Trabi/IFA Chat Forum

That style looks like my spare wheel which doesn't match the ones on the car. I think the style on my car are the correct ones for that year but the spare in the trunk is from a later model. Either way I didn't use any tubes in mine and they hold air just fine.

yes thats the new type you should be fine with tubeless tyres

Oh,thanks for the quick answer.My car was made in 1990,but it has 3 pieces earlier wheels,as your car,and a different one.That's why I want to change them.I would like to reach the original appearance,if it is possible.
Good photo.

Have a few days off around the holidays, figured its time to tackle a few Trabi winter projects. The master cylinder had sprouted a leak at some point in it's life and the drivers floor was rusty with no paint. Stripped everything down, sanded off as much rust as I could access, primed and the painted with some home made Panamagrun (pretty pleased with the resulting color for a first time mixer). Cleaned the carpets (currently drying) and am very pleased with the overall results.[ATTACH=full]4780[/ATTACH]

Wishing you all a Happy New Year and many smooth miles/km with your Trabi in 2017!

That looks a very good match . You're right to be pleased

That's a clean looking floor,is that some sound deadening as well?

Kev, not sure if it's original or not, but the sound deadening was installed in the car when I got it. Strange as it was only from the front edge of the front seats back. If original, I figured the front must have been trashed by the leaky master cylinder, taken out but never replaced. I figure it can't hurt to put some back in. Might even cut some of the interior noise down :eek:

Interior noise? In a Trabi?
Impossible!

Unless you drive in a very dry area it is a bad idea to have anything on the floor that can trap moisture....

Keri, point very well taken.
However, Heike sort of falls into the "deva" category.
If anything other than 100% perfect weather, she will refuse to leave the comfort and safety of the garage.
I know Comrade Trabi is more like the postal service.....
"Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays Comrade Trabi from the swift completion of his appointed rounds".
Makes a lot of sense to keep his floors dry.

Still would like to know if the cars came original with just carpet or any backing foam under the carpet?

Both of my trabi's have the felt soundproofing material under the carpet. So I would have thought it was a standard feature.

It's been awhile since I replaced my carpet but there was sound deadening material under the original carpet on my car. Well I wouldn't call it carpet, more like a felt mat. Like that stuff they are putting in new cars. My wife's Nissan Cube has a similar material and cleaning the inside of her car takes about three times as long as any other car because it holds dirt.

I can't remember if this insulation covered the entire floorboard or not. But seems like it did. maybe someone added some extra at some time? Removed the aluminum trim pieces and overlapped it over the new carpet. The original felt only went to the edges and was not anchored to the floor. I found a roll of carpet at Lowes hardware for around $30.



My wife found me this front floor mat off Ebay. de to go in the front the previous Christmas.

my 87 has grey batting under the felt, it is not cut well or carefully installed and sure smells like 87

i agree trapping moisture is a huge concern but mine is also a diva and hates any type of rain

Just wrapped up my stereo installation project I've been putting off for some time. So since the weather has been nasty I've been doing some work on my cars.

I've been looking high and low for some surface mount speaker boxes but can't seem to find them so I made my own to fix in the kick panels. The largest speaker I could fit was 4". Alternatively I could have drill some large holes and mounted them directly in the kick panels but I didn't really want to do that.

I can't post more than 10 photos so here is how I made the speaker boxes:

http://s222.photobucket.com/user/turbofiat/library/Trabant/radio and speakers?sort=2&page=1

Applied fiberglass resin to the inside along with polyester fiber.
Removed the tape and coated the outside.
Sanded it all down with 60 grit orbital sander, file, Dremel tool, etc.
Covered the boxes with felt. I used two layers of 3M two sided tape to hold them without drilling. I also had some carpet leftover to go below the speakers.





I know dash hacking (DIN radio hacking) is taboo when it comes to classic cars but that Fujitsu radio from a 79 Toyota I had been using had to go! Also that gaping hole in the dashboard also bugged me so a radio was a good thing to fill it.






It's not the best sounding radio but sounds better than what I was using. It has an SD slot for MP3s but no balance/fader or bass/treble adjustment. I may see if Pyle still makes the radio I installed in my 2CV.

Here's what's weird/interesting. In order for the radio to even work, the memory wire has to have power going to it. I was concerned how this was going to work on a 6 volt car. I thought I might have to rig up a small 12 volt rechargeable battery between the converter and radio along with a diode but didn't have to go that far with it.

I have the main power wire (red) connected to my 12 volt converter fuse block from the ignition switch. I connected the yellow (memory) wire directly to the 6 volt battery and the radio works and holds the clock and presets. So I tapped into the "always hot" fuse on the fusebox.
http://s222.photobucket.com/albums/dd148/turbofiat/

1981 Trabant 601 "S"
1987 Yugo 1500 turbo
1980 Fiat 2000 Spider turbo
1971 Citroen 2CV Charleston
1968 Ford Fairlane 500
2003 Subaru Baja
2006 Ford Explorer Limited V8 (soon to be gone!)
1998 Chevrolet 1500 Express

It's January! Another year of brutal exploitation to look forward to!

And, having one Saturday free, how best to spend it?

Why not install the rebuilt transaxle from TrabantWelt?

As you might remember, Comrade Trabi has always had a questionable Getrieb, oops, Transaxle.
When he fled Czechoslovakia for his life and adopted me, he had a bad-shifting transaxle with an inoperative freewheel that ended up being welded together by either really drunk and/or desperate Czechs.
Also, the fluid was, incredibly, insanely dirty and obviously the wrong viscosity with the tell-tale odor of EP additives, probably SAE 90 GL-5 which is meant for Hypoid gears of which Truants have none.

So after a couple of changes with HLP-68 fluid from LDM, the shifting improved, but with some gear clash. Then I hit upon the idea of using Dexron ATF, which improved the shifting enormously but did nothing for that odd noise at idle in neutral, or the shift lever rattle. After many tens of thousands of kilometers, with the shift lever rattle growing progressively worse, I opened it up in July of 2015 to find a welded-together freewheel and a very badly worn 3-4 shift fork. With no shift forks immediately available, I ran some weld beads over the worn areas and ground the repaired fork to size. Also, I replaced the input shaft and countershaft bearings. This eliminated the shift lever rattle, but did nothing for the clunking around at idle in neutral.

My improvised repairs have held up far better than I expected! Still using ATF for another 18 months, no further deterioration was noticed. However, welding a shift fork is a very bad idea!
So, I arranged with my partner in Trabants to obtain a rebuilt transaxle from TrabantWelt. After a strange shipping fiasco, where a whole transaxle got lost somewhere, a replacement appeared just in time for bad weather. But then, we had several days of rain to wash away the road salt so.....

So off to work I go on my day off, and in goes the transaxle. While the motor was out, I got around to touching up some of the rust and paint in the area.
Out we go and viola! Using LDM-sourced HLP-68, the rebuilt transaxle shifts like new and for the first time in many years, Comrade Trabi gets a freewheel!

Distance travelled with a welded shift fork: approximately 17,000km over 18 months.
Total km since adopting Keri = 85,900km since 1 May, 2012.

Some pix...

TrabantWelt rebuilt transaxle... After almost 100km, so far so good! Yes, I remembered to put the fluid, or "öl" in...
[ATTACH=full]4786[/ATTACH]


Starting some painting....
[ATTACH=full]4787[/ATTACH]

The often asked-about fluid level plug... this is inboard of the Left Front wheel.
[ATTACH=full]4788[/ATTACH]

Looks very good.... I have been following your advice and have got hydraulic fluid in my transmission to try and free up the freewheel device. It worked a treat...feels smooth as well. Have done a couple of oil changes and it's getting cleaner each time... Do you think I should stay on this or go back to a thicker oil? Feel better about the down hills now that the engine isn't being driven by the transmission...