Aircooled VW South Africa

I clamped the old bush in the mole grips to take it off the tap.
Checked that the new bush did in fact fit the starter, I then used a nut, bolt & 2 washers to pull the new bush into the gearbox bell housing:-

Removed the old rubber hose & collets off my Bosh injectors, I then fitted new hose along with proper fuel hose clamps:-



All the fuel hose is now finished on the engine, its all new top quality stuff with proper fuel hose clips as opposed to the jubilee clips which damages the hose:-

Cut some of the outer sheathing off the loom, where it has gone brittle, luckily all the cabling underneath is OK, I've now put shrink wrap on all the bits I could fit it on:-







I've now also fitted all of the vacuum hoses to their correct locations. I'm going to tidy up the cables going to the coil & then the engine is ready.

This is how my engine bay is looking at the moment:-


Tomorrow I'm going to ankor wax the fuel tank area & refit the petrol tank. I'll also fit the tank cover & prep the engine bay for paint on Wednesday.

I've now mated my starter motor to the gearbox:-

Although its not leaking I've decided to change the gearbox input shaft oil seal, as I've got a new clutch I don't want to take any chances:-








What you basically need to do to remove the seal is to collapse one side of it without damaging the shaft or the gearbox case. I do this by hammering in a screwdriver at the edge leaving the outer rubber seal against the gearbox case so you don't damage it. I then cleaned out the hole & pushed in the new seal by hand using well seal as lubrication & as an extra seal.
I've also fitted a new thrust bearing & lubricated the shaft that it slides on with the grease provided in the clutch kit.

Look at the state of the gearbox oil, I think you'll agree its about time it was changed:-
I've left it to drain over night & I'll fill with the correct grade & correct quantity tomorrow. I was a bit puzzled by the shape of the drain plug when I pulled it out, it looked like a totempole but then I realized it was iron filings probably from the gearbox cogs.
I don't have any gearbox issues & hopefully I haven't introduced any by draining & replacing the oil.
I am going to use 3.5L SAE80 Hypoid gear oil.

Some more pics of the engine, please look close & if you see anything wrong let me know:-

The engine is now ready to mate back to the gearbox, I've tidy'd a few of the wires & protected others better. If you see any mistakes please let me know.

Exhaust refitted with new gasket & nuts all threads coated with coppereaze:-



A bit of extra cable conduit to protect the cables & make them look neater:-



I had a dodgy electrical connection here which had started to melt, now its soldered & heatshrunk, its the connection from the alternator to the starter motor:-



Where does this lonely white cable spade go, is it the earth point?




I think these 2 cables join here?



Where does this cable go, its not clear but its the one off the relay square plug:-

This is broken, where can I get a replacement?



This is split, where can I get a replacement



This is the oil I've bought I put 1 Litre it & left it for an hr, put a second Litre in left it another hr after then it was obvious I have no leaks so I put the oil just over the top mark on the dipstick, once I turn the engine over a few times I'll leave it settle & check the levels again:-



The old air filter wasn't to bad but I changed it anyway:-

The fuel tank is back in & I've ankorwax'd all the tank bay top & bottom.
I've replace all of the fuel & breather pipes with new good quality hose & proper clips:-







This is the one that everybody can't find & forgets about, my old one was very very bad & just tore off in my hand.

The gearbox is now all lacquer'd & its full of oil:-



I used Molyslip:-



Followed by 3L of this oil:-



The Manual said 3.5L but I had the box sitting level & it started to trickle out at 3L so I'll take the 4th L I bought back saving myself £9.99

My M8 Ian came today to paint my engine bay we've decided not to do the whole bay, just the section the welding shop wrecked. Looks good now & it's an excellent colour match:-

With the fuel tank strap I've decided the easiest thing to do is to clean up the broken part & weld it back up. My brother Richard is a very good welder but he hates doing it, luckily I persuaded him to weld the strap:-






I didn't think it would be a good idea to grind the weld down as the strength is important.

Engine & box are now reunited:-





I'm now in a very good mood.

Bolted down my other fuel tank strap, I tightened it all the way & my weld held.
I've replaced the earth cable for the fuel sender as the insulation had broken down on the old one for some strange reason & I've refitted the firewall:-




Jacked Milly up & put her on ramps, wheeled the engine/box combo under the bus...



& in she goes.




The drive shafts are on so tomorrow after work, I'll finish all the little bits off & see if I can get her running.