Nose cones

So why was my gearbox being pushed back? after a little detective work, it seems that with any early bus, ie before 59 that issues can arise with the front nose cone and mounting bracket for this area when installing a later gearbox.

check out the difference in these diagrams

below is early type (pre 1959/60 or up to chassis number 469505

 below is the later from chassis number 469506

It was pretty easy to find an adapter / front mount, this is what I found first from Type 2 detectives.

 "Heavy duty solid front gearbox mount for pre 1960 bus" link here

66.00

Then I found this from buttys bits

28.00

But although both of these mounts seem thinner then my set up just now, they still have issues with pushing out the box a bit, plus these are hard mounted meaning - possible vibration and for sure all that gearbox whirring will be passed through the nose cone and into the rear frame of the bus...

also whats going to happen when lining up the shift rod? issues I can see arising there too...

I kept looking around,  checking out the standard mounts and differences and searching forums for similar problems, I found some and sussed out that replacing what I have with a hard mount like those above was infact going to be a step in the wrong direction for our bus build.

and then I came across the following two mounts which is what I was looking for, the first I had seen before but couldn't remember where ... maybe in a past issue of Volksworld magazine.

Wagenwest in the USA of course !

 I also came across this one from Concept 1 in Canada

So the Wagenwest answer to the problem is the one I went for, the description says it all and because I have just had a brand new nose cone fitted, so do not really need to be buy another modified version (as in the concept 1 solution) .

If I had seen the concept 1 solution before I had the gearbox overhauled I probably would have chosen it -  I managed to ordered this via wagenwest website very quickly this morning before work - looking forward to it receiving it and getting on with the install.

Wagen west´s discription :

"Pre 59 bus nose cone adapter kit"

"This kit makes it so you can install a tunnel case transmission into your early bus, 1959 and down.
This adapter will not push your transmission back, like the other adapters on the market !!!!!!!!
Made with Polyurethane to help insulate the transmission from the bus, this helps keep the noise down in the cab and cargo area.
Kit comes with one Wagenswest lollipop mount and retainer plate.
This Lollipop is a simple solution to an age old problem.
Your type II nose cone will need to be trimmed to fit, like the photo in this add  "

This does leave bit of a dilemma for me though - what do I do with the bus while I wait for it to come here?

 I think I need to get the bus off the ramp as its stuck there until I can get the rear and front suspension on and I don't want to hog peka´s car ramp....
two options as I see it,  Take my wheel Dolley´s over and see if I can sit the bus on these, then at least we can move the bus from the ramp and Peka can use it, also it might mean that peka can get the shell into the paint booth ?

or take away the front mount now and install the box, axle arms, spring plates etc and loosly fit everything just for transpotation around the work shop, maybe I can wedge the front nose cone into place, or use the set up I have now but not bolted up?

Find out on Thursday which is when I can next get over to the bus.

One of those days

After a day sick on Friday I was surprised to feel much better on Saturday morning- so with no time to waste I met up with peka at the garage
 he was already there - rebuilding his BBQ

The first thing peka told me when I came in was that he had flipped the front mount, just as I had thought to do and written on my last blog post ! So it was now in -
cool!

I then set about the steering pin install, so I started to ream the front beam steering pin bushes,
First I used the tool from Rainier, I gave it a few passes but the pin still would nt slide right up and in?

So Peka lent me his calipers and we measured the pin and then while he looked for his reamer, I looked for the ones I had, turns out I had an adjustable one left by my brother when he had to do his on his slamdamaticbarndoor - Anyway I adjusted this up and gave it a pass, got to say it didn't feel so good, soon I found out that I had taken a bit too much off, now the pin fits but not as snug as i would have liked, not too bad either, Will see how this feels when its greased up and fully assembled.

So after cleaning up the tools, I headed to the back end of the bus to carry on installing the rear suspension parts, Happy with thr axles, so now I looked at fitting the spring plates and maybe even getting the axles bolted to them, however it was soon apparent that things were not lining up like they should do, The rear cradle mounts on the gearbox were out, and so I very carefully tightened up and  bolted up what I could, being carefull of the order in which doing so, but soon I realized that the rear mount was out, at first i thought simply to adapt the mount but after leaving the garage and giving it more thought and a little looking into on the net I came to the conclusion that the nose cone mount could be better....

 

 Its something left from Dicks set up (former owner), so I called Dick and asked him a few questions, and he told me that he did a lot of swearing when he was installing the rear parts, I didn't tell him that I have replaced it all, not the right thing to say after that comment : ) He also said he had found the old rear window glass, nice! and that i had better go by his some time to pick up the stuff.

 This whole re work of the back end all started when I realized his set up had issues with tire clearance to spring plate and the fact that the old spring plates are "old school" cut up originals that I didnt fancy rolling on, his set up was linked with a bus boys type set up using spacers and short axles and early type 3 hubs, all this was not really ideal for me and it was of course none adjustable meaning wheel removal would be a hassle to say the least, so it wasn't a too difficult decision to sort it out....

The result is the replacing everything, but of course up until now not the nose cone mount !!! yep it looks like I need a different mount too, id over looked this and just thought that it would work seems the one I have from Dicks set up pushes out the box,  it could be a reason why the frame horn bolts had been stripped a bit? 

 

I have now looked around and seen one that should work from ....T2D

 it looks as though it will draw the whole gearbox 10- 15 mm nearer the front of the bus - this would mean all the other bolts line up where they should in relation, instead of pushing the box back in the bus as it is now - sorted, I hope.

So I need to call Paul in the morning and see what he says? and if he can get a gearbox nose cone mount shipped out to me ASAP, a good time to check in on the whereabouts of my front wheel bearings too.

not lined up...

new t2d spring plates

Other stuff that's been happening, Victor just came by with his super nice fasty... got me thinking about air jackers

Nearly in

Noticed that if I flip the front nose cone mount that it might get the 5 mm I'm looking for to line up the nose cone with the bolts and gear shift rod tube.

Gasket making and nose cone clearance

After many trial fits and having to make another gasket to shim I'm finally happy with the clearance of the axle tubes to gearbox .

run the new tap through and cleaned up the threads, now the new bolts run perfect.

removing Aluminium from the nose cone for needed clearence

Bearings and bolts.

First up Paul at type 2 detectives got straight back to me regarding the missing front wheel bearings - these are hopefully on there way from csp Germany right now.

I went to Rainier´s after work, drank some coffee and dissed modern cars ; )
I had popped over to his too pick up the frame horn / gearbox mount bolts that I desperately need right now - He quickly found me 2x old stock m18x 1.5 frame horn bolts and he kindly leant me the reamer for the beam steering pin an original VW tool.

Bussfest - miss it, miss out!

Check out Lelle´s design for this years Busfest !

So what is  BUSSFEST?

Its essentially a yearly weekend gathering of people and there VW buses, it is held by the Nordiska Typ 2 klubben.
The N2TK (as its known in short) is a bunch of VW bus freaks, I mean people, who are mainly residing and living in Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Norway ie the Nordics.

From the very beginning in 2002, the club has had a board, who help in running the club, website, forum, events etc. The board has changed over the years and changes as people step up or down from duties, this happens every year at the AGM.
 
check out the rides at the first Bussfest in 2002 here

 I think from that very first meeting something a little unique was born, Bussfest would be held in a different place every year. It is the perfect "obvious" idea for people who love traveling and exploring in VW buses, all type 2´s are welcome and encouraged to join, from barndoors to the latest T5 from VW - old and new it doesn't matter - The date stays the same but the place always changes.



 Our first Bussfest was in 2007 - it was on the island of öland - 20-22 of July
from Enköping - Nicko and Anna in their bus, we went in Kent and Lena bus, I cant remember what reason we didn't have our own bus to go in at the time`
Me, suz and Travis slept in a tent at the meeting wishing we were in a bus instead....

Kent in His red swampy, and Anna and Nicko in their grey late bay Bosse

Suz and newly born Travis

longbord

The long table is a tradition of the meeting, bring your table, your chairs, your food and your drink then raise a few glasses - you will soon get the hang of saying cheers that is for sure, now in a variety of languages.

Last year the club stepped out side of sweden and showed its a club that goes the distance. We converged this time to the East side, in the middle of the Baltic sea is Åland this meant that the Finish VW van fans had a shorter drive, in fact so did we, just a couple of three hours to get to the ferry from home and then a boat cruise, couple of hours and then we were there, off the ferry and heading across the island is pursuit of our destination,  and it was one of the nicest drives and a fair well to our old og 77 westy "Duffy" one of our top 2 buses ever owned, a dam fine campervan. Anyway It was held on Mariehamn, on Åland, its the biggest of the thousands of island that are scattered in the archipelago between the two countries, of course with a place set its just about adding buses and this year for the first time ever we got there early, we were one of the first and that made for an even better experience then last years.

run for the timer pic

 2013

Gopro captures stuff like no other camera has ever done before - period.

But this year we got there early, and picked a beautiful spot right next to the beach

The Norwegian lot as I like to collectively call them showed up and camped near to us and made the distance look easy, this year they don't have so far to go - that's the spirit of the meeting, and it really makes it. Kent and Lena showed up from a road trip across England, yes England and back up to Sweden, then past their home and up on to Åland, and won best bay ; )
and next to us was our friend "Chilled Dan" who keeps his van safe at ours over winter was our neighbor for the weekend - Its the nice blue and white late bay high top with bike rack.

Travis and Lewis will never forget Captain Jack sparrow

Busspush - "someones gonna get hurt"

Heading home slowly

Anyhow it was a real nice bussfest and of course like no other before!




So Busfest is in Norway this year.....

whats it like?

The answer is no idea, and that's precisely why I have come to believe its the best meeting in the world.

 Some standard features of Bussfest

1.
Tips promenade  - that's a bunch of questions, VW bus related of course, some for the adults and some for the kids, you walk around answer the questions and look to see where the next one is placed, then at the end you drop the answers through the window of a bus and await fame and glory on Sunday when someone reads out your name and crowns you this years super bus geek and Kid!

 2. Bus push
Saturday afternoon is when its time for the showdown - you get to enter your own team, It can be as many as you like, although more is not always the winning formula -  Its like the 1/4 mile drag strip, but only there is no horse power, just human. The fastest time wins - and a special prize and of course the fame and glory.

3. Long table
Held on the Saturday afternoon/early evening. People return to there buses, and start rummaging around, out come the barbeques, the food, the beers, the wine, the tables which get pulled out normally into the road, then chairs and slowly linking together a huge long table appears - soon the table is buzzing, and everyone has a right good old camp cooked dinner together, then the cheers are wished and the whole thing moves up and down the table like a Mexican wave, it continues in to the night and beyond.

4. Best 5 buses
On the Sunday after cleaning lasts night´s festivities from the camp ground and the heads! Its time to make your way to the meeting point, here we gather to see who had the best type2, in classes of Split, Bay, T25, T4 and T5 - The buses are voted for by everyone who comes.
The winners come forward to pick there prizes and pose for a picture and receive applause from the crowd, Then the prize giving continues with winners for bus push, kids team, and breakdown award.

5. AGM
The annual general meeting for the club follows the prize giving and everyone is invited to attend and make contributions or speak up about anything to do with the club.

6. Cruise and Korv
After the meeting is closed, its time to fire up the buses and head off into the neighboring town in one hell of a convoy of buses, this usually breaks down to the sheer number of buses and ends up with buses driving in all directions and eventually all hooking back up together at the rendezvous point, Here we park up, line up and mingle again, eat some Korv and drink a little coffee - some say there fair-wells and head off - maybe to continue to holiday, some will be heading home and some return to the campsite to pack up or stay another night.

Easter 2014

Before Easter Friday - or long Friday as it's called up here in Sweden, I had another lovely day off, squeezed in front of the Easter bank holidays (red days) to make Easter extra long, thanks really to Magnus my boss at work, as conference work just drops off - So with that, Thursday is another day off - So I continued where I left off and began the day with a dash around in the morning switching vehicles again and taking stuff to the summer house for Easter preparations and then to collect the Beam from home and get the whole front end and take it back to Enköping and peka´s for installing.



After all that driving around I settled into the workshop groove and got going on making it stand on its own 4 wheel once again.

 

I lifted the new beam with arms and spindles attached onto a stand and then positioned this under the bus, I then lowered the bus down on to the Beam, this went pretty easily and I was able to bring the bus down and easily line up the new bolts and washers, these went into the newly tapped captive threads in the chassis very nicely,  I havnt toqued these up yet, I just nipped them up and moved on.

Torque setting list here :

Front Beam bolts to chassis   65-72 ib ft  which is
Front Beam steering arm bolt 65-75 nm
Rear Axle hub nut (t1 based) is 220 ib ft

I couldn't fit the steering arm as the reamer looked to be too big?  have to ask my bro about this as he was the one who brought the tools when he had to fit a new one to his old barndoorslamamatic.

I continued with installation of the csp disk brake kit that I ordered from T2D, this was a brand new whole front end package, I fitted the new caliper brackets to the spindles, torqued them up with a little thread lock and after that it was time to set the hub with disc brake on the spindle, but for this I needed the wheel bearings, and these were no where to be seen.. I checked around but to no avail -  I dont remember ever seeing them when I unpacked - I really hope that this is to be the last thing missing from what I ordered from those detectives ; ) I realize now that when you order from them you need to be your own detective in working out what's missing from the order ! If I had a receipt with an inventory for the first order this could have been made much easier for both them and me, it would have allowed me to check off and make a detailed assessment of the parts and easily see what was right wrong and missing, for the record I had the same with the parts ordered from Creative engineering whic they still havnt got back to me on and so I need to chase them up again too.



Anyway nothing to worry about delays like this happen and all to do is to email them to find out when I can get the wheel bearings  -  it was at this exact time I had a memo on my phone to go and pick up some other missing parts from the post office in Enköping,  I had noticed after the spring plates and drive shafts turned up that the csp master cylinder had also been missed, this id mentioned at the end of march and the Volksworld show had delayed it getting to me, anyway now it had been sent from T2D and now it was here to be collected, so I went and got it.



Back at the garage I switched back to the rear, and found out I need 2x new frame horn bolts and I need to tap the threads in the frame horns.  M18x1.5 Tap was ordered from Tool in Enköping. Bolts to be ordered from a vw parts surplier maybe VW Heritage in the UK or VW up north - Sweden

After popping down to "tool" in Enkoping and buying more nuts bolts and washers - I fettled with the gearbox and axle tube gaps, adding paper gaskets and trying to find the right amount, It didnt help that I sprayed the axle tubes, so I spent some time removing the paint-


Buding straight axle - This helped:

http://www.transworks.biz/installation.html

At about 4pm the guys next door at the mechanics side of the garage came and told me they were clocking off and heading home, so I packed up and headed to the summer house to return Jeff the T25 and pick up the Golf, then Home, a very quick shower and then straight into town to meet up with Lelle, and NT2K´s Andreas and Hans at the pub and to talk about this years Busfest, logos and theh merchandise, sponsers and stuff to do with the club, it was nice, I drove home around 10 and went to bed like this :




And then It was Friday, up, out and heading to the summer House to meet up with the family-  nothing to do but forget about working on the bus for a few days - its locked up and out of reach, time to chill, enjoy easter maybe organise the parts needed orders for Tuesday and chase up T2D for the missing bearings.


Built the Yacht that I brought last year and took it out for its maiden voyage. Also took Tim to the Hospital to get some stitches in his finger when he slipped with a knife.

 


Back home at Hälstaviken - It feels like spring is here and summer is coming, Lots of birds are back now, Signs for a photo and painting exhibition at the old school - so we checked it out - some nice shots of the viken, the birds that visit and some paintings and sketches too.




 

Playing Kubb