New from Germany '69 A100 pickup

Donivan - it's not that americanized here as it may seem from my personal garage.... People over here are kind of very sceptical on some US things (big SUV/trucks and engines, which I do like a lot ). Some more, some less, depending on personal thinking, ideas and such.
I really don't want to go into politics. But over here in Germany it's not all that great as well (about 1/2 of it all, I guess ), we have our problems as well. I used to live in the US/NYC for three years and I personally think, that it doesn't really matter - probably, everywhere in the world you'll find 1/2 being pretty nice, but the other 1/2 is at least questionable... It's just different things... Kind of.

And yes, those old VW engines are pretty dependable. A friend is working on a VW 411, a quite big car (rear engine) for German "circumstances". Oh, just an example: in a parking lot it is regulated that it has to have a minimum width of 2.3m (-> approx. 7 ft)! Of course, builders only build them at minimum width, making available more lots for less money. Only recently it was mandated, that the minimum width should be extended by 1/2 ft.... And Germans do get pretty angry, if you do not park you car in line with the lines... I do hate that (my Phaeton/Charger/A100 are all about 6 ft 8 wide, you can imagine, that dings and dents are unavoidable to get in and out). I always park in a way, that I DO HAVE enough space and regularly get harassed by other people.   Sad. Another problem: new roads have to have a minimum width of 3m (approx. 10 ft) for each lane. That's getting pretty narrow, if you have an 18 wheeler next to you in the city and there's no space to go....


Back to topic.

Talked to the body shop today. The A100 will go there after easter only.

Today the sway bar links arrived and I HAD TO mount at least one side. Thanks to THIS FORUM, I was able to order Ford's F-150 parts, which fit perfectly, although a bit shorter (makes the ride a little stiffer, as i understand).

Here's the pics. The old shock absorber was DEAD. Fully compressed by hand and NO movement...
Will be a nice ride, I guess.

,,,,just one more thing,,,,,,I guess the idea of cruising your Dodge down to France and Spain, stopping off to say Hi to the Pope, heading east across Russia and waving to America, then going south to China, Korea and Viet Nam and heading back west with some cheap gas prices and taking a spin around Africa, before getting back home, is probably not on your bucket list,,,,,,,,

Well, the pope used to be in South France, but that's been centuries ago. Actually we drove down to Avignon with my previous daily (2000 A6 V8 estate, one way approx. 1.000 miles). I'd prefer to go to Italy (did that with the Phaeton - not a ding/dent although everything is even smaller down there). Italians are just crazy about vintage cars - they love them!

For the big roundtrip I guess I'd prefer a Land Rover Defender, short wheel base.

Maybe we'll do something crazy like that after having retired and all debt being paid off...

out here,,,,,everywhere we go in our vans, they seem to bring smiles to peoples faces,,,,,,,all those other countries around you should stop all their nonsense and learn to smile again,,,,,,,thats what life is for,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Fully agree!

Goddamnit. After it worked very well with the driver side, the passenger side is a pain in the a**...

The lower bolt holding the shock absorber and sway bar link is seized. unfortunately, the old sway bar link will definitely prevent passing the roadworthy test, I need to get this sucker out.

What I will try:
* Soaking with WD-40 and more chemicals to loose the rust for a couple days
* Heat the I-beam, cool the bolt and get my 3 lb mallet...

What about the I-beam - I probably should avoid getting it red, right?

So,,,,,is the shock off and you are left with the bolt holding the link onto the axle and it wont turn? an impact gun could loosen that bolt or like put a bunch of washers on the bolt and try and tighten the nut to break it loose,,,,,or double nut it and put breaker bars on both ends of the bolt and try and turn it,,,,,,,,bang on the area above the bolt,,,,,,fire probably aint gonna hurt it,,,,,,

Yep, the shock is off, link is still on.

Good tips, thanks, Don, will try tomorrow or at the weekend.

,,,,,Did you see the 2 Dodge videos here?




https://vintage-vans.forumotion.com/t54122-gm-service-bulletin-video-must-see

Yep, know them already. Pretty cool stuff. Thx.

Still priming the bolt with WD-40

That sucker is just fixed. Heat, force, no avail. I figured that I'll take this bolt, well, the truck, to a local spring shop. They should know what to do....

At least, I got the front dog house section out. It was described elsewhere (I think in this forum), as well - I got it out without removing the radiator:
Remove engine-part of engine harness through doghouse.
Remove throttle linkage (at least at my 318 with power steering)
Disconnect gear selector cable at trans and remove through doghouse.
Support radiator from below
Remove 4 radiator bolts (two are at the upper end, way up in the doghouse, a long-nut helps a lot)
Remove 4 bolts attaching doghouse front section to rear splash shields
Remove parking brake bracket (the one attaching handle to doghouse - you'll need this space)

As the lower doghouse section is formed a little odd on the driver side, you need to swivel the doghouse to the rear (pushing the upper part to the back), wiggling helps, eventually, it'll come out. The radiator including fan shroud is free up in the air, that's why you need to support it. You can see that the fan shroud's not connected to the radiator:



I have fixed the radiator with some sheet metal to the splash shields, reattached the throttle linkage, gear selector cable (uhh, need a new one. those are expensive...) and engine harness and I should be good to go .

heat in America is an Oxygen Acetylene torch,,,,,,,is it the same out there,,,,,,,I guess you could undo the axle and take it to a shop and then clean and paint it and make it pretty,,,,,,

I used propane + air, which is almost the same temp: 3400°F versus acetylen 4000°F.
Difference does not really matter, I guess, as the axle should melt at around 2100°F.

Taking the axle off means another 8 bolts plus drag link, brake lines and such. I prefer renting a trailer to take the truck to the shop and let them take care of it.

Not much done lately - men's deadly cold caught me hard....

But, parking brake is back in business. It was just a spring to be replaced, now the clip locks the lever again.


And I successfully destroyed a puller with the tie rod end of the ram cylinder:


This sucker just don't want to be pulled (actually, it's pushing). It's heavy business, the nut is 1 1/16"...

Selected three for links & rods, the OTC tool on the left has never let me down, have tightened it on a drag link, walked away for a few hours to let the magic happen.

I ordered a replacement for the destroyed puller - now HAZET. A friend lend me his no-name, now he'll get some good stuff . Also ordered the middle puller with appropriate opening for this tie rod.

The left one is great! I'm still looking for that one.

The middle tool is a Hazet tie rod puller.

69,
The left one is an OTC 7311. Amazon has them at this link.OTC 7311
I don't know about shipping to Germany, though.  Maybe someone there has it.
Jim

Got the new puller from Hazet. Fits much better and is strong. Together with some heat we got the sucker off today:




On we go.

I got one more:

Seat rails. Both parts have 8 distance plastic pieces, which tend to fall apart, if you're a little hard on the rails. That means, that those little roller pins inside the adjuster (the two rail parts) are able to roll out - and those little things tend to diminish somewhere in the shop/garage/street you'll never find again.

I got them printed by a friend, and as reference for you guys I publish the STL-file enabling you to print them yourself or at a local 3D-print shop.

You can find the distance pieces if you look hard (click on the image to get them bigger).


http://nedoc.gecius.de/A100/resto/Sitzschiene.stl

Another week, another problem....

After replacing the broken neutral safety switch I was able to move the gear selector from P to R, N, D, 2 and 1, but only back to D....

So, approx. 1,5 gallon of pouring ATF later I was able to identify the problem - the insulator attached to the rooster comb broke short after selector position N... see pic. The metal is the rooster comb with the left contact being the N contact for the NSS. The selector is currently in D position. Further right would be 2 and 1, but the switch cannot turn back, because the half-moon shaped plastic to recess the backup light switch part of the NSS is missing. This was introduced with '69 model. According to my books, the NSS was one pin only in '68 with the BU-light switch attached to the gear selector under dash (I added it there earlier).

Most likely I need to remove the valve body to replace it. And, luckily, it happened now and not while away on a trip far away from home... And the ATF looked pretty good and did not smell burned. Good.

To boost my mood I replaced the front wheel bearings. Did that multiple times on the Charger's front end. It was good, because it was not greased properly and the automatic brake adjuster on the passenger side was not mounted correctly. That would have left me with one-sided brakes sooner or later. Good to dive into everything yourself....

I also cleaned the king pin area and lubricated that as well (lets see if I need to exchange that as well, I hope not), exchanged some dust covers for the drag link. The transmission linkage to the carburetor was also not hooked up as stipulated... *sigh*

Just to the left of your switch mounting is that a bent / crushed cooling tube? If it is it looks really restricted.

Good eye, busman, thanks. Just looked it up again - it is bend, but not crushed, Just a little restricted. It just looks worse, due to the dirt making false shadows.

My little grab bag had two more surprises for me yesterday. I removed the valve body to replace the isolator on the rooster comb. But the new NSS did not fit, because the rooster comb is not exactly centered...

Not enough: 4 of the trans oil pan threads gone bad... holy cow, what's next?

Luckily, the front left wheel cylinder was easy to replace. Just cleaning took a little longer....


Hard to recognize - the orig NSS has a pretty short and hemispheric top, while the replacement one has a longer top contact which is not hemispehirc enough...

And for today, I took off the first valve cover. Reason was, that I wanted to change the PCV valve and realized, that there was huge dirt/build up right behind it at the splash panel. Fortunately, that was not too bad. And now it is very clear, why there's so much dreck all around the engine. With that kind of "gasket" no wonder, the little one is peeing itself... Will continue to clean the cover and all (I always forget to take a pic right after taking it off). The engine will get multiple oil changes with engine cleaner added.





Just for the fun of it, I de-winterized the Charger today and did some service jobs on it. I took off right away after filling the carb and ran great. Had a great day, today