Vanagon running and Legacy not. At least... not yet.

Work has been moving more slowly than I'd like. As per my last blog post, the Vanagon is running and on the road. I've been ironing out a few final quirks, but mostly because I'm not driving it every day. Overall, it's running well. We took it camping a few weeks back, and I've been driving it locally on weekends. I still don't trust it well enough to take it on a long road trip, but I think that will change in the near future.

I'm still working on the project Legacy, too. I finally finished up the front suspension and am cracking into the rear suspension. Weather has been getting in the way, though, and keeping me from finishing it up. With a bit of luck, I'll have that done tomorrow and can then move on to tune-up items. The rear struts, like the fronts, require me to crack the brake lines when changing them. When I replaced the front struts, the first thing I did was make sure I could remove the bleeder screws. Unfortunately, one of the rear bleeder screws is hopelessly seized, meaning that I'll be replacing the caliper on that side.

When the Legacy is on the road, I'll finally get started on the 240D. MercedesDieselGuy will once again be working on a Mercedes diesel. It'll be nice to be back into a project that's just for the fun of it and not so much out of necessity.

Update on the Vanagon and the Legacy

I really do try to keep this blog up to date. I hasn't been easy, but I'll try and do better.

Anyhow, the project Legacy isn't as far along as I'd like at this point. I did finally finish cleaning the interior. I had both the front seats out in order to give the carpets a deep cleaning. From there, I turned my attention to the car's steering and suspension, and that's where things started to snowball on me.

In order to changed the shredded steering rack boots, I needed to remove the outer tie rod ends. Even though there was no noticeable play in the tie rod ends, I found the grease boot was torn on one side (I haven't gotten to the other side yet). Once I changed the steering rack boot, and placed an order for new tie rod ends (still waiting for them), I decided to change the lower ball joints, only to have the pinch bolt shear off on me. It looks like I'll be drilling that out once I pull the steering knuckle off the car.

The only part of the job that went relatively smoothly was changing out the front sway bar bushings and links. The car had a reasonably tired suspension. Although the front was serviceable (the rear suspension is desperate for some new parts), I decided to refurbish both the front and rear while I had the chance. I also have the right front strut out for replacement (left front still installed, but it's up next).

It took me a while to get to the Legacy because... I was finishing up the Vanagon. Guess what?... it's running:

It's re-registered, re-inspected, and back on the road. I've only driven it locally so far, but it's running pretty well with the new engine. Bonus - I even found an original tachometer gauge cluster in the junkyard last weekend and installed it. Completely plug-and-play:

So, before I move on to the Mercedes, which is now in the garage, I need to finish up the Legacy project. There's still a lot of work ahead, but as this car needs to be a daily driver in the near future, I'm not dragging my feet on the project.

As always, there's more to come. Stay tuned...