TheHaflinger.com

What is it like to have the space to have 2 Haflinger's apart at the same time taking up 3 times as much room now they are apart!!!

The white one's gearbox if whining is input bearing - but - they can go on making that noise for a very long time if you don't want to take it apart now and replace.

Do you have an exploded parts book? That will show what should be there in the green one's gearbox. I don't have my one to hand at present - will have to dig it put.

John

Well, Im pretty sure my employees arent super keen on what I am doing, lol!

Maybe I will just leave the gearbox alone on the white one then. I would rather have this back together sooner than later.

I do have the parts book in PDF and found that I am missing some balls and two springs of proper length. so I will be ordering those.

Since I am stopped waiting for parts, I figured I would do some other work. I started cleaning, but then got side tracked..

Looks familiar!

Did you "hand make" the repair panel? Or was it a panel that came over with the Haf's? Looks good which ever variation. I am sure you will find other places, like under the seats, front footwell, bottom of the engine bay, etc.

John

Because of the potential rust issue with the foot wells I have a large hole drilled in them and a small hole in each of the ribbed sections.

A modification I have considered doing to Lurch would be to put a couple of box sections under the footwell as they bend due to people standing in them!

Another thought if you're not too bothered about "originality", would be to replace the floors of the footwells with a suitable mesh. That way any water / mud would just wash out with filling the footwells up. For those who have passengers in the rear seats and have the full canvas top, winter might be a bit cold with the draft that would come in via the mesh, but you could put a couple of bits of cardboard in to seal it and then burn them at your next campfire!

John

I got the panels from http://www.haflinger-ersatzteile.at/index.php/en/. He shipped them to me in the US from Austria. What you dont see are the end caps and seat brackets.

My Haffies didnt come with any rear seat stuff, so I am adding it to the green one.

I am lucky in that there isnt any mentionable rust on the front floor or under the front seats. Most of it is on the rear deck. I think the white one has more rust. When removing one of the bolts for the rear shock when I was taking the drivetrain out, it just twisted the whole boss that the bolt goes through right off of the arm and left a nice pile of rust underneath it. So I have to get another control arm and the other side is leaking gear oil, so I will be replacing that one as well. My friend may be buying the white one from me, so I at least want it to be in a state that he can enjoy it.

Oh, and I dont mind deviating from stock a bit, but I dont think I will cut the front floor out. There are drains on either side. Ive seen some people put a wooden floorboard down which I might do.

I know one of the European suppliers has made a repair bracket for the shock absorber mounting point. Depends where the other side is leaking from as to what the repair will be.
Normal leak points are the pivot points on the Differential side plates, the rubber boots, the hubs.

So where’s the leak?

John

Well, I found some place that can sell me just the complete control arm, so I would rather do that.

It seems to be leaking (the one that didnt tear away the shock bolt upon removal) right where that bolt is. Ive not cleaned it well enough to ascertain exactly, but I presume is leaking from a rust hole that penetrates in the control arm where the axle shaft is. The arm has gear oil in it, right? I can take a picture tomorrow.

Chris

Yes, the arm has gear oil in it! One of the strange ideas of the Haflingers designer's brain! would have been so much nicer to have sealed it at the diff end and put a sealed bearing at the other end.

John

Here is what the suspect control arm looks like. The other one is definitely toast and I found a replacement for about €40 each, so I would rather do that then try welding a fix on only to find out there is nothing to weld to after grinding the rust away.

Obviously, what you should have done before you started taking everything apart was to clean that area properly, then taken it for a run and had another look to see where the oil leak starts from. Oil spreads far and wide from the original start point.
Are you sure it isn't brake fluid?
Is there an oil run line from the rubber boot to the shock mounting?

Whatever you do, don't throw away the "dead" axle arms, they will be mendable spares at some point. Someone putting together a Haflinger on a shoestring will think it is worth while mending a cheap damaged one rather than obtaining an expensive one from overseas.

John

P.S. I really should proof read my posts before posting them! "one arms"? should have been "dead axle arms"

True! Violated my own rules! I always tell my guys to clean and inspect prior to making a diagnosis!

Its definitely not brake fluid.

I dont see any oil line from the boot to the shock mounting. Is there supposed to be one?

Noted on the control arm. I didnt intend on pitching them anyway. I have lots of broken VW LT parts too as I know they arent easy to get and fixing broken parts might be on the horizon at some point

Chris

Hi Chris,

what I meant;

Is there a track of oil from the rubber boot to the shock absorber mounting point which could mean the oil is coming from the rubber boot and just accumulating on the shock absorber mounting point as it is the first lowest point.

It seems highly unlikely that there is a "rust" just there that is weeping unless it where the welding is. Possibly the shaft inside has worn a hole through, but that would have showed up as real vibration on any drive in the vehicle.

John

Hi John, I see what you mean. I just went back and looked at it again and inspected the entire circumference of the arm and there is no oil all the way around about 75mm inboard. Completely dry.

There definitely wasnt any crazy vibration that I experienced in the very short time I was driving it very slow speeds though.

Chris

Another possibility:-

The shock absorber has leaked all it's oil all over the mounting point.

If so the shock absorber should have very little resistance in both directions. But other than there being a hole in it or a visible track of oil from the oil seal around the shaft, you will have to weigh it and compare with the others. It is not likely that they will all weigh the same, but one without oil should show as being much lighter than the others.

John

The shock is completely dry and dampens as expected.

Of note, and I should have mentioned this earlier, the bolts were both seized. I did use heat, twist, and an air hammer to loosen the bolts so as not to break them off. So, its possible this may have tweaked the mount. I dont recall it leaking prior to me working on it, but then again, I pretty much got them, drove them half a KM and took them apart.

Dale says the arms are NLA. Is there any source for decent used replacements? There was a guy on kleinanzeigen that posted a bunch of used stuff for sale, but it seems he is being a flake and now not returning my messages.

chris

A wanted ad?

Mainland Europe probably has the largest stock of such things if they are available.

John

Rabbit 16v wrote:Dale says the arms are NLA. Is there any source for decent used replacements? There was a guy on kleinanzeigen that posted a bunch of used stuff for sale, but it seems he is being a flake and now not returning my messages.

chris

Hi Chris - as John said, Europe is probably the most reliable to search but maybe this is where your local network will come into play as I am sure someone in the NW may have something - you could try Jim at Goatwerks or Scott at Expedition Imports - they probably will not have what you need but may very know where you can get bits locally.

Good luck with your search.

Garry

Thanks guys. I have a couple feelers out there now. I was quoted €580 per arm USED from one place today. Lol! Then another guy quoted me €150 for a weld on bracket. I have a couple leads in Oregon I am going to follow up on. Hopefully, those work out.

I spent some time today working on the rear seat pocket. Body work sucks.

I have sold the white one to my friend pending it being back up and running again, so thats a bonus. hes pretty excited for it.