A tale of shift rod bushings and fuel lines....

[ruwaldo]

So after a couple weeks of driving my new ride I'm on vacation and it's time to do some work.....

The car has been running well and I've been driving it daily since I bought it. One thing that I noticed real quick was the lose feel of the shifter and the tell tale rattle of the shift rod that means the bushing needs to be replaced. All in all besides the horror stories on TheSamba.com about this repair it's really not that bad. It would be easier with a second person to help out but is totally possible to do by yourself.

One thing that I either totally missed or was never mentioned in the numerous threads on The Samba was how close the hard fuel line is to the inspection port on the front of the tunnel under the car. Several people mentioned that you have to put a put of push on the shift rod to get it through the new bushing. Suggestions were made about using broom stick and such to apply this force to the shift rod to get it through the new bushing. None mentioned being aware of the hard fuel line that is right in the area that you will be poking around in.

So here is how it went. I get the new bushing in. I totally removed the shift rod so that I could clean it prior to re-installing. All that was good. I put the shift rod back in and get it lined up at the bushing. Now it's time to give it a little push to move it into place. I get a broom stick, use a flashlight to get it lined up with what looks like the end of the shift rod and then give it a push. No movement. So I check things out and then give it a tap with a hammer. This time there is some movement. A couple a seconds later there is also something that I was not expecting or wanting......The smell of gas.

I look under the car and sure enough there is gas dripping.......Oh Crap!. I quickly took off the negative battery cable and then reached for the socket set to take the tank brackets off. Once the tank was loose I took a piece of wood to try and prop it up and get a peak under it.....gas starts running faster under the car. Once I got the tank propped up and stopped the gas flow I found that there was no hose clamp on the soft line connected to the hard line going into the tunnel. I took a clamp and tried to pinch off the soft line, it promptly broke. Kind of taunting me for even thinking that at it's age it was that flexible.

At this point I don't know for sure if I just pulled the hard line enough to yank it off the soft line at the tunnel, with no hose clamp that wouldn't be all that hard to do. The other option is that I kinked or broke the hard line. Anyone any good at running new lines through the tunnel? I can't imagine that's a whole lot of fun to do. I'll be heading out to get new braided gas lines tomorrow morning. I'm just going to replace all of them for the piece of mind since I don't know how old the individual sections are. I also want to relocate the fuel filter in the process.

Thus ends chapter one of the story.......

[ruwaldo]

Well a trip to Discount Import Auto Parts this morning and the bug has all new German braided gas lines installed. So far no sign of leaking from the hard line in the tunnel. Once I hooked everything back up I cut a strip of cardboard that would fit through the opening in the front of the tunnel and ran it down under the gas line. I let it sit there for a while while I ran the car and then after I shut it off and worked on a few other things. When I pulled it out there were no wet spots or signs of gas. I guess I got lucky.

Tomorrow I'll get started on removing the dash pad. Once that is out it's time to install the new stereo.......

[UGoBug]

sounds like your making progress.  yea that aiwa was a piece of crap, but it worked for my dad, cuz he just listened to one station!  I will NOT claim that install, either....if it don't fit, goop it in.  That's what you get when a helicopter mechanic works on a car!!   ;D

[ruwaldo]

So that's how helicopters are held together?  :o Glad I don't fly in one!  ;)

Things are coming along. I'm loving the weather. Makes it easy to get out and work on it.

[ruwaldo]

So nothing huge to tell on recent work on the 74. Just basic tune up stuff. redoing some wiring. Did replace the hood seal but have to figure out why the hood won't actually "lock". The thumb button catches but I can't get the locking plate to catch. Time for that later.

Sunday morning was my first "break down". I went for a break at about 5am (I work 12 hour night shifts at Intel) and on my way back to work my gas pedal fell to the floor.  :o  Very quickly I realized that my accelerator cable had broken. So I walk the quarter mile back to work and a bit later call my wife to tell her that she will have to come get me at 8am. It was the fitting end to a crap week at work. I wait the hour till NAPA opens and go to get a new cable. Of course because it's Sunday morning and my car is sitting on the side of the road they don't have any on-hand. They can get me one by noon on Monday. So I'm standing there thinking about how the heck I'm going to get my car home.  :o

I ended up buying a spool of 10 gauge stranded wire. The wire ended up being stiff enough to push it from the pedal to where it comes out of the chassis. It just happened that that is where the cable broke so I used the other end to pull the wire the rest of the way through to the carb. Once I tied the wire off at both ends I fired it up and drove it the four miles back home. It actually worked pretty well. Not bad for 20 minutes on the side of the road.

So today it was a trip to Discount Import Auto for some supplies. Two accelerator cables ( I will not always have a spare on-hand), an accelerator cable tube (there wasn't one on the car) and a few other goodies. Back at home an hour spent in the sun in the driveway and all is good again.  ;D

[ruwaldo]

So the latest project was upgrading the tunes.

Here is the old shelf....



And here is the new one....



I built the box for the sub into the bottom of the shelf so it's all one piece. Right now the box is totally sealed but I have a 2" adjustable port tube coming that I'm going to play around with and see if it helps. The amp for the sub is attached to the side of the box. Everything fired right up and sounds thumpin!!! The last thing needed for the sound system is front kick panels and some speakers.

[StevesBug]

Very tidy looking...nice work.

[corradojeff]

still have the old shelf?  ;D

carefull when you port the box.. to do it right you usually need a larger airspace box and a long port in it

[ruwaldo]

I ended up having to make the box a bit smaller than the JBL website called for. There just wasn't enough room back there!  :D It's fairly close though. The port tube I have coming is adjustable so it can go from 6" to about 11". The specs on the JBL site called for a 2x12" port so we'll see if it's close enough. If not I can always plug the hole I cut.

[corradojeff]

cool beans :D

nice choice on sound... those look like kenwood excelon 6x9's ?

[ruwaldo]

cool beans :D

nice choice on sound... those look like kenwood excelon 6x9's ?

yeppers. crutchfield outlet special. they sound nice.  ;D at some point i will most likely change to a kenwood sub, i like things to match. i got the jbl real cheap from a co-worker so it works for now.

[CatBox]

what musical sound are you going for?

deep droning bass....ported box
tight hard hitting bass....unported box

myself I like me the tight pounding base of the rock and metal so it is my main focus and therefore tight is right for me.

but if'n you like to listen to the old bass tapes then the ported on is the way to be

[ruwaldo]

finally got the last pieces in place for the rear speaker box.



all in all i'm very happy with how it turned out. all that is left for the system is to get some front kick panels and speakers.

[UGoBug]

oh that is TOO KILLER.  diggin it....

[ruwaldo]

Spent some good time with my oldest tonight getting ready to put the drop spindles on tomorrow.



Gotta love a hobby that helps you spend quality time with the boys.  :D