Failed experiment…

It’s alive, It’s Alive, It’s….DEAD.  For f^ck sakes….

The steering experiment is a flop.  I had high hopes for it, but it took some trial and error to see the failures in it.  Of course, I can find other people’s failures online, but only when you know where to look after the fact.  Isn’t that always the case??

So, let’s recap; the reason I went with the mk1 Golf steering rack and pinion was 2 fold;

1. the original steering setup was 50 years of worn out, the box was dry and loose, the idler was seized, the cross bar probably could have been resurrected with a new pair of boots, but the tie rods were worn out as well, so doing the math, I was looking at around $800 for refurbing this stuff.  

2. I already had VW mk1 golf/Jetta steering racks in the parts hoard so I THOUGHT I could beat out that $$ outlay by using them, but the front steering on the bug made the LHD drive golf rack & pinion work backwards, and when looking at RHD racks from VW Heritage, was astounded to see they were only $183 delivered.

Fast forward a couple years, and actually driving the car over 100 km/h, there’s a massive oscillation occurring that makes this car undriveable.  I couldn’t put 2 and 2 together during the build up phase until actually getting road time.

So here’s my cognitive disconnection; steering boxes basically disappeared from most cars in the 1970s, being replaced with superior rack and pinion.  Rear-engined cars at the time all used steering boxes (until ’75 in the super beetle) but the key missing piece I didn’t see at first was the innocuous mini shock absorber – the steering damper.  I assumed that doing away with the box and pittman arm meant that the damper could go too.  Not so.  The Damper is there because the Centre of Gravity on a rear engine car is just ahead of the back wheel, whereas on front engined cars the CofG sits pretty well on top of the steering rack, not because of the steering box.  So on the mk1 Jetta for example, it drives down the road like a lawn dart flies thru the air, but driving the bug without a damper is like throwing a lawn dart with the weight on the fin end, not the tip.

In 1975 the super beetle changed to a steering rack & pinion, but it didn’t use a visible steering damper…BUT, in looking at pictures of old used, beat up racks, I notice they got a little oily on one end?  Did they have a damper built in?  Or was it internally sealed in such away to mimic a damper? Cuz I can’t fathom use without it.

So, alright, easy answer, maybe we can add to the rack, a damper?  Not so fast.  The damper once charged, has a tremendous amount of pressure inside it, so mounting it to a tie rod, will violently twist it, causing tons of stress to the tie rod end.  It would also push the tie rod down, which would probably react adversely during a sharp turn.  The damper only works in one plane of direction, which means it would have to be mounted to the rack portion, difficult to do with the rubbers in the way.  So in my setup, there’s no provision to fit one.F^ck!

You can see on this CSP example, they figured it out.  They mounted centre mounts to one end of the rack only, allowing the damper to mount to it so it only goes left and right, not twisting or going up and down.  It also solves another problem the mk1 rack has, bump steer.  I could feel a bit of it on the Rack &Pinion because the closer to the centreline of the car that you pivot the tie rods from, the better you lessen the bump steer.

So there you have it.  $860 outlayed to collect up all the stock parts to reverse the rack and pinion project…for now?  I’ll try out the CSP type mount to the rack on the bench, and if it looks successful, maybe, MAYBE, we’ll revisit this in the future, but for now this gawd damn wallet pit of a car owes me some cruise time in 2022!

Death Trap...for the wallet

So the last month since the safety check for the Bug has been interesting to say the least...

Firstly, the old gas tank had just enough rust inside that the ultra fine rust residue was actually passing thru the filter and going into the carb. That caused enough grief that the carb had to be pulled apart to clean.  I invested in an ultrasonic cleaner to make easy work of that, but the real problem was the gas tank.  I went to the local radiator shop and found out that they really have no interest in relining gas tanks anymore.  They quoted me an astounding $300 to reline the tank!  No Tanks, since a new one was $320!!

So more money to CIP I guess.  I took the liberty to buy a 75-79 superbeetle gas tank, with larger siphons and return line for future possible conversion to fuel injection.

Secondly, the distributor has issues.  She idles beautifully, accelerates well too, but the distributor is a SVDA style which uses both vacuum and centrifugal advance to advance the spark curve.  The distributor that came with the car had a horrendous flat spot off idle, and a second dizzy I had was good off the line but between 2000 and 3000 rpm was flat.  The vacuum pot pulls the advance 12 to 15 deg, then another 10 degrees happens above 3000 rpm.  This isn't gonna work.  The vacuum should pull to at least 20 deg, and the flyweights should kick in right after.  More work is needed here for sure.  Not sure what to do, maybe buy a brand new one and put it to bed.

Thirdly, the front suspension is a disaster!   This car is a danger to drive in its current configuration.  The front suspension is so tight, I could probably remove the struts and the binding in the sway bar and control arms would hold the car up!  It just bounces down the road, and given that there hasn't been a front end alignment yet, makes it bounce left and right.  Above 80 kph its just an arrow to a ditch...

So I've ordered some caster adjust bushings from Topline, and I'm going to take the sway bar to my local machine shop to be straightened.  I added poly bushings to the front end, and as a result doesn't allow the control arm to twist in the centre mounts, causing the whole thing to bind up.  Straightening the sway bar should solve this problem.

When I originally lowered this car, I just cut a coil and lowered it.  The rubber bushings are round like a golf ball and allowed enough flex to let the control arm to twist in the center mount.  The poly bushings are cylindrical and slide into the centre mount tight and allow no torquing in the mount.  Live and learn I guess.  Once this shit is sorted out, we can finally go for alignment!

Fourthly, the tank to filler rubber collar is starting to disintegrate.  Frustrating aftermarket parts!

On a good note, I took her to Krown last friday, and they squirted juice into the framehead, heater channels and bulkhead to protect those parts!  Some progress at least!