S’all about Murbella’s booty in 2020

So the majority of my planned work for 2020 is actually on Murbella.

With her engine dropped for maintenance and clean-up, it opens up the space and reduces the rear weight. Since this will all be up in the air anyway, it is the perfect time to no only do the rear disc upgrade I’ve always planned for her, it is also the perfect time to deal with her other 41-year-old maintenance issues that need addressed.

So basically, I’m looking at engine work, some drivetrain work, some suspension work, and then major brake work.

AJ Engine

While I’ve maintained her engine via tune-ups and such, I have never dropped it to deal with a lot of the situations that need to be addressed.

Basically, the engine plan is to:

• Replace all of her rubber lines and o-rings.
• Clean all of her FI components.
• Clean all of her tins and if necessary, repaint.
• Install all new stainless steel pushrod tubes.
• Install new main seal.
• Clean up all oil, grease,. and dirt.
• Install new clutch, pressure plate, and throwing bearing.
• Possibly have all of her exhaust components powder coated.

That is the planned work but of course, a 41-year-old engine may have additional work that needs to be done once out.

I wish to do nothing that would require the replacement of her heads or pistons, as I think they are fine. However, I do have replacements if necessary.

Drive Train

The axles are going to be removed to restore them and most especially regrease the CV joints. I assume her CV boots are original, and if so there’s a very good chance that they need replaced. I’m basing this off the poor condition of her rack and pinion boot cover, which was degraded and open to the elements. Same age equals same likelihood of problems.

With the axles off, the transxle can be dropped to replace all of the 41-year-old engine mounts.

Now I would really love to find someone locally who can work on VW tranaxles as I really need to replace her #2 synchro. This is the perfect time to do that.

The work as I see it:

• Replace all transaxle mounts
• Clean up transaxle of all oil, grime, and debris.
• If possible, have transaxle synchro repaired.
• Disassemble axles and restore with all new boots and grease.

Suspension

With the engine and the transaxle out, this frees up a massive amount of space to work on both driver and passenger suspension areas. Everything in yellow (below) basically gets touched in someway. And this is the perfect time to add one of the rear sway bars to the car which will greatly benefit a cabriolet.

So basically I see the following needing done for both sides:

• Replace all torsion bar inner and outer bushings.
• Replace all trailing arm pivot bushings.
• Remove all drum brake components.
• Restore and/or replace rear wheel bearings
• Install all new seals and grease.
• Clean and repaint trailing arm.
• Install rear sway bar.

Brakes

I’ve always intended to upgrade her rear brakes to disc so she’d be on a full set of discs.

I’d love to get Topline’s set but we are talking $139 just for shipping on top of their $499.95 price. Their shipping is what almost always makes me end up going with another vendor. That money saved can go to so many of the other things that need repaired or to Żuczek’s restoration.

CIP1 has the basic EMPI rear kit with a CNC mounts for only $399 now and it comes with new seals. Of course, there’s no shipping either so it really comes down to these EMPI ones being adequate enough. Topline’s are based on them anyway. I understand there’s some cable length issues with the emergency brake cables requiring shimming but still, I don’t know if I can justify the $250 additional dollars for Topline on these.

Regardless of what I purchase, now’s the time to do this upgrade.

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Some bushings were previously purchased, but I’ll need to acquire most of everything else.