after the original topic. 

MGB Carb Dis-Assembled

carb tear down

I arrived at the conclusion that a participating reason for Oliver running so badly (and getting worse) could be that the carb was a little gunky when I bought him, and he has gotten little use, making it worse. So, I removed the carb, took it apart and ran it thru a sonic dip / cleaner. I ordered a comprehensive rebuilding kit from Japan, and will re-assemble the carb with those bits and gaskets. I hope this will resolve his issues so we can drive him around this summer.

Door-Slamma-Slamma

Over the course of the last few years, all 3 of the regularly used doors (driver, passenger and slider) on Hapy, the 1972 VW Bus, have become harder to open and/or close. Each had their own unique issues. Starting with the slider, it suddenly refused to close outside a venue after unloading gear for a show. It would slide as far as about an inch from being actually closed and then bang on something. I couldn't tell if it was the front edge or the trailing edge, but did not have time to really resolve. I forced it closed by pushing with steady pressure against it straight towards the bus (not pushing towards the front). Fortunately, it opened and shut with similar assistance until I fixed it.

foaming doors

The driver-side door would not close consistently. I would have to bang-bang-bang it shut until it finally latched. The lock was another issue; once locked, it would not easily become unlocked, especially if anyone touched the door handle when the door was locked. This condition only worsened to the point where the lock started to fail entirely and banging the door was not holding the door shut well enough. I had the door fly open while taking a right turn and the swinging door almost hit another car.

Of the 3 doors, the passenger door was the easiest to solve, but it was the last. That door would not shut easily because the seal in the front lower corner was tweaked. This put pressure on the door handle, which also was hard to depress, so opening the door took a firm grip. The inner door cards were not holding in-place as well as they had when I installed them, so I decided to tackle the door operation and the cards as one effort.

Slider Door Adjustment

None of these issues were stuck-on-the-side-of-the-road level, but they were all annoying and reducing the joy. I started with the slider since I had to have that door open consistently for gigs. I first considered the leading edge latch mechanism. I shot Kroil into the latch, but discovered very quickly that the leading edge latch was not the issue. After shooting Kroil into and around the trailing latch, I concluded that this also was not the issue. Still, this lubrication was long overdue. I could tell that the upper hard-bar, that applies the trailing latch was misaligned (too loose). I tightened it and that seemed to resolve the closing issue, allowing the door to close consistently. Opening the door was still inconsistent. I started looking at the lower sheathed-wire that opens the trailing latch. That sheathed-wire is similar to a bike handbrake cable with an adjustment collar near the leading edge latch. This wire was dangly-loose so I tightened it until it was taught and adjusted from there until the door would easily open from working the handle.

Driver Door Fix

'74-'79 left front door latch

Repairing the driver door operation was next most important. Once the door lock was un-unlockable from the outside, the only way into the bus was through the rear hatch. So, if the bus was loaded with gear, it was an army crawl over stuff and under the headbanger to get to the front door or even the slider. Following the instructions in the Bentley manual to remove the door latch mechanism (remove outer handle, disconnect activation bar, remove inner handle, remove lower bolt in window guide, remove bolts holding latch, wiggle free), I spent a few minutes orienting to it and figuring out how it works. Since it was not working correctly, it was not easy to determine neither what was preventing it from working correctly nor how it was supposed to work. The image to the right, here, is for a later bay bus (the early bay latch does look a little different, especially in the area of greatest interest), but it should work well enough to illustrate. For orientation purposes, the side facing away in the image faces rearward when installed in the door so what we can see are the inner guts usually hidden inside the door. Consider the part furthest to the left; that is the lock/latch mechanism which connects to the activation bar. There are 2 circled springs: one larger spiral facing up (marked 1) and a smaller one partially hidden by a tab (marked 2). On the early Bay, spring #1 is not a spiral, it looks more like a "C", but on Hapy that spring was missing. Spring #2, however, was there, and it was kinda mangled.

I attempted to un-mangle spring #2, and instead it launched from the latch into my yard. Distressed, I cleaned the latch with brake cleaner while trying to arrive at a solution. Once clean, I shot the moving parts with Kroil and worked the latch. I started to come to the conclusion that without those 2 springs, the latch and lock actually worked much better. In fact, they worked great. Curious, I re-installed the latch by literally reversing the steps. I found positioning the latch inside the door and then getting the window guide in place were the challenges. I lowered the window and started testing the latch: open, close, open close, lock, try the latch, unlock, etc. It worked like any other car door latch. I can close the door with very little effort, and it stays latched. I can lock it, it stays locked and will unlock by pulling the lock tab inside the or from the key on the outside. Attempting to open the door when locked no longer fouls the lock. I mean, I can try the handle and then immediately unlock it. Even unlocking it no longer requires moving the key like I was locking it first (which I had to do even if no one tried the handle).

Passenger Door Fix

This was the easiest fix of the 3. The Passenger door resisted closing and the handle needed Herculean grip. I repeated what I did on the driver side first: remove the latch, clean and Kroil it. Then, I re-installed. This resolved the Herculean grip issue. The door resistance stemmed from the door seal not being correctly place in the forward lower corner of the door. It was hanging on the inside edge of the door. I still intend to paint Hapy this summer, so I applied a little carpenter glue on the seal rather than the super-strong black seal adhesive. I held it in place by hand until it seemed to hold and then shut the door to really hold it in place while the glue dried. This totally fixed the close resistance.

I started on the door cards, but didn't complete that. I will post about the door card improvement once they are back in Hapy.

---

That's it for today. There have been many adventures and experiments over the last few months. I'll get to posting them as time makes itself available. Thanks, as always, for following along-

More A4

Today's post gets us that much closer to being done with T's old A4, Nemo. I still have to replace a button and mess with the hood, but after today's post, I am very close.

Before I begin, a couple quick personal notes. First, T is fighting forest fires around Oregon this Summer. If you are not tracking the fires in the news, this is one of the worst fire seasons on record. So, having a son out in it, makes this all the more scary. It makes working on his old car quite surreal, of course, with the air quality this past week, I haven't been working on anything. Second, yesterday was the 1-year anniversary of our dear brother Travis' motorcycle accident. In an odd twist, we just long-term loaned Flash to his niece. We really miss you, Travis. One year later, we think of you every day.

We are living through some strange days, between police behavior, the protests, the violence, the CoViD, the anti-maskers, the widespread fires, recurring power outages and brown-outs, and the lead up to the election, I greatly look forward to some semblance of stability sometime soon. 2020 has been emotionally exhausting; 2021 can't arrive soon enough.

A/C
If you live somewhere hot, having Air Conditioning (A/C) is pretty important. Here in the western side of Oregon, A/C is nice to have, but not as critical for the hot weather. The system's ability to remove moisture from the cabin is much more important. I have lamented this before, but our temperature likes to float around the dew point. This leaves moisture hanging in the air and residing on surfaces. This includes the inside of your car's windows. This moisture is quickly removed by flipping on your air conditioning as your car warms up in the morning. For this reason, I felt it was very important to get the A/C working. All I needed to do was charge it.

The instructions on the A/C charge bottle are fairly accurate. First, get your engine running with the A/C system on full. This is to get the system pressurized. In my case, the air blowing out the vents was quite warm. Under the hood, locate the 2 A/C lines. The thicker one is the lower pressure line, and that's the one you want to work with. Thread off the protective cap, and connect hose from the recharge bottle to the nipple. The gauge should show you current pressure in the system. On the A4, it was negligible. Disconnect the hose from the nipple and shake the bottle. Adjust the target pressure based on ambient temperature by rotating the cover on the gauge. The ambient temperature is on the bottom and the target window is between 2 lines on the pressure-read side of the gauge. Then, re-connect the hose to the nipple, and while shifting the bottle from an upside-down orientation to horizontal, pull the trigger to dispense A/C charge into the system. I counted slowly to ten while holding the trigger and then releasing so I could see how the pressure responded. It took 3 pulls like that to get the pressure into the target pressure zone.

With the engine still running and the A/C still on full blast, check whether the temperature coming out of the vents is any better. In our case, the air was nice and cool. Solved!

Trunk

lid where latch goes

The trunk lid on the A4 used to work. The button on the trunk lid used to open it, and the button on the dash used to work as well. At some point, they stopped. Then, the trunk wouldn't stay closed for a while. T would hit a bump and the trunk would flap open and shut. Most recently, the trunk wouldn't open at all. It was effectively locked shut. Loading your trunk through the rear seats is not really viable. T had purchased a replacement lid from a junk yard, but it was gold, rather than high-gloss black.

We start our efforts by removing the carpeted inner skin of the trunk by crawling into the trunk from the passenger compartment and removing the 10 +/- Phillips head screws holding the skin to the lid. There are 2 hiding in the pull handle. Once all are removed, the panel will flop down, exposing the latch. Using a screwdriver to save my fingers, I pushed against the latch workings to get the lid to pop.

old on top

Once open, we can see what's what. It appears that there are 2 styles of latch mechanism on these trunks. The one on Nemo lacks a key-lock. The latch on the donor has one. The part that actually latches, however, is pretty much the same. And, that is the part that was not operating correctly on Nemo. The button under the dash didn't work regardless, and the button on the trunk still doesn't work, but it was the latch that was the real problem. The latch is held to the lid with 2 13mm nuts, and is activated by a lever which moves the mechanism from right to left to unlatch. In the upper picture on the right, here, you can see it's rusty end protruding from the left in the little hole. I discovered that the actual mechanisms are slightly different beyond the key / no-key difference. The point at which the lever attaches to the mechanism is not in the exact same place, so I had to re-locate the activation motor about 15mm to the left in order for the latch, when at rest, to remain closed, and open when activated.

Since the activation motor had been mounted with bolts threaded through mounting holes in the trunk, I felt uncomfortable just boring holes. Instead, I set the bolts aside and used cable-ties to set the activator in the right spot. I threaded on the replacement latch mechanism, connected the lever and set the motor. Once the cable-ties were taut, I confirmed the activation of the latch by jumping across the wires that connect to the broken-and-removed trunk switch on the dash. Several tests were followed by multiple trunk closing/opening trials before I was convinced that I had it right. I decided to leave the cable ties in-place because the right-hand bolt hole for the activation motor was over a natural hole/gap in the trunk so I couldn't effectively mount it with the old fasteners. The right edge of the hole is visible on the left edge of  that upper picture. The cable-ties should hold for a good long time as-is, even if it does feel a little janky. With the inner skin back in place, you can't see the new latch or the janky-installed activation motor, so it's all good. And, it works. I just need to replace the button on the dash. I'd like to get the button on the trunk lid to work, but there is some mystery wiring in there, and getting to that button is fairly difficult. It is possible that it is shut-out because of some lock somewhere that I haven't been able to find. German engineering strikes again.

Hood

trunk card

The hood on Nemo is the last big visual issue I wanted to improve. This is T's second A4, so I can't remember if we replaced this hood or if it was on his old one. Regardless, this hood was painted with what looks like black primer. There was no sheen. None. The rest of the car is a high-gloss black color, so the hood didn't look that great. Additionally, the front grill was also painted flat black, but over the course of many miles of driving, some of the paint had chipped, both on the grill and on the nose of he hood. It looked bad. So, off to the parts store I go to get some paint. The card in the trunk says the paint code is LY9B. The duplicolor paint-match sheet didn't have a reference to that paint code, so I got the one they DID have for black.

The hood removed very easily. The hood stand is held on with a little C-clip, and then the little post slides out. I set my tool box on the engine intake to hold the hood up, and then removed the front 2 bolts from the hinge (13mm). I loosened the rear ones before carefully removing them all the way with my fingers so I could keep control of the hood when the last bolt gave. It surprisingly didn't shift around. I moved it to a pair of sawhorses on the lawn, and proceeded to sand it with 250-grit sandpaper. I got all of the weird anomalies off, and then washed it to get all of the dust off. I felt ready to paint.

I blew 2 cans onto that hood, but the color just didn't get as dark, nor as shiny as I expected. Audi offered 2 colors of black, and the one I needed was a super-deep super-shiny black. The one I got, however, was more of a dark charcoal and sort of satin finished. I will need to paint it again, with a different, blacker, paint. Before I repaint it, I will play around with 1000 grit sandpaper and maybe a buffer to see if I can get this paint to look decent. I figure this is an opportunity to practice buffing new paint, so I will take the opportunity before painting over it. Who knows? Maybe I can get the it looking good enough that I don't re-paint it... but I doubt it. Currently, it looks like a carbon-fiber hood, which might work for some, but not most, drivers.

I think that's it for today. If the sanding buffing experiment becomes a thing, I'll post on it. Otherwise, I will probably be reverting to the Zed (1979 280ZX) after I have Nemo's hood installed. As we move deeper into September, I am feeling the pressure to get the body-filler spread and sanded. Wet season is coming! Thanks, as always, for following along.

MGB alignment

In a rare moment of peaceful reflection, I realized that when I rebuilt the front end of the MGB, I failed to perform an alignment. Today's brief post is about how to do that.

Caster, Camber and Toe
On modern cars, a front end alignment involves tweaking three different adjustments. Caster is the rotational pitch the front wheel revolves on. This is hard to put into words, but picture the front wheel on a shopping cart and how it wobbles when you get a "bad" one. Your front wheel can have the same effect, caused by the castor being off. Camber is what the tuners and drifters use for either visual effect or performance. Camber speaks to how much the top of the tires tilt away from or towards the car. Toe references how much the front or rear of the tire is closer to the center line of the car. Of the three, only Toe is adjustable on an MGB.

Frozen Nut

Like so many parts on the old bus, when I got under the MGB to loosen the lock nut on the tie rods, both nuts were frozen in-place. I applied heavy amounts of WD40 Rust Release Penetrant to break them free, but they remained stuck after soaking overnight. I continued to spray that stuff for a total of 4 days (2 applications a-day). They wouldn't budge. Grrr.. fun with rust. So, I thought this would be a great opportunity to compare various penetrating oils. I dug around my garage and found that I had Tool Box Buddy (by Lucas Oil) and the classic PB Blaster in addition to the WD40 penetrant. Experiment time!

I switched to the Tool Box Buddy. From the start, the Tool Box Buddy acted differently. The WD40 spray would land on the tie-rod threads, but mostly just drip off onto the ground. I had to spray quite a bit on there to feel like it was getting under the nut at all. In contrast, I could watch the Tool Box Buddy wick under the nut when I sprayed it on, and far less dripped onto the ground. Once I saw that, I figured the WD40 product just wasn't as well made for the task. I wanted the experiment to be fair, though so for as close a comparison as I could make, I followed the same pattern of spraying some on twice a day: morning and night. I realize that it is possible that there could have been some residual benefit from the WD40, but considering how immobile the nuts were before switching, I don't think there was much. After 4 applications of the Tool Box Buddy, I tried to move the nuts. They still wouldn't budge, or more accurately, no matter how firm a grip I put on the tie-rod, it would still move in the grips when I put pressure on the nut. So I went a different way.

I hit the neighborhood Ace Hardware and got 2 9/16" fine-thread nuts ($0.85US each). I completely loosened the clamp holding the rubber boots and then lifted the front wheels off the ground. I then turned the tie-rod until it separated from the tie-rod end, and threaded the 2 new nuts on the end. I snugged the 2 nuts together, locking the outer nut from moving inward. I put a 7/8" socket on the outer nut, clicked in a breaker bar for torque and then started working on the frozen locknut with my 7/8" spanner. With a little more encouragement from the Tool Box Buddy, the nut loosened up. I continued to apply Tool Box Buddy on the area where the nut had been frozen, while moving the nut over the area again and again. Finally, the grooves were clear of whatever was causing the issue. Once cleared, I removed the old nuts and threaded the 2 new ones on. While I could have re-used the original nuts, I figured they would probably seize again. To reduce that probability with the new nuts and the tie-rod ends, I slathered copper anti-seize on the threads before re-assembling.

How to Measure Toe
With the lock nuts threaded back a few threads, you're ready to adjust. First, you need to know where your current state is. The car needs to be on the ground with the wheels pointing as straight-forward as you can manage. The steering wheel should be pretty much straight as well, but it's most important that the tires are pointing as forward as possible. Unless you have a high-riding car, you will probably have body and other parts between the mid-points of your tires. So, you can't just measure between the 9:00 and 3:00 positions like we did on the bus. We need some crafty thinking.

So, grab a Carpenter's Square, some blue painters tape and a pen. You will be making 4 tape/pen marks. For each tire, set the carpenter's square against the inside of the front-most bit of rim and the rear-most bit of rim, with the other end flat on the floor. To make sure my square was pointing at the right angle, I put a broom handle against the tires and aligned the ends of the square parallel to the handle. Put a spot of tape under the end of the square on the floor so you have an inch or so on either side (left-to-right) of the end of the carpenter's square. Then, mark on the tape with a pen where the edge of the square sits on the tape. Repeat until you have 4 pieces of tape, each with a pen mark on them, to indicate where the square end was. Next, measure between the front pair and the rear pair of lines. Write those numbers down. Add them together and divide by 2. The result is the number you should have if you want no toe-in, no toe-out. Some cars are supposed to run that way. The MGB is more like the VW bus in that it needs a slight toe-in to handle best. For the MGB, the rear measurement should be 1/16 of an inch larger. On my MGB, the front was a full inch larger, so I had some pigeon-toe happening.

Adjust Toe
Since the tie-rods on the MGB are ahead of the axles, I needed to shorten my rods. This is done by threading the rod more deeply into the rod ends through rotating rods. With each rotation, the rods will move a little bit, but recognize that for each fraction of an inch the front moves, the rear moves as well, so move it a little and then repeat the carpenter's square measure method a few times. Because the carpenter square method is a little crude, expecting to get to within 1/16 of an inch is improbable. My goal was to get it as close as I could.

Test Drive
My prior test drive was interrupted by spongy brakes, which persist, but not as much as before. Maybe the air is working it's way out. The steering on that drive was not as crisp as I wanted, which is what prompted my considering the alignment, and had me remember that I never did it after all the front end work. Like any test after alignment, it is best to start with very slow driving, in your driveway, expanding the distance and speed slowly. I followed that pattern just as I did with the old bus. Now, with the front end aligned, and all the other front end work completed (refurbished front beam with all new bushings, new front shocks, new tie-rod ends, cleaned and re-greased steering..) I can really feel how this little car was designed to feel. Highly responsive steering, but there's some pitch or body-roll in the corners. Before I think about the sway bar, I need to replace the tires. The roll could simply be from the tire sidewall starting to fail, and these tires were old when I bought the rims.

That's it for today. Thanks, as always, for following along-

Snap Ring Pliers review

I don't usually review tools.  Usually, I research a bunch and then pick whatever the interweb tells me to buy.  I wasn't able to get a good direction from the web for Snap Ring Pliers, so I bought a couple pairs and experimented.  Today's brief post summarizes those experiments.

Why Bother?

In my previous post, I talked about solving a leaking oil seal.  Some of my research on that issue pointed me to believe that the input shaft was loose and needed to be removed and re-installed.  To do that, a circlip needs to be backed off so a thick lock-ring can be pulled back (see picture to the right. The input shaft rises from the center of the picture to the left).  Then, the input shaft can be threaded off the reverse gear.  First step in that process requires a pair of Snap Ring Pliers.

Size
Some things about the old Volksies are very well documented on the web.  Arguably, some are over documented.  If you want to know what kind of oil to run, for example, you can go through literally hundreds of opinions.  Tires are equally well-opinion'd.  Getting something as simple as the size of the tip needed to remove the circlip on the input shaft, however, can sometimes prove impossible.  Hours of searching netted no useful information.  The size is 0.07 (US), by the way.  This is the largest size available in the standard multi-tip Snap Ring Pliers sets, and individual pliers with fixed-size tips can be found.

NAPA

boink! tip fail.

Off to the friendly local auto parts store (FLAPS), I went to find a pair that would work.  Since I'm only really doing this once, I didn't want a spendy pair, just some that would do the job.  So, I tried the tip-adjustable set available at NAPA.  Using the largest tip (0.07), I was unable to open the circlip wide enough to get the circlip out of its seating channel without the tip failing.  The tips are held on with small Phillips head bolts pressing a removable plate against the plier arm.  The removable plate is slightly bent, presumably to best fit the tip on, but the engineering is flawed such that the final bit of torque needed to hold the tip is robbed from you by the curve of the plate.  Neat.  I tried to undermine that torque-robbery by jamming a finish nail under the plate on the opposite side of the bolt, increasing the torque on the tip.  That didn't work either.

mod no worky

Net-result: not good for this job.  Maybe, if the circlip you need to remove requires less than 10 foot-pounds of torque it would suffice, but for real automotive situations, its junk.

Husky
After setting the NAPA pliers aside, I hit Home Depot looking for a pair of Husky one-size-only 0.07 Snap Ring Pliers.  While their web site showed that they were in stock at the store (for $13), neither I nor the clerk could find them.  I'd love to review them, but instead I offer just a head-shaking at Home Depot.  Either offer the product or don't; don't post it on your web site if you don't have it.  Boo.

Channel Lock

Channel Lock works!

Home Depot did have Channel Lock 927 Snap Ring Pliers (for, like $23).  These are multi-tip pliers like the NAPA ones, but are clearly better made.  They are much heavier.  They have a flip-switch to set inner or outer ring direction.  Oh, they're made in the US, so somewhere my countryman benefited from my buying them, so that's nice.  But do they work for this?  Why, yes, they do.  Unlike the NAPA pair, the ring easily opened up enough to slip out of the channel and out of the way.  Like the NAPA, Channel Lock 927's are sold with a collection of smaller tips, and are delivered with the largest (0.07) already installed.  This made the test easy, removing the possibility of me putting the tips in wrong.  I didn't bother removing and re-installing to see how bad it was, but the engineering is very different.  Unlike the NAPA which has a plate screwed on, leveraging the friction created to hold the tip in place, the Channel Lock has a hole in the plier arm to slide the tip into.  The securing bolt simply prevents the tip from falling out, so the arms need to be able to support far less torque.  The arms are much thicker too, implying that they can handle far more pressure than the NAPA tool could.

In the end, I didn't need to remove and re-install my input shaft.  After I installed the oil slinger and input shaft seal (see: Transaxle Re-Assembled), I re-tested the wiggle in the input shaft.  It barely moved.  I concluded that the input shaft was appropriately loose, and some additional digging into theSamba verified that conclusion.  I'm keeping the Channel Lock's with the car tools, and returning the NAPA's.

That's it for today.  I'm working on a post summarizing the engine-trans re-mating as well as the adventure of raising the engine-tranny unit back into the bus.