Battery Tray Removed

The battery tray is removed and the metal has been cleaned. Soon the rusty metal will be treated with rust inhibitors and top-coated with a rust preventative paint. Then the tray will be welded in.

JStiles

Battery Tray out before cleaning

Battery Tray out before cleaning

To get to the battery tray, more than 2 dozen welds have to be drilled out.

Right Rear Quarter has some body damage that needs to be adressed soon.

After the battery tray is out, this is what is left.

Cleaned and ready for rust prep

Cleaned and ready for rust prep

Metal Work Begins

Well the bus is starting to get ready for some new metal. The light assemblies have been removed, the wiring harnesses have been pulled away and secured and any other pieces of the bus that may get damaged by welding are protected. We found some pretty typical rust and this bus. This good 'ol Champagne Edition will be prowling the highways and byways of America's midwest again in no time.

J.Stiles

Right Rear Marker Light Location. Some pretty grumpy pitting, but not too bad. Also some body damage on the rear wheel arch. It is pulling the seam open to the elements and should be repaired at the same time.

The Battery Tray looking in the rear light housing opening.  It appears the rust has stayed put and not creeped into the wheel well or splash pan area. But as far as rust goes...we shall see.

Another view of the battery tray. Looks bad doesn't it? Just wait till the new one is in...

I'd like to meet the feller who took out the Fuel Injection Air Cleaner stand...and smack him. Why chisel into the splash-pan area? It doesn't need ventilation. No worries, we will get it patched back up.

There is a lot of surface rust along the seal lip and on the top of the frame  area. All will need rust treatment and need to be sealed before any paint is applied.

The right rear corner of the bus as viewed as now.

Metal work! And, new parts!

The bus has now been transported to JStiles Studios where it will get a new battery tray, have the fuel injection air cleaner bracket re-welded in, and have the adjacent areas refinished. You can see Chris' 76 Double Cab there behind it. It (double cab) is on our super-duper Twirler- a rotisserie lift that enables you to spin the whole car around like a chicken, making things MUCH easier to work on!

Some new parts arrived! :-)

Seals, gaskets, brake lines, etc...

Exhaust system replacement "eliminator muffler." The EGR tube will be cut off and welded closed.

And these very beautiful new pistons/cylinders! Mmmmm.......

Window seals removal

The windshield has been replaced before and appears to be in good reuseable shape- no pitting, blasting, or chips. When you see bubbling coming out the lower lip area of the seal, it's always nerve-wracking to remove the windshield and seal...

The big reveal...windshield lower lip rust:

Obviously, that rust is going to have to be addressed before installing the new windshield seal. But wait, the installer of the previous one did not address it! The extent of it is the proof. Also, they painted the dash top (which was previously CE brown) black; and they painted that black over rust (non-treated rust). Expand these below 3 pictures to see.  You can see the rust behind their crappy masking job and you can also see the line where the rust is, under the paint. This rust WILL soon creep out.  Again, I'm no longer surprised to see things like this. People just too often fix the "face" problem and not the underlying issues.

Left side, rear- Good! :-)

Left side, center- Good! :-)

Right side, rear- mostly good, some rust on the front:

Rear hatch seal had been replaced. Rust on rear hatch lower lip:

Notes:
1) Not pictured here, the sliding door window opening appears to be good and rust free.
2) I have not removed the front cab door seals yet. There is some rust bubbling on the driver side.
3) As you may know, CE's have a stock greenish tint on the glass.  On this bus, the rear hatch glass was replaced with a clear (non-tinted) piece. Likely, the old glass broke and thus the reason for the replacement. We do have tinted glass in stock. :-)

Sliding door and door locks

Let's start fixing that sliding door and get the door locks all rekeyed to one matching key...

Sliding door track cover, sliding door, and front door panels all off:



One problem with the sliding door- rear hinge mechanism nylon guide broken. This is common. Just needs replaced with a new one for the door to slide well. We will also remove that whole rear hinge mechanism and refurbish it. It has many moving parts that, after 33 years, needs maintained!

This is hilarious! It's the catch mechanism. It is on the sliding door and holds the door in the open position. It is then activated by the sliding door handle to release the door in order to close it.  One of the captive nuts in the door broke off so someone used a sheetrock wall style anchor (in the door) with this long screw (left side). The second picture shows you the anchor that did not hold. As a result of this botched hippy-fix, the whole mechanism was loose and thus not holding and releasing the door properly.  We will have to remove a captive nut piece from a parts bus and re-install it in this bus.  I have never seen this problem in a bus before. Congrats on a first.

This was stuck in that hole. There SHOULD be a captive nut behind in instead.

Door panels removed for exterior handle/lock removal. The old plastic will be replaced with new. We will likely refurbish the window regulators and the door latching/locking mechanisms. All new seals going into these doors. Not one of my favorite jobs.

Door handles removed. In the middle is the engine hatch lock. At the bottom is the sliding door lock. The first 3 will be matched to the sliding door lock/ignition/rear hatch so that all are on one key.

Voila! Here is why we took the sliding door lock off- to get the bus' key code. This will be given to the locksmith in order to rekey the others (though they can probably do it without the code -just the key- it is nicer/more accurate to do it from the code and also cut a new key from the actual code

These gold-ish tabs activate the door locking mechanisms. These ones are not stock. Someone replaced them (stock ones likely broke) with aftermarkets. This is a sign that the door locking mechanisms are sticky and, after 33 years, need refurbished (removed, cleaned, relubricated).  UNLESS, they recognized this problem and did it when they changed these. I doubt it. People usually just fix a problem and don't actually determine why that problem happened and fix the underlying problem/s.  We might replace these tabs with stock ones from donor locks, unless I deem these to be strong enough. It's nice to have as much German factory parts as possible though!

Enjoy!?

Progress...

While we're waiting for engine parts, here's some other stuff:


Battery tray arrived:

Seals arrived. I know it's a sucky picture but it's just a big-ass box o' seals! :-)

Let's start looking at some of the bus' safety and control systems....

While the engine is out, let's replace these flexible brake lines. Sure, they'll probably last another 50 years, but at $10 each, you can't go wrong. (the part in the middle is the rear shift coupler. This will be replaced by an upgraded version that presses into the rear shift rod and thus has ZERO "slop." It will be harder to replace (because of the pressing) next time around but that won't be for another 30 years!

Front flexible brake line, left side. Also see shock absorber. Those new ball joints look pretty!

Same, right side:

Front steering coupler.  This is a flexible part that connects your steering wheel with the tires. If this part ever breaks, you are screwed.
Now, here's another gripe from me about taking your bus to a mechanic. I know that this bus has been to at least 2 mechanics who have done front end work on it (ball joints, steering drag link) and neither of them has bothered to inspect this part to tell the customer that it needs replaced, NOW.  The red arrows point to cracks that are through the whole coupler. Now, the coupler is made of rubber and fibers (no metal) but it is unlikely that this particular one would have broken soon. However, for $14 it should be replaced! Oh I know, the labor to replace it adds on more cost. Whatever, it's your steering and you should never cut costs on any safety system (brakes, steering, etc.). At the very least the customer should have been notified of this:

Here's another view so you can see how it connects to the steering shaft (what the steering wheel mounts to):

The big round semi-rusty thing there is the brake servo/booster. It pulls vaccum off the engine intake and makes the brake pedal easier to press.  This function was not working when I test drove the bus. However, I can not diagnose that it was the fault of the booster because of the non-stock intake. When the engine is reinstalled with the correct intake (fuel injection), we will be able to see if the booster works. It sure does make things nicer!  The steering tie rods are pictured here also. IF the bus has not been aligned recently, I may recommend replacing these.

That's all for now. Enjoy!

Oh, forgot to add this picture of steering damper. It's old and likely not working well. New one will give much better/tighter steering feel

Last blog

The last blog on engine disassembly contains some typos. Blogger is not letting me edit it for some reason. Mainly, the last paragraph should say the crankshaft is 71 mm and NOT 66 mm. fyi, 66 mm is 1700/1800 style.

There are some other grammatical errors too but suck it up, my hands were greasy. ;-)

We want to remove the heads. The first mission is to verify the engine has a 66 mm stroke crankshaft (and 94 mm bore, though that can be changed easily by adding new pistons/cylinders). With these two verified, we know the engine is displacing 2 liters (2000 cc) and thereby is a candidate for fuel injection. Is there an *easier* way to verify the engine displacement? Yes, a leak-down test (fill a cylinder with fluid, put it through a stroke and measure the amount that comes out). However, we also want to remove the heads for inspection- to verify they have no cracks, dropping valves, etc. We will have ZERO "mysteries" in this engine by doing this and we will know what additional steps we need to take (i.e. head replacement/rebuild, piston/cylinder replacement, or just ring replacement/cylinder honing).
Additionally, we need to verify the engine a true hydraulic cam lifter type. This is done by inspecting the lifters and the camshaft.

Flywheel off before going onto engine stand.
Front main seal is leaking:

Top of engine missing two covers (flywheel inpsection hole cover on left and flywheel speed pickup sensor missing on right). The latter sensor is not needed. It is for dealerships to hook up to. This hole will be covered by a plug. The missing covers have let oil in (from the leaking main seal) onto the top of the engine.

Engine on stand and most peripherals off. Rear of engine:

Very leaky oil pump. Those are the engine securing brace (aka "mustache bar") mounts to the left and right. They are in good shape but will be replaced because they are cheap so they might as well be.

Oil on front of fan shroud from leaky oil pump:

The following picture is where the fan shroud connects to a heat exchanger (left). "Non-return flaps" were missing (from left and right sides) and thus warm air was being blown back into the cooling system when the auxilliary heater fan was on! Note the intact tabs on the top of that opening. This is where the non-return flap is mounted, via a pin/rod that goes across from tab to tab. the flap hangs off the tab and down over the opening. It opens and closes according to which side has the stronger air push.

Here is the right side. Note the broken off tabs. Fan shroud must be replaced in order to mount the non-return flaps.

See here for more on non-return flaps and all heating stuff:

http://www.ratwell.com/technical/Heating.html

Next picture is a broken upper alternator bracket. This happened because the lower alternator bracket was never tightened down. I understand why- it's one the last things you do when installing an engine and often gets forgotten as it's hidden in front of the fan shroud. This will be either welded or replaced.

Various pieces of cooling tin cracked like the following picture. These can be welded but will likely just be replaced- as it's easier and we have tons of it! ;-)

The following picture shows a missing seal above the oil pressure sending unit. This is an example of an air cooling leak:

Exhaust manifold-to-head nuts are stainless. They should be copper. The stainless ones will release and thus create an exhaust leak. New ones WILL be the proper copper ones. The copper seals between the manifolds and heads will be annealed and the manifolds will be milled and matched.

Exhaust (including heat exchangers). Catalytic converter will be eliminated by using a straight pipe (Federal, non Cali.) or an aftermarket "Eliminator muffler." I reccomend the latter. It is MUCH simpler but it does cost a little bit more. It eliminates all those crazy components after the heat exchangers. Those are only needed for EGR/emissions. If this vehicle is smog exempt, they can be ridded of and thus eliminating areas for potential leakage and wear.

Next picture shows a missing thermostat. Very common. Mechanics remove them for "full flow" air cooling. WRONG! Engines with no thermostats will NOT get up to operating temperature fast enough, especially in relatively cold weather. While it's trying to get to operating temp, the air cooling system is blowing cold air over the outsides of the cylinders/heads while inside there is heat. So, you have cold on the outside and heat on the inside. This creates expansion and contraction in all the wrong areas and cuts down engine life very significantly. It also does things like loosens nuts that hold the engine together. On this engine, one nut that holds on a head was completely loose! And that is after only 16k miles.

Down to the longblock:

The following two pictures show why the #1 cylinder had such poor compression. It was not cooling proplery because of blockage. See that mess of stuff there on the top? Totally blocked the cooling passage.

Better view of it from the front side. This was blown in by the cooling fan and demostrates why you need a screen over it! A non-broken screen, that is! ;-) Ok, no smiley face here. This is the cause of the low compression that made us decide to go ahead and remove the heads to inspect them and the cylinders for potential replacement.

Now, let's yank those heads off!! Critical inspections here. Drumroll please.....

Heads are off and we're looking into the cylinders. I know it's hard to see the ruler but it is stuck down into the cylinder with the piston at the bottom of a stroke. Look right at the 7 on the ruler. It is at the top of the cylinder, where the piston does stroke up to. It strokes 71 mm! WOOHOO! This engine contains a 2 liter style crankshaft. Score 1!

The pistons and cylinders ARE a 94 mm bore! WOOHOO! However, these could have (and might be) easily replaced IF someone had installed, say, 90 mm (1700 cc style) or 93 mm (1800 cc style) pistons and cylinders. Now, we know this engine has been displacing 2 liters; and I am even more baffled why someone wanted to put on dual Solex carburetors from a 1700/1800 cc engine! No goot. This engine has been STARVING.

Now, what about those heads huh? The heads are AMC brand and were replaced (as new) 16k miles ago. AMC heads are very good heads for a stock 2 liter application. They have a step cut inplace of head gaskets, which is very nice.

Left side head (cylinders 3 and 4). NO visible cracks. NO visible valve droppage or valve seat wear. Will do further cleaning and testing but head is likely VERY GOOD and does not need replaced or rebuilt. The small amount of blowby on #3 is indicative of worn rings and thus oil getting past the rings into the cylinder and being burnt. Engine DID blow black smoke and so I was prepared to see this.

Right side head (cylinders 1 and 2). NO visible cracks! NO visible valve droppage or valve seat failure. Will do further cleaning and testing but head is likely very good and does not need replaced or rebuilt. Note the oil blowby on #1 (the cylinder that was blocked and not cooling). BAD rings. Coincidence? Uh, noooo....

Engine DOES have hydraulic lifters:

And...this pictures shows the cam (lifters pulled out). Maybe hard to tell if you don't know what you're looking at here but all of the cam lobes are in VERY good shape and the cam is likely a hydraulic style.

Down to the shortblock:

Inside cylinders 1 and 2. Note the oil (already discussed) and excessive black carbon. The latter from the carburetors running rich (too much gas) and not being equipped for a 2 liter engine. Likely someone tried to up the gas mixture to try to feed the engine. Ya can't just do that.

Inside cylinders 3 and 4. Same comments as above.

Inside cylinder #3. Note the circus stripes! This is rings up and down along the cylinder wall. Bad. These rings were also likely NOT broken-in properly when the engine was new. So, it never had a chance to be a 100k mile engine.

THE FINAL VERDICT: Overall, a very good engine and exactly what I expected as follows: The engine has a 66 mm crank and hydraulic cam and lifters. Great! It is, for all intents and purposes a d1978-79 2 liter hydraulic engine- Ready for fuel injection. The cam is great, the main bearings are great (connecting rods are tight) and the end play (front to back) is good. Very solid short block. Heads are great.

So, what's bad? Well, that last picture says it. The engine has not been cooling properly (leaks and blockage) and thus the rings have worn fast (they were likely not broken in properly). So, the only thing (inside the engine) that needs help are the rings and cylinders. Can't just replace the rings and hone cylinders. Those circus stripes killed the cylinders (2 of them). New piston/cylinder/ring set and this engine will be TIGHT! :-)