So I suppose I can officially consider the first day of the engine rebuild since I always mark Day 1 with the post last cleaning plugging of the case! (We’ll just pretended everything to this day was Day 0!) AJ Engine Rebuild, Day 1 The case was cleaned one final time with some soapy water…
Murbella – Day 30 – My future 205H Distributor
So Bill from Spark Werks already has shipped out my new restored 205H distributor and it’ll be here in a few days. He supplied me with some maintenance instructions, that quite frankly I don’t think I ever realized to do, but of course, that’s why so many used distributors look like shit. Now what he…
Murbella – Day 30 – Oil Filter Placement
If this becomes too difficult to do, given my fabrication limitations, I’ll just go with the stock oil pump and skip full filtering for now. Buried under that oh so lovely undercoating is the shock bumper mount and bolts. I need to figure out a way to mod a mounting plate that is made for…
Murbella – Day 30 – Prepping the transaxle for removal
I had plans to drop the transaxle today and start loosening up the bolts. I got her shift coupler detached. I had upgraded to urethane bushings for this back in 2017 when I replaced her shifter bushing It is all still very tight. (I remember how sloppy she was before this maintenance!) Now the drawing…
In which I discover the horrible truth about AJ Case #2
Back in November 2018, I purchased a bunch of used 1303 struts and spindles and assorted other parts form a guy about an hour south of here. When I was going through all of his stuff, I noticed he had an engine sitting to the side that was an AJ FI case. It had most…
Murbella – Day 30 – Tin and EGR Work
I started the second cleaning pass for the engine tins, this time my soapy-water pass. I usually degrease first with solvent, then wash with soapy water and dry, then sand and detail work, then wash and clean again, then prime. Yeah, media blasting would save me a lot of man hours in this. Cylinder Tin…
Murbella – Day 30 – Cleaning, Painting, More…
So while I had intended to drop her top so I could easily have access to undoing the shifting rod from the transmission as well as using her interior for storage space, I ran into a slight problem that I did not foresee. With her up on stands, there’s absolutely no way to clear the…
Murbella – AJ Engine – To blueprint? If so, how much?
If you stumble across this site, you always need to consider the fact that I am a self-taught VW air-cooled mechanic with no formal training in anything auto-related either classic or modern. Everything I do related to my cars is because of personal choice, and often, when it comes to documentation and methodology, something that…
Murbella – Day 29 – Restored Exhaust Components
So I ran out and picked up the blasted and then ceramic-coated exhaust components and damn if they don’t look amazing! Restoring the original solid 1979 muffler instead of swapping on that cheap ass aftermarket one was one of the best things I could have done. I love all the little parts that say West…
Murbella – Decisions made on alternator upgrade.
I had a decision to make if I wanted to install a new alternator or not. Now 50am Motorola unit that is on there is fine, but I do have some issues I’ve seen due to the stereo and amplifier that has been installed in the car. While I don’t have the full electric draw…