Restorations Forum

If the pulley nut is really stubborn....

1- Find something like a long socket extension that can be used to block one of the pulley holes against the crankcase.
2- Get the correct socket for the nut. (30mm?)
3- Go to your local garage and ask if someone could use an impact wrench on it.
A 1/2" pneumatic impact wrench should easily remove the pulley nut.
That's what we use for removing wheels quickly. They use quite a lot of compressed air, so you would need a large air tank to use one at home.

Block the pulley when doing this, as an impact wrench could easily knock the pressed-together crankshaft out of true. So will dropping it.

If bringing just the crankshaft with pulley attached, the pulley itself must be held and the crank should be kept clean.

If the crank becomes dirty, the needle and ball bearings must be flushed out with solvent, dried and oiled.

If the crank is dropped or subjected to impact stresses, a motorcycle or outboard motor shop should be able to re-true it.

Good News, we managed to get the pully wheel nut off... my flatmates friend who is a mechanic for the mines in the south island came over for NYE, and had a look this morning. I have no idea what black magic he processes but 30 seconds later the nut was off..

He had a look at the cylinders and the pistons while he was at it, "a little old lady must have driven this car" (it was a guy who owned it, but anyway) very little wear on the cylinder and pistons... only two small issues, apparently the cylinders are glazed and I forgot to mark which piston with which cylinder so will probably need new piston rings as a result, oh and the a bucket load of carbon built on the top of the pistons..

just need to wait for the fastener shop to open to get the bolts to remove the flywheel...

All mechanics everywhere have some "Black magic" at our disposal. Eventually, if it gets black enough, it turns Red! :lol:

That's why our toolboxes are invariably Red in color. They might be painted any color at all, but eventually the natural Red color shines through.

Your friend is probably just not familiar with good Socialist Cylinders as found in a Trabant. A "normal" Capitalist Cylinder wears rapidly by design (Planned Obsolenscence) and probably fooled your friend into thinking that your Trabi's Cylinders have had an easy life.

Nothing could be further from the truth, as life is never easy for Good Socialists like Trabants.
Like all Good Socialists, Trabants (and their Cylinders) are so tough that they make the impossible look easy.
For a Trabi Cylinder to show any appreciable Taper, Out-Of-Round or Scoring, it must have been subjected to unimaginable forces, enough to cause Cold Fusion or perhaps even Fission which the Trabi would shrug off in a moment or two.

I spent all day yesterday hunting around Wellington to find some M14 bolts in order to remove the fly wheel, with no luck. The only place that was both open (lots of places close over the Christmas break though to the 7th of Jan) and had M14 bolts, didn't have M14 bolts with a 1.5 pitch..

Anyway I found a place online in the south island that was both open and had the bolts, and I managed to get the order in about 5mins before the courier was due to arrive, thankfully they arrived this morning, and I now have the flywheel off and the engine case split in two... started cleaning, but still got a long way to go. Dirt is caked into every corner and crevice of the engine... no idea how I am going to deal with cleaning the fins on the cylinders yet... anyone have any tips?

Looking good!

Cleaning the cylinder fins is a bit tricky. Really strong chemicals can do it or high temperature.
Once it's dry, a media blast might work ok but you want to avoid the machined surfaces.

Things that come to mind:
A steam cleaner
A heated cleaner.
Strong solvent tank like for cleaning carburetors.

I cleaned mine at work in a machine that resembles a giant dishwasher. It's full of a heated water/alkali solution and did a good job.



Other, weaker motors require cleanliness to avoid severe damage.
Our Comrades In Zwickau gave us a Motor with a Capital M. It apparently doesn't mind being packed with dirt and crud!

There's not much more infuriating than being held up for the want of minor parts like bolts. :evil:

As Keri suggested, I used a high pressure steam cleaner at very close range to clear the gunk and detritus from the fins on my trabis engine while it was out of the car. It was probably the quickest way to do it although whilst it was effective I did it whilst the weather was freezing and ended up soaked through. It's not fun, and if you can find a way of doing it that involves staying in a warm and dry workshop, I think I'd sooner do that!

Good to see more progress and pictures, when are you having the bodyshell done? (As a fabricator, that's the bit I get excited about)


Russ

Haven't had a huge amount of time to work on the car the last few weeks, work has just been stupidly long hours, on the plus side there is extra money to get things done if I want to pay someone to do it.

But I got my subframe back from the powder coaters today, and it looks amazing..

Amazing is an understatement. It looks OUTSTANDING! It turned out very well.

Quick question, how should I be determining what piston ring size to get? LDM lists sizes 72mm to 73.50mm and i have no idea which one to get...

If you are using your current pistons and if you're not boring out your cylinders, then just clean off the top of either piston and there will be a size stamped into the top of the piston. That is all you need to know

However, keep in mind there are less expensive options than LDM, Trabant Welt and Danzer Autotiele for starters.

71.98 is the stamp apparently (pistons are currently still in the shop) so I assume I'll just go for 72mm then..

Thanks Justin

That's right

Might be a good idea to order a one more set just in case you break one or two......I had that happen and had to wait for a new set to get here.....Better safe than sorry.

Its been a while since I last updated my progress.

I just finished moving the trabi to its new home, (moving house this weekend) and found a few things I had forgotten about .
Turns out I already had a Hub puller in my spare parts box... oh well now I have two.

Parts arrived from TrabantWelt and LDM a few weeks ago and I expect to pick up the now cleaned and serviced engine sometime this week, hopefully will be able to give it a test run next weekend.

The Chassis is booked into get its rust repairs the week after next. So I am looking forward to that...

My immediate checklist is:
Rust Repairs
Finish disassembling the wishbones and get them stripped and powder coated.
Rims need to be sandblasted, question I am still thinking about is do I just get them primed and painted or should I get them powdercoated?

And my new DDR replica licence plates are on their way..