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Blood Magnet
Nov 25, 2010


Here is a shift lever and handle I'm working on. It is supposed to be sort of a heart on top of a spine. It was originally going to be a smooth, ergonomic shape, but I didn't want the handle to look like a dick, so I added the valves.

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Black88GTA
Oct 8, 2009

Blood Magnet posted:



Here is a shift lever and handle I'm working on. It is supposed to be sort of a heart on top of a spine. It was originally going to be a smooth, ergonomic shape, but I didn't want the handle to look like a dick, so I added the valves.

I see a little man with stumpy legs flying through the air and bringing a giant axe down on top of it :black101:

Blood Magnet
Nov 25, 2010
I see that now, too. Weird.

Blooot
Mar 19, 2001

What is that made out of?

shy boy from chess club
Jun 11, 2008

It wasnt that bad, after you left I got to help put out the fire!

Thats cool and I see the axe guy now too. His legs aren't stumpy its just that hes wearing a lab coat.

rscott
Dec 10, 2009

Billy Tully posted:

Thats cool and I see the axe guy now too. His legs aren't stumpy its just that hes wearing a lab coat.

Yeah this is exactly what I see.

Blood Magnet
Nov 25, 2010

Blooot posted:

What is that made out of?

It is TIG welded stainless steel. The heart started out as as two 1-1/4" elbows. The spine is a 3/4" square tube with flat bar welded on. After a poo poo-ton of welding and grinding, you get an amorphous blob and an anatomically incorrect spine.

Poisonlizard
Apr 1, 2007
Holy poo poo, that spine looks amazing. Looking forward to seeing more of your metal work.

Blood Magnet
Nov 25, 2010


Here is a brake light I'm working on. My co-worked had a broken tail light in his F-150 and I used as big a piece as I could. I think I'm just gonna run one, cocked jauntily to the side. Since I took the photo I also added a little visor.

ExplodingSims
Aug 17, 2010

RAGDOLL
FLIPPIN IN A MOVIE
HOT DAMN
THINK I MADE A POOPIE


Wow, you do some fantastic metal work. That taillight looks great.

Would you consider doing some commissioned work? I have something I wanted to make, but lack the skills too. If you're interested, email me at:

Already got it!

ExplodingSims fucked around with this message at 06:29 on Nov 2, 2011

Blood Magnet
Nov 25, 2010
Picture Time!



The taillight mounted.



You can see the steering wheel, shifter and pedals.

Toucan Sam
Sep 2, 2000
I would daily drive the poo poo out of that.

Blood Magnet
Nov 25, 2010

Toucan Sam posted:

I would daily drive the poo poo out of that.

If you saw how hard it is to climb in and out of it, you wouldn't say that.

Blood Magnet
Nov 25, 2010
I'm having trouble getting the transmission to go into gear. The shifter moves from side to side while in neutral, but won't engage into any gear. The clutch pedal appears to be working. Tell me it's a clutch issue and not a transmission problem. Any ideas, VW goons?

shy boy from chess club
Jun 11, 2008

It wasnt that bad, after you left I got to help put out the fire!

Blood Magnet posted:

I'm having trouble getting the transmission to go into gear. The shifter moves from side to side while in neutral, but won't engage into any gear. The clutch pedal appears to be working. Tell me it's a clutch issue and not a transmission problem. Any ideas, VW goons?

Did it work before now? There is an adjustment for the clutch rod where it attaches to the clutch fork on the tranny IIRC.

Blood Magnet
Nov 25, 2010
There was no engine in it when I bought it. The PO assured me the transmission was rebuilt. I just took the motor out, and I'll check for that clutch rod adjustment tomorrow. Thanks for the advice.

shy boy from chess club
Jun 11, 2008

It wasnt that bad, after you left I got to help put out the fire!

Yea, thats probably what it is, the adjustment might be on the pedal side too but its been so long since I had my bus.

General_Failure
Apr 17, 2005
Can you put it in gear with the engine stopped?

Do you have all the right bits and pieces for your clutch assembly like throwout bearing and possibly guide, pilot bearing etc?

The only clutch cable adjustment I know of is the wingnut on the end of the cable at the clutch arm.

Due to the scary nature of your raised shifter I can't really say if the issue is there.

How's the bushing on the cage where the shift rod joins on to the transmission?

How do you adjust stick position with that gear shift setup? Usually the assembly that holds the stick in place...sorry don't remember its name, has oversized holes to allow the stick to be moved, essentially adjusting where the shift rod moves.

Blood Magnet
Nov 25, 2010

General_Failure posted:

Can you put it in gear with the engine stopped?

Do you have all the right bits and pieces for your clutch assembly like throwout bearing and possibly guide, pilot bearing etc?

The only clutch cable adjustment I know of is the wingnut on the end of the cable at the clutch arm.

Due to the scary nature of your raised shifter I can't really say if the issue is there.

How's the bushing on the cage where the shift rod joins on to the transmission?

How do you adjust stick position with that gear shift setup? Usually the assembly that holds the stick in place...sorry don't remember its name, has oversized holes to allow the stick to be moved, essentially adjusting where the shift rod moves.

I can't get it to go into gear at all. Even with the engine removed. Now I'm worried. I have a stock assembly, it is just mounted on top of the tunnel.

Blood Magnet
Nov 25, 2010
How much is the inner gear change lever supposed to move?

General_Failure
Apr 17, 2005

Blood Magnet posted:

How much is the inner gear change lever supposed to move?

Not sure I follow you there.

So you shifted the assembly up. Did you use the stock shift rod going back to the transmission or make your own?

Ah poo poo. I just realised you may not have a cage and might have one of those weird flexible tube things between your rot and the transmission. Anyway is whatever it is that connects your shift rod to the transmission accessible? It can need a lot of strength but see if you can change gear manually near the nosecone if you can reach it.

Sitting in the front, looking back at the transmission I think first gear would be anti-clockwise then in toward the transmission.
you might just have some serious slop or misalignment somewhere.
There is also another possibility. Had the transmission been run since the rebuild?
If not, I've read a few times of a mis-assembly of the nosecone where things aren't parked in the right position before it's bolted on making shifting physically impossible. Honestly I don't touch the insides of transmissions just because of all the special preloads etc. are enough to scare me off. What I suggested is a bit of a long shot but definitely confirm it can go into gear first.

What does the gear stick feel like? When you move it around do you feel anything? These transmissions don't have spring loading for the stick so we can't use that as a metric, but can you feel anything at the left and right extremes trying to push it back and forth? Does it go back and forth at all, do it with no feedback, or can you feel engagement?

If your clutch feels like it works that's a good thing. There may be a return spring on the outside of the transmission on the lever. I don't know though because I had one with and one without. Do you have a little bit of easy push and the rest harder (when the throwout bearing makes contact and starts pushing)?

I've had a throwout bearing fail and it made the clutch all hard and weird. Didn't let me declutch. But I could still change gears by rev matching and change gears with the engine off. If you can feel the gears engaging through the stick with the engine running, but it's not going anywhere it's either one hell of a clutch problem or something missing / broken in the transmission... or your axles are missing.

edit:

sorry a bit slow today. I see what you mean. Like how far is the inner shaft meant to rotate and thrust. Mmmm yeahhh.That's actually a very good question. There's probably a couple of inches of throw at least and I don't know, maybe between 30 and 40 degrees of rotation at a rough guess.
In a bay I have to do a special gear shift dance to get the transmission shaft and the shift rod where I want them to do a cage bushing change to get them on the right angle and in the right position so what I said there is just an observation from doing that,

General_Failure fucked around with this message at 22:49 on Nov 13, 2011

Blood Magnet
Nov 25, 2010
So you are saying there is at least an inch of throw in each gear at the inner gear change lever. poo poo, I have maybe 1/4 of an inch. It does rotate nicely but it just doesn't feel like it's going into gear.

General_Failure
Apr 17, 2005

Blood Magnet posted:

So you are saying there is at least an inch of throw in each gear at the inner gear change lever. poo poo, I have maybe 1/4 of an inch. It does rotate nicely but it just doesn't feel like it's going into gear.

I mean like total throw. Like the whole big long shift rod should be able to move a couple of inches. Like from 1st to 2nd, and from 3rd to 4th. if you are saying that you have maybe 1/4" fore and aft movement at the ball cup thing that your gear stick goes in then you aren't getting into gear, just bouncing around in neutral. Given how much fabrication was done it's possible the rotation is just out of whack somehow and you are simply just missing where the gears are. This is really tricky from afar.
We really need to eliminate if it is physically possible to put your transmission in gear and whether the gear stick is capable of doing it.
Don't go getting worried though. There' snot a whole lot that can be wrong. It's just elimination on a non standard setup can be fun. :pseudo: My bay is a mixed bag of parts and it makes working things out kind of interesting because I can't work off any specifications.

Silly question but your engine runs, right? What happens when you try to gently put it in reverse? It's a non synchro gear so if it is trying to engage you should get a grind if your clutch isn't declutching or something weird like that happening.

Blood Magnet
Nov 25, 2010
As of now I have the engine and shift rod removed and I still can't get it into gear. I'm using a pair of vicegrips to hold onto the end of the lever. It will rotate but not go into gear.

General_Failure
Apr 17, 2005
Follow this and go down to ""Hockey Stick" Woes". This is what I have been suspecting is wrong with your transmission. I know there are plenty of instances of it on thesamba but I'm struggling to find the right search terms. Perhaps you'll have more luck.

I'm not there so I can't feel it, but what you have described sounds a lot like what is going on in that section.

given your totally different position of the transmission, have you posted a photo? you may be able to get the nosecone off without pulling the transmission too.

edit: you or others may disagree and I'm not telling you to pull your entire vehicle apart or to even do this. It's just I'm hoping that it was just a simple stuff up when the nose cone was put on. Anyway I've done a nosecone swap when I put a type 3 transmission on my beetle. Removing a nosecone is pretty easy. just remember there's oil in the transmission.

General_Failure fucked around with this message at 10:16 on Nov 15, 2011

Blood Magnet
Nov 25, 2010


Easy access! Also, please try to ignore my brake lines. The "Hockey stick woes" sounds exactly like what I'm dealing with.

General_Failure
Apr 17, 2005

Blood Magnet posted:



Easy access! Also, please try to ignore my brake lines. The "Hockey stick woes" sounds exactly like what I'm dealing with.

trust me, your brake lines have nothing on the mess of hoses and wires in mine. I was actually up in that area today but that's something for my build thread.

I have a question about your shift rod. Ie the one that your shift cage is hanging off. Is it a stock rod? It's a little hard to tell from here. While I'm at it is that cage new or does it just look good? if it's not new you'll want to check how much slop is in the bushings. Even a little can make a big difference. I wanted to try the CB performance Rhino, but postage was prohibitive so instead I got one of the nice cage and bush kits from aircooled.net. That was when I found that the screw had been sheared off and because I didn't feel like pulling the drivetrain to fix that just used the urethane bushings for now. Makes a big difference.

Good luck with your nosecone adventure. By the way, have you checked the transaxle has oil in it after the rebuild?

Blood Magnet
Nov 25, 2010
I'm pretty sure it is a stock rod. The cage is old but it is in fairly good condition and the bushings don't have much slop at all. I haven't checked the oil in the transaxle. I started to remove the nose cone after work tonight, but I ran out of daylight, so I didn't get very far.

Blood Magnet
Nov 25, 2010
I took the nose cone off today. There wasn't a molecule of oil in there. With a little motivation (rubber mallet) I was able to "unstuck" the 1st and 2nd gear as well as the reverse levers. No such luck with 3rd and 4th. I'm hoping that with oil soaking all night it may loosen things up.

I'm also working on a skeleton arm manual turn signal mechanism (think of the door on a school bus). It may be ridiculous enough to work. Check back later for photos.

General_Failure
Apr 17, 2005
Ok so no oil in the nosecone? Was there oil in the transmission? There are massive arguments about GL4 vs. GL5. So long as it's hypoid oil of roughly the right weight it's a good start.

Be careful with that rubber mallet! Unless I'm mistaken those selector forks in there are brass. Have you tried turning the transmission a little and moving the rods. I mean sure the dogs should make that irrelevant but anyway it's worth trying. Better than a broken transmission.

Blood Magnet
Nov 25, 2010
There was no oil anywhere. I was also super gentle with the mallet. It didn't take very much to move the selector forks. No time tonight for any more work, maybe tomorrow.

Blood Magnet
Nov 25, 2010




Since my windows are too small to get my arms out of, I made a manual arm hand signal thing. It will swing out and the lever pulls down to raise the arm. The arm rotates at the little piece of angle on the right. Much better than lighted turn signals right? Right? I may make a stylized capital L that when you raise the hand it makes a lowercase r.

MattO
Oct 10, 2003

The hand signal is rad, how hard would it be to add a 'flip the bird' feature?

ultimateforce
Apr 25, 2008

SKINNY JEANS CANT HOLD BACK THIS ARC
Yeah, really. You messed up them fingers by having five of them sticking out.

Viggen
Sep 10, 2010

by XyloJW

ultimateforce posted:

Yeah, really. You messed up them fingers by having five of them sticking out.

If they weren't welded on, one could easily add an actuator to them. I'm thinking a microcontroller version of the 1980s 'neon finger in your bling velor car' response.

Godholio
Aug 28, 2002

Does a bear split in the woods near Zheleznogorsk?
Make an arm coming out of the dash to hold the rearview up.

Edit: V Good point, I forgot about that.

Godholio fucked around with this message at 22:14 on Nov 30, 2011

General_Failure
Apr 17, 2005

Godholio posted:

Make an arm coming out of the dash to hold the rearview up.

It's a beetle. Part of their advertising campaign at the time was that they didn't have a dashboard. Coming down from the roof is acceptable though.

As soon as I saw that arm all I could think of was a unique way to torment pedestrians and cyclists.

Blood Magnet
Nov 25, 2010

The arm held in place with a C clamp.





A pickelhuabe aircleaner. I didn't think the snake really fit with the military/zombie theme. I made the helmet from some scraps of sheetmetal and a cap from a junked fan from work. The point is stainless rod, nuts and pipe welded together and spun on a makeshift lathe.

simplefish
Mar 28, 2011

So long, and thanks for all the fish gallbladdΣrs!


Every time this updates it is never what I was expecting.

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Lowclock
Oct 26, 2005
I'm still goddamn amazed he's building a sort of military themed VW that doesn't have a single swastika or other Nazi image on it yet, although the helmet and planned door art are getting pretty close. Well done.

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