Good work that rear heater looks the part. How come your Gold Caravelle has a Candy red panel ?
Hi all,
Thought I should give an update. Ran out of time getting everything back together, had a dead line to meet for a trip away! Ended up leaving on the trip Sunday (was meant to leave Sat) on the first week end in October. Was up until 2am still finishing off getting the Syncro back together! Was a bit of a nail bighting trip given how much work I had done, and no real time for a good test run and check over before I left.
Despite the mad rush in the end, it all came together. A few minor fuel leaks when I first filled everything up due to a couple of poorly sized hose clamps, so simple fix. So nice to have a fuel tank I can fill all the way up now. I have ~115L usable capacity so have just short of 1000km range depending on driving conditions.
Attached a couple more pictures, but never had time to take more as I put the engine back in.
Was surprised it all fired up well, cooling system bleed fine and took for a couple of short spins late Sat arvo, and checked over it and final touches late Sat night. Was good to have the decoupler in and working fine.
The trip up to Frazer (from Brissy) for a fishing trip was a little interesting, one of the coolant hoses was coming loose (hose slipping back off the plastic pipe). When I put it all back together I used the factory spring clamps, was lucky I had a stop near Gympie to look check things over and noticed it. I pushed the spring clamp back and put two hose clamps on instead, and that has held ever since. The bad new though just before tin can bay, heard a noise in the back, but assumed it was just some camping gear moving about, not so lucky at the next intersection I almost missed the turn, the power steering pump pulley had fallen off! Obviously never double checked those bolts :(. I can tell you a T3 Syncro is no fun to drive once the power steering is gone!
Anyway, other than that was a great trip, the run up the beach was fine, only did a couple of inland tracks, but no issues at all. Now I have the decoupler I had a little fun in 2WD, was surprised it seemed to go (almost) as good as the T2, even in the soft sand at the top of the beach, and managed one of the tracks up to the camp site in 2WD, so not too bad! Got it stuck a couple of times mucking around in soft sand, tried the diff lock (still in 2WD) and it made no difference at all, but once back in 4WD climbed out with no issues.
The tides were against us heading back to the ferry, was pushed up into the soft sand at the bottom of the island, and the tracks were chopped up, so was very tough going for the last 15-20km and was mostly in second gear. I have fitted a temp gauge on the outlet of the radiator, so was fun to monitor that, in the tough going, was also a hot day and fan on the temp steadied out ~70deg C (on the highway it hovers around 40-50C), so it was working hard, but the cooling system was doing it's job fine. The gauge in the dash, was sitting just past 12Oclock, so the normal point where the fan kicks in.
All up did 680km and used 85L fuel, not bad give 180km was in the sand, and about 50km was in soft sand.
All he extra guards/mud flaps etc have worked also, in the past the Syncro throws a lot of sand and dust up, particularly around the engine bay and chassis rails etc. After this trip the engine was almost sand free on top, and no real noticeable sand flushed out the chassis rails, so that good! Even the extra covers over the axles kept almost all the sand out of the rear swing arms (another place sand and dirt collects), and with all the new paint, everything flushes out spotless clean.
The front however needs some re-thinking. Was still a fair amount of sand coming out of the chassis forward of the front axle, so that's the next one to think about.
For a bit of fun, the following week end I took the family up to Bribie for a look around. Took a couple of the inland tracks, and down to one of the lagoons. The sand there was quite a bit softer than Fraser, and the tracks very bad from all the week end yahoo's (we went up on Monday). Saw plenty of 4WD's bogged on the day, the Syncro however sailed through fine (luckily!).
So all in all a couple of successful trips. Still have a lot of little unfinished bits to tidy up, and still need to replace the aging plastic pipes in the cooling system, but for now it's not an urgent job.
Richard
---In Syncro_T3_Australia@yahoogroups.com, <cathrich1@...> wrote :
Hi all,
Too many late nights, but the engine is almost ready to fill with fluids and check for leaks.
Seems like a never ending job, and taken a few weeks longer than originally anticipated. That said I have done many little things not expected in the beginning.
Just a few pictures for your interest (just some random ones), comments below
The fuel tank sender, mine was all nice and clean, inside and out, even the seal (outside) looked fine, so was thinking why upset the inside seal if it's all good and firmly mounted. In the end I figured I had the seals, best to put them in. Glad I did. The outside seal was fine and still in good condition, the inside one however was falling apart, and some rust just starting between the inside seal and the inner edge of the plate with the studs! I was quite surprised as everything else looked great.
Notch in the bash plate, just enough to drain the GB oil without removing the sub frame. It also give access to a removable wading plug I put in the bell housing. I figured with it all sealed up, you have no way of knowing if a seal is on the way out. now I have a removable plug to check :)
Anyone who used the fuel line that came with the desert fox fuel tank, keep an eye on the hose! I have replaced mine already. Mostly as I had the tank out, but the large hose was already showing signs of aging!
Anyone with power steering, check the power steering lines where the RH hand brake cable runs over it, it rubs at this spot (have read of this rubbing through for some people). I have put some protective tape over it.
Tank straps, I found some dirt build up in there, so added a few extra drain holes. Luckily no rust at all on mine.
Even fitted a new fill hose. Not a fun job, not nowhere near as hard as putting the fuel tank back in!!
GoWesty coolant pipe savers installed (thanks Colin!)
New seals on the flywheel. Clutch all looked good on the pressure plate and friction plate, but there is some wear showing on the fingers (where the throw out bearing contacts). New throw out bearing and pilot bearing (with seal) in
Alternator and water pump protectors fitted. One nut (under water pump) I fitted an extended length nut, made getting it tight much easier!
All new fuel lines on the engine also. They actually looked quite good, so must have been replaced at some stage in it's life.
New hoses run on the tank. Worth noting, not only were the seal shot on the breather check valves, one of the check valves was stuck closed, the other stuck open!!
New charcoal canister. factory VW, but made in china, so I will rebuild my old one at some stage. These are designed to not need an inlet pipe, I adapted the inlet down to a hose size, and ran the inlet back into the engine bay. I was thinking of connecting it into the air cleaner, but decided in the end to let it suck air through a separate inline filter. Will be easy to monitor how it goes, but a lot better than sucking air from the wheel well.
Managed to get some OK shots inside the tank, this one is the screen
Heater installed!! Have yet to wire it all up electrically, so that will be a future job. Cables are run to the dash so far.
Hole in push rod covers to drain coolant
Richard
Couple more pic's
Not sure what you mean with the candy red panel? Mine's gold inside and out.
---In Syncro_T3_Australia@yahoogroups.com, <peterw1000@...> wrote :
---In Syncro_T3_Australia@yahoogroups.com, <peterw1000@...> wrote :
Good work that rear heater looks the part. How come your Gold Caravelle has a Candy red panel ?