Dear VW-friends,

 

there are good news from England! Number one: Mark finished the body work of the decklid, just have a look on the brilliant job he has done.

“This you call ‘finished’? Don´t you want to restore it to mint condition? Come on, it´s a Samba!”
“Pfffff, you still didn´t get what this reconstruction is all about. I will explain it again, the 100^th time, just for you: I want the Samba to tell its history and so I won´t paint it, no way!”
“Stupid Punk!”

Superb job, Mark!

 

 

Number two: Rick from Schofield´s finished the new chassis legs for the Samba. Don´t they look great as well?

Rick will send the chassis legs directly to Mark, who is desperate for new work.  🙂

Mark will reconstruct the chassis of the Samba and so it is my turn to send him the remaining parts of the chassis. The rear part is ready to go, I removed the gear box a few months ago already. But Mark needs the front part as well, so I have to remove the front axle. But before disassembling the front axle I had to remove the steering box. The box itself lost contact to the chassis leg a long time ago and was wiggling freely, just hold by the central draglink.

Have a look on the draglink, it´s still the original one with the grease nipple and the simple, non-closed rubber boot.

 

Steering boxes for split window busses are hard to find, so I am happy that there is still a steering box even it is looking very rusty and dirty. Will it be worth restoring? This will depend not on the condition of the box only! Before investing time, work and money into it, I have to be sure that it is the original steering box of the Samba. Because –you guess it already- there are THREE different steering boxes just for Barndoor! Have a look in the 1954 workshop manual:

Three different steering boxes up to 1954 already!
As our Samba has the chassis number 20-15 448 the model “532, old type” should be the right one

 

Now we have to clean the steering box and hope to find a ZF-number. So let´s drop it in cleaning fluid for a night.

 

The next morning, I am removed the oily, but now more or less liquid dirt from the box and was lucky to find this:

Bingo! Model 532! But is it the “new type” or the “old type”?

 

What is the diffenernce between “532 old” and “532 new” type? The ZF-number is the same. Another look into the workshop manual teaches us how to identify the difference:

 

“The cam spindle and the steering shaft are 2 separate parts which are splined together and secured by a clamping band”

I would say this is exactly what we see here:

 

Now we know the steering box is still the original one! Next step is getting the seals we need for the restoration of the box. Let´s have a look into the 1951 spare parts book:

 

There are three sealings we need:

N 013 828   seal ring for the upper laying shaft

N 013 809   seal ring for the two lower housing screws

N 013 840   upper seal ring in steering box for spindel of the boxes ZF 531 (up to chassis # 20 – 010 000) and ZF 532 old type (from chassis 20 – 010 000 until 20 – 041 712)

To produce this seals in VEWIB-quality is my job! It wasn´t to complicated and the seals are already in stock now. If you need them for your Barndoor restoration, you can order them through every VEWIB-distributor.

Next week I will remove the front axle and send the two parts of the chassis to Mark. I will keep you updated.

 

 

Have a good week!

 

Florian

 

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