So, when I last left off with the Bradley, remember how I said I only needed to fix the carb and get a vacuum advance distributor? Well I fixed both of those and found my next problem. The aluminum/magnesium alloy that the crankcase is made out of is extremely soft, and because of this the cylinders were loosening themselves and leaking all my compression and gasoline all over the road. So I was pretty much back at square-one. Took the entire engine out... again. And this time I stripped it down to the crankshaft. (Which looks to be in fantastic condition by the way.)
So how does one keep a soft case from letting go of the cylinders? (Techically it's letting go of the heads since the cylinders are more like the meat and cheese in this mechanical sandwich, but whatever.) Case-savers. These cool little steel inserts that you stick into the block so you have steel on steel contact for the threads instead of steel on aluminum/magnesium al-yeah whatever. That stuff. They're about $30 including shipping. So that on top of another gasket set, (Paper gaskets tend to tear with removal and installation whether they're new or not.) as well as a few nitty-gritty stuff will leave us short some cash. Nothing too bad, but blegh. I just can't wait to actually have everything fixed on this car.
Anyway I'm sure you're all quite bored with the preamble; so onward to the photos!
I bought a pair of broken 205T distributors and out of the three I had I was able to make one serviceable unit. I love that orange distributor cap.
I dunno what was going on here... Have a photo of the half disassembled engine.
This is what had broken on the carburetor. It's a little pin that limits the throttle-plates range of movement. They're known to just fall out. I had some brass wire laying around that fit, so I'm using that until it falls out, then I'll invest the whopping thirty cents for a steel one glued in place. In the meantime, this works.
The crankcase came apart with much work for me. (My back! My baaack!) But inside it looks pretty clean.
Closer view of the inside. Ever wonders what the inside of your air-cooled VW's crankcase looks like? Well now you know.
Aaand the outside. This thing needs some googly eyes at the moment.
Crankshaft. Work of beauty this is. Looks nearly new. Except for the oil finger prints.
Aand here's one of the two pile of parts for the engine. Everything is coated generously in motor oil (Except the aluminum.) to keep it from rusting in this humidity. But I still worry.
Anyway, yeah. There's the Bradley thus far. Next post I'll have the case-savers in and put the whole thing back together. I'll also paint the engine shroud sometime between then and now. Until next time. Peace out!
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