Transaxle Removal

Let's see... the last time I attempted this I realized that I needed some help.  Either a guide, For Dummies book, whatever - the typed directions I was finding on the internet did no good.  I did manage to find this gem of a DVD series called Bug Me.  The 5th DVD is about the transaxle removal, rebuild, CV joints, etc...

Visual learners rejoice!!! For about $30 this can be yours too.  Believe me this really is worth it! This will show you step by step what to do - well almost.
You'll need some more tools, if you don't have them already.  A 36mm socket, with a 1/2 drive breaker bar, and a 8 mm little open end wrench, plus a homemade piece of metal (I'll explain later)

The DVD does a good job of showing how to disconnect the clutch wire, brake lights connection, and demos the separation of the nose mount in the tunnel area to transaxle stem.  This was the hardest part for me, since it didn't want to come loose from the transaxle.  I ended up having to take the thing apart, which still didn't release the transaxle.  It was during that process that I had to make a piece of bracing that was wide enough to stop the 8mm screw from turning. Strange they didn't show that one on the video.

Next came unbolting three bolts behind the brake drums.  He shows how and tells you need to also take off the bottom shock bolt but, alas, he doesn't show that.  You can't completely remove one of the bolts unless you take out the shock bottom bolt first.

In the picture, it's the bolt that is at the bottom of the rubber conical bumper that is almost impossible to remove with the bottom shock bolt still attached. Now you take off the drum, and remove the four bolts that hold the backing plate.
Yes, the brake drum must come completely off the axle.  IT WILL LEAK.  And what came out, smelled really foul!
It's at this point that I had to keep yanking on the transaxle to loosen and finally break free from that shifting mount in the tunnel.
From, there's it try to steady the odd shaped transaxle so you can lift above the bars it sits on and lower it to the ground.  I don't have a transmission mount and the motorcycle jack is too big. So I improvised with a piece of wood.

Once cleared, I lowered it, took it off the jack and placed on two 2X4s so the clutch wouldn't get damaged.  Now, it's time to clean.

I used cardboard underneath because the spray from the engine bright cleaner was going to go everywhere if I wasn't careful.

Here you see a new grounding strap is going to be needed.

After a couple hours if scrapping with a knife, scouring with a pad, and wiping with some shop towels, I can actually see the serial numbers.  This was painted black at one point in time. One of the boots looks like it will need to be replaced pretty soon.  I think now is a good time.

Reinstall the Seats

New fiberglass pans plus a 3 inch lift means trouble for making the Bradley GT II seats still fit.  The seats have an overlap on the door side.  I guess they call this an arm rest.  The original plan called for using several different size brackets with mounting to the pan and body.  The advice I was given was to buy the original Bradley GT seats, no arm rests and then they will fit. The second thing that hinders your progress is the way the sliders are mounted.  They are on the sides.  This creates about 19 inches of width and you really only have 17 to play with.  What's the solution...put the sliders elsewhere.

I was browsing a couple sites to see how much new seats would cost ($160 each - OUCH!!!) when I saw some real fancy sliders that were mounted underneath the seat on a metal frame.  OK, I like this idea.  I played with it a couple days and came up with this idea to use treated lumber and L brackets. I used 2X4s at 17 inches.  The bolts were 5/16 X 2 1/2 inches with lock washers and really big washers underneath the fiberglass and stop washers all the way around.

Those are 5 inch L brackets that were mounted to the side of the seat.  You can from the shape underneath that no matter what you do you have to get around that curved bottom.  Since there's plenty of cushion you don't feel the bolts in the sides at all.  All the hardware cost around $40.  I did have to bore out the holes I was using on the L brackets so the sliders bolts would marry to them.  It took most of the day, partly because I checked and double checked before I cut fiberglass.

I will need to lengthen the slider arm that allows you to slide the seat forward and back.  I positioned the seat farther back than what it was since I'm 6 feet tall.  The slider arm needs about 7 inches more that what I have.  I did see a knob that you can buy. So, I lost about an inch in height of the 3 inch lift because of the 2X4s.  However, when I sit in the car and close the gull wing door, I have plenty of headroom and can see over the hood without losing the skyline, like I had before.  I only did the driver's side for the time being, I'll tackle the passenger side in the future.

Installing the New Fiberglass Pans

The instructions make it sound so easy...right!  The article from a hot rod magazine which described the process was much better than the instructions.  1. Jack up the car on four jack stands.  And I mean as high as you can go, if you have a fear of tight spaces maybe use a hoist? 2. I used a motorcycle jack and a small 2X4 block of wood to steady the pan into position. They suggested a "really nice person" hold the pan while you drill.  I guarantee they won't be really nice after a half hour of holding that pan in place - use the motorcycle jack!

Next you start to drill holes.  Use two drills, one with a 5/32 bit and the other with a Phillips attachment.  There's a tab on the back of the pan that grounds to the existing pan frame.  Make sure this is lined up.  My first screw was next to that area. You'll notice the pans are an almost exact mold of the original.  You need to drill where the pan overlaps the edge of the tunnel.  Place screws every 2 inches.  I tried drilling from the top and that nasty tar paper kept rubbing into my drill - yuck.

I wanted to use the existing railing from the old pans to help reinforce the edge of the new fiberglass pans.  To do this they had to be cut off and shortened by about an inch on each end. What happened was this plan worked on the passenger side but not the driver's side.  And I don't know why...

Ok, the pict is upside down but you can see how the railing on the passenger side did work. To compensate, for no railing on the driver's side, I screwed some more screws from underneath, through the fiberglass, gasket and into the bottom of the lift kit. 

WARNING: move the brake line on the driver's side before you start drilling holes into the tunnel area.  The line is held in place with some tabs that are easily pryed with a flat head screwdriver.  I didn't do this and hit the brake line - oops!

The screw went up and drove right into the brake line sending brake fluid everywhere.  Oh well, just another thing to fix in this continuing saga.
I had to take a long drill bit and go from the body, through the lift, to drill a hole for the bolt to go through underneath. I know I mentioned this before, but I had to switch to 5/16 X 4 1/2 inch bolts.  I used stop nuts and the original body washers and tightened them up.

The lift kit didn't quite make the exact fit I was hoping for.  You can see the gap, next to the Made in Taiwan sticker.
Here's the final product - pans that won't rust and after sitting on them, I'm confident they'll hold.

Cutting out the Pans

Oh, those rusty, dusty pans.  Here's what the replacements look like - fiberglass.

Really, it's fiberglass - they look like they've been weathercoated on the bottom.

Here you can see the interior side.  Yes, there are many Nay Sayers when it comes to fiberglass pans.  There are quite a few discussions where folks blast them to kingdom come.  Well, many of them DON'T live where it tends to rain a lot.  And besides, they are cheaper - especially when you add the cost of having to hire someone to weld metal pans in.  Did you know welders get $60 an hour?  Man, am I in the wrong line of work! (Just kidding, I like the Air Force)

Step one, put the entire car up on jack stands.  Step two, assess where you need to cut by holding the fiberglass pan underneath the chassis.  Step three, select your tool of choice.  Most folks recommend a Sawsall.  I used an angle grinder.  This worked very well and was smooth.  As with any use of a powertool make sure you take the right safety precautions.  This meant opening my garage door so the smoke wouldn't flood the area and I also wore a mask.  Safety glasses and gloves are necessary too.  This tool will blow hot sparks and fine pieces of metal everywhere.

One pan out and one to go.  At this point I took a break and actually enjoyed vacuuming the floor.  The way this rust builds up is so messy.

YeeHaw!  Both pans are history.  I had noticed earlier, on the driver's side, there was this bolt from the underside with a square nut.  No matter how hard I tried to get that off, it wouldn't budge.  So...I cut it out.  Much to my surprise, it wasn't attached to anything. You want to take a close look at the next slide.  I managed to cut out the driver's side with the pedals in place and just missed the brake line that travels from the hood area to the tunnel.  Lucky, lucky!!!

I kept the metal railing from the old pans as the new pans should fit right underneath. Normally you would cut those out as well.  It just seemed to me that this would make the pans even stronger.  We'll see whether or not they have to come out when I stall the new pans. Now, I'll go back over the edges with a grinding wheel to smooth out them out, then probably use the wire brush attachment to prep the main tunnel area underneath for a rustoleum coat.  Then, I'll start installing the new fiberglass pans.  WooHoo!!

Front Coil-over Shocks

Just as I expected, the front shocks were awful.  Time to replace them with some shocks that will be able to handle the extra load. (200 lbs of batteries)

 Out with the old and in with the new. Hey, that's just like the New Year!
So, what can go wrong when changing your shocks?  First there's the chance that the upper control arm can be completely rusted beyond control.  Not in this case.
Second, the bushing can get rusted to the permanently attached bolt.  BINGO!!  And that happened on ech side.  More than likely due to the age of the car and the shocks.

OK, you have to tilt your head to see it but the metal sleeve of the bushing is frozen to the lower control arm bolt.  Only penetrating oil and time can really fix this.  Worse case scenario, I break out the torch and see if heat will work.  Last resort, cut the darn thing off with my angle grinder and go from there.

When you go to take off the top bolt the entire upper part of the shock will turn with it.  A pair of vice grips comes in handy to hold the shaft in place while you turn a wrench, of some type, on the top nut.

OK, time and penetrating oil DID NOT work.  Some advice I got was 1. use heat ( a minute with a torch didn't do anything) 2. find the pin that holds the bolt in the lower torsion arm ( I found the pin and guess what?  It's not moving b/c it's rusted too.) 3. Grind away - and that was the solution.  Grind the sleeve down until you see you've made it all the way down to the bolt. 

Then I used my favorite gripper tool with a 3lb sledge hammer and turned it.  Once I saw rust, I applied penetrating oil and twisted a full rotation or two more.  Then I used  a large screwdriver to pry it open, twisted some more, then cut the end that I couldn't reach earlier with the grinder and voila, it come off. 

The new shocks look very nice.

Lift 'em Up! The Final Chapter

This kit DID NOT come with instructions.  In addition, most links you see on the web apply toward removing the body completely.  I saw on BradleyGT.com where someone had lifted his GT using a series of wooden 2X4s - this great if you have a Bradley GT.  I have a GT II and that method won't work.  Why?  The GT is lighter and has clearance to run a 2X4 under the wheel wells, you can't do this with a GT II.  The GT II manual suggests you use a hoist and lift from the bumpers.  Now I did see where a GT II owner lifted his car with jacks only six inches to insert the lift - this is the direction I wanted to go.  Another decision I made was to use two gaskets, one on the top of the lift and one on the bottom - it rains a lot in WA state.  However, if you decide to do this, you'll need to use longer bolts!

As pictured above, I used a motorcycle lift on a heavy duty cart and this worked very well.  Most floor jacks won't go high enough, and when you put 2X4s underneath a floor jack it moves the body out of alignment from the chassis.  The cart idea allows you to move the body with wheels so things can line up. Still, I had to use a couple 2X4s on top of the motorcycle jack and then position it underneath the bumper to get the clearance I needed.

After jacking up the car and placing jacks underneath, I started by removing the rust on the outer edges and on top of the rails of the pans.  Using a wire brush attachment to my electric drill, I managed to scrap off what rust I could. (SAFETY: wear a mask, rust can cause all kinds of problem especially if you're inhaling the junk!) Then I sprayed with rustoleum to stop the rust and hopefully give it a little more strength. 

*Note: If you plan on replacing the pans, you'll also replace the sides too.  I didn't know this, now I do....live and learn, live and learn. *sigh* While this was drying, I took the time to brush the aluminum washers that attach the bolts to the underside of the frame - they were also rusted, and spray painted those as well.

YOU MUST ATTACH THE FRONT OF THE FRAME FIRST!  (I found this out the hard way - ARGH!!)  The front of the lift won't need a bottom gasket since it slips right over the existing hump.  That's what makes it so hard to install.  If the sides are there first, it won't attach - trust me on this.  I used painter's tape to attach the gasket to the top of the lift just to keep it from falling off.  You don't get a lot of room to play with, so this simplifies the installation.  Now pre-drill the holes for the bolts in the gasket. Place the front lift portion over the existing front of the chassis or as I refer to it as the "hump." Next, get the bolts through the body and frame so they line up.  Granted they won't go all the way through.

I pretty much did the same procedure for the sides except I bought about a dozen 1 inch 5/16 bolts, washers and nuts and used them to secure the bottom of the lift to the frame temporarily to hold the bottom gasket in place and line up the frame with the bottom holes.  You can see below how I used tape to keep the gaskets in place while I placed the lift railing in place.  Then I drilled a few holes from the body through the top gasket and stuck some of the bolts in so I could how far off the alignment was off, plus this helps to keep the top gasket in place.

In my 1967 pan, the rear portion of the frame had threaded nuts that were welded to the bottom of the railing underneath the chassis.  These were not going to work with the metric bolts I was given, let alone be a royal pain in the @##.  I drilled through the threads using a little larger drill bit until I could easily get the bolt through.  Once again I used two of my 1 inch bolts to keep the rear lift in place. Then drilled from the top for the other two bolts and got them positioned as well.

As I lowered the car, I kept watching to see if I was lining up or not.  A well positioned shove and push while my blushing bride press the pedal to lower helped coordinate the effort.  I stopped with a half inch to go and drilled the top gasket and positioned the remaining bolts through the body to the lift.  From there it was lower all the way and then I drilled through the bottom gasket, from the bottom up, to get the bolts all the way through.  Use the special VW washers to attach the nuts from underneath the car- (the nuts were not included in the kit, BTW metric nuts cost more!)

My final step, after the new pans are in place, is to seal along the edge with a weathercoat to help seal any gaps that didn't seal correctly.

Steering Column PT I

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!

Taking out the steering column isn't fun.  First, there's the whole scrape up your hands while you're turning wrenches under the hood area then laying flat on your back, hoping the rusty pans won't give way, while you are struggling with little bolts that only contortionists should only have to deal with.

What's the point in removing the steering column?  I need to adapt a U-joint system so I can make that 3 inch lift work.  The original column is a straight shot - approx 38 inches total that lines up exactly with the steering spline.  (Don't ask me how many splines are on the darn thing, my magnifying glass won't let me get that small. But a rough estimate would be 60?)

This shows the steering box spline connection and the rubber gasket having been removed.  There's 4 bolts to take that out. 

As you can see, this gasket was probably NOT going to last much longer anyway.  There was another snag in disconnecting the collar above this gasket.  There was a metal tab that locked the bolt in place.  I used a punch and hammer to bend it back so I could turn an open end wrench.  Once the hood area connections were unbolted I moved to the driver's area.  It's a good idea to have the seat out because the best way to unbolt those connections is laying flat on your back.  I used a rug so I wouldn't be laying directly in the rusty pans.  You'll notice in the picture below that there are 4 wires on one side and 6 on the other coming out of the column.  Make sure you mark what those wires connect to.  I drew a diagram. And don't forget the ground wire that's attached to the column as well.

Two small bolts hold the steering column to the dash.  This is tricky, due to the tight space, and required two open end #11 wrenches.  Then, there's four bolts that mount the column to and through the firewall.  I used a 7/16.  You see above that the previous owner used wood to help compensate for a shortfall with the original metal bracket.  I hope to find a rubber square to fill in the gap.

Once the column was on it's way out I had to struggle with wires that were on top of and underneath the column getting tangled up.  Finally, it was out.  Whew!

This gives you a better idea of what the whole assembly looked like.  Next I cut off the collapsible part with my angle grinder.  This will give me about 12 inches to mount two u-joints with a shaft in between.  I will cut part of that new 3/4 twelve inch shaft so I can marry to the original 7/8 shaft after the top U-joint.  I will more than likely have everything spot welded.  Here's the final pict after the cut. A smooth 3/4 piece of that shaft I ordered should slide right in.

I'm ordering the U-joints and shaft from appleetreeauto.com because they had the best selection at prices I could afford.  The total cost of this modification will be $90.  This is a best economic solution to the suggested Flaming River tilt steering column ($250) and Borgeson U-joints and shaft ($175).

Part II will be hooking it all up and hoping I ordered the right parts. : )