The First New Part is Fitted

The new rear brake backplates and axle gaiters arrived. I decided to start with the driver's side first. The backplate can only be replaces by removing the rear bearing housing (held on with four bolts). While this was off the oil seals were to be replaced (as they were leaking).

The housing was pretty much glued in place but a few thumps from a rubber mallet got it moving slightly. Then pulling the drive shaft brought the bearing and housing a centimetre or so out. This allowed me to get enough purchase to pull the housing off. It brought everything but the final spacer with it (i.e. outer spacer, small o-ring, washer and bearing).  The old backplate could then be knocked off with the mallet and replaced with the new item. This picture shows the passenger side bearing (with the outer spacer in situ).

The bearing and washer were put back on the drive shaft after a quick wipe and a new o-ring was fitted. A large o-ring was also placed around the bearing (the previous item had become cemented to the housing).

The old oil seal has to be knocked out of the housing. I clearly don't have the knack because this took ages. I then cleaned up the housing and ensured the oil pathway running though it was clear. Here is a picture of the housing (part way through cleaning).

 The new oil seal was then hammered into place (I used the old oil seal to protect the new one from damage) - remember to put the oil slinger in first.

The official approach is then to oil the outer spacer and fit it to the oil seal before fitting. However I hadn't read the section very carefully and put the outer spacer on the shaft first and then fitted the housing. This is a bit more fiddly but seemed to work fine.  Here is the finished article.

I have started the same job on the passenger side but the outer spacer is not co-operating (yet).

Pistons Off

The weather was dreadful today and so it was a choice between slouching in front of the television or wrapping up warm and heading out the garage. I chose the latter and spent a pleasant couple of hours tinkering. The main task was to remove the pistons - the rest of the time was lost to tidying and boxing old parts.

Removing the pistons was very straight forward. Only three tools were needed: a blow lamp, a small hammer and a "punch". I didn't have a punch with a diameter that matched the pin so I improvised and used a 14mm socket and short extension. The method is to heat the piston until the pin is loose and then tap it out.

As I am buying new pistons and cylinders these are destined for the bin. Here is a picture of the engine after the pistons were removed.

The final jobs before splitting the case are to remove the distributor and the oil pump. However if the rear brake backplates I ordered arrive this week I will probably rebuild the rear axle before splitting the engine casing.

Happy New Year!

I haven't had a chance to spend any time working on the beetle since my last post in October. It's not clear to me why I had less time than normal, that is just the way it worked out. Anyway as I am now on my Christmas vacation I decided to spend to time working on the car. Followers of this blog will know that there were two sticky jobs that were preventing progress.

The first problem was my inability to remove cylinder number 2 from the engine. Various combinations of lubrication, hammering and heating had yielded no results. Therefore I decided to use my trusty (if scary) grinder. I wish I'd done this in October as within 15 minutes the cylinder was off.

Buoyed from this success I set about the second tricky job - the seized brake drum. A couple of hours of pulling and hammering later the drum had defeated me and I skulked off to pour myself a whisky. That was a few days ago.

Today, the 1st of January 2012, I went out and tried again and worryingly the puller screw just kept turning. The last time experienced the same feeling (way back in August 2010) it indicated a failed puller. But not this time - the drum was actually moving off the shaft!

And after a few more minutes the drum was off - I think I should get it mounted (like big game hunters used to do with bison). My wall will soon be littered with trophy parts vanquished by my mighty spanner (as Richie Rich would say, "ooer, that sounds a bit rude").

The final task today was to remove the star adjusters from the back plate. Twenty minutes with the mole wrench and blow lamp dispatched that job - another small trophy for the wall...