Sunday again already, time for another update.
Rummaged through the left over paint cabinet to see what suitable colours I had to paint the fan with, found some plain silver for the ring and a dark grey from a VW Notchback I painted about 15 years ago. It was going to either be that or Kubota orange (which would look cool too)
Light coat of epoxy, let that flash off and hit it with colour, saves another round of sanding. Wet on wet for small parts like this is actually the easiest way as long as you let the coat underneath dry enough.
Reassembled fan / alternator with all of its plated hardware ready to go back on the engine, once its all together in the car if for some reason I need it to stand out more the blades can easily be removed and painted orange......but I think subtle is better.
Had a fight and a half installing it on the engine, the alternator was clocked the wrong way in its housing and no matter what I did the wiring didn't seem to want to fit and sit nicely. In the end 3 attempts was the magic number and it's now back where it belongs.
The air cooled flat 6 doesn't really come to life until the fan is installed on it making it instantly recognizable.
At the same time installing the wire harness on the rest of the engine, it's been so long I had to look at some pictures on line to figure out where everything goes.
Bought a brand new A/C pump but that's waiting on more hardware that's still away being re plated.
Going full aftermarket MoTec ecu means doing away with the old Motronic and getting rid of air flap meter, coils. leads and twin distributors leaving a distributor hole in the case to block off. Scrounged around for scrap aluminium but didn't find anything large enough. Being the impatient type I am I did find 2 pieces that when combined would work. More work to make but means I can do it Now and complete another job!
O ringed both pieces when machined to size and even found a stainless arm that was nearly the right shape to serve as a hold down bracket. No load or anything on this so it just needs to hold it in place.
Next will be a block off for the power steering pump but I need to buy material for that. An electric TRW pump mounted in the front will replace it.
That's all on the engine for now until all the materials arrive to build the headers, I already had some but going 3.8L and aftermarket cams, ecu these are now too small but I never really liked the look of them anyway so I'll make new ones.
Next job on the list is the front diff and torque tube, aim is to disassemble, clean, inspect and replace as needed. Dirty oily thing.
Got everything apart and realized I don't have the correct tool to remove the pinion shaft nut so the idea of getting the housing vapour blasted is out the window.
Bearings feel perfect so I didn't feel like creating more work where it's not needed. Started cleaning the housing by hand but that was really slow going, couple hours later and loads of degreaser a good final rinse followed by thoroughly drying and then lubing the pinion bearings to avoid any flash rust starting.
Cleaned up all of the related hardware, needs nothing more than new input and output shaft seals, cover O ring and new drain / fill plug washers.
Put the output shafts in the lathe to polish the surface where the seal will run, easy to do and gives the new seal the best chance of doing its job.
