Rebuilding the Trabant's Engine: Part 1 - The Teardown

in this project series we're going to be working on they actually let me pull it up real quick no that's not it no still no definitely not there it is actually wait a second there we go the Trabant in today's episode is sponsored by tight reach extension wrenches and specifically what we're gonna be doing is rebuilding the Trabant engine because for the entire time I've owned this car it hasn't run right it's been running lean it's been doing other funky things and recently it's developed new holes in the cylinders that aren't supposed to be there plus I would imagine a lot of you haven't seen the inside of a Trabant engine before so it might be an interesting new experience for you and for me [Music] before I do anything in this engine it has to come out of the car so I might as well get started with that so this exhaust is not supposed to hang down like this there is an actual rubber support here that I replaced at one point but it didn't matter because it broke again I shall mark this is the first time I need to break out the wacky stick on this project conveniently all of the oil that's gathered on the exhaust is acting as anti seize for hold and nuts that are on here okay it's gonna drop okay there we go something flew off into the distance let's see if I can find that later oh boy Wow hey I got the exhaust off that's something and here's the front muffler this is the sounds assembly in this big tube up here's for the heater inside the cart because the heat is just air blowing past the heat shroud around this first I don't know if you'd call it a muffler a silencer or maybe just an expansion chamber but the heater is just this shroud running across the exhaust and running up into the car through this thing perfect use for this thing and then open the floodgate this is pretty obvious but I'm gonna say it anyway the Trabant is a very simply constructed vehicle undo the speedometer cable I would undo the tachometer cable but that doesn't exist how long has that been loose the exhaust is loose exhaust manifold wow that's a problem wonder how long that's been like that one thing I really like about the Trabant is the shifter because it's literally just this bent rod going straight into the shifter so it's extremely direct I mean one of the best shifters I've ever used which is another thing to say in a car like this I can't seem to get this a little slip joint off the tube here and because I whacked it with a hammer I flanged it out and it made it even more impossible to get off and I've decided since I've done a little research and I can buy this tube readily on the internet I'm gonna cut my losses and cut the tube in half and there we go this engine in an transmission unit are not light enough to lift out of here by hand but they are light enough that they can get away with using thin ratchet straps how many times I've heard people on the internet saying uh it's a brown engine small you can just pick it up with your hands and put on the workbench no you can't you cannot do that unless you're very very strong you cannot do that I believe it's free now and here it is on my workbench majestic isn't it now I've already made a huge discovery about this engine but I'll get to that in a minute first I need to separate the Geary bit from the power II bit let's use this piece of wood and a clamp to hold it against hold it against all right let's see if we can get this off now oh wow that just literally fell right off all right time to carry this very small in liftable gearbox to out of camera shot land actually hang on a second I'm back because I just realized this is a whole four speed transmission I'm holding in my hands all right the good let's go back and that was all I had to say with the tiny transmission out of the way here is the engine all by its lonesome here's the front side here's the passenger side this engine is so light here's the back side and here is the driver's side and let's like go out the passenger and driver side reversed let me think about this a second no I didn't here's the front side again I could legitimately buy a lazy susan to put this engine off now to continue with engine disassembly I know it's a bit of an overused meme but I actually lost my ten millimeter socket how where did it go this just in I found my ten millimeter socket again it was hiding in the slot for the 13 millimeter socket a very organized person except when I'm not forgot to take out the spark plugs that are probably absolutely filthy because it's a Trabant spark plugs are never clean except before they go in the engine yeah how's that for a dirty plug look at that thing I could probably clean these up but I buy so many spares I'm just gonna throw them in the trash prediction when I loose this the engine is going to fall forward so let's just brace it yep there we go but not too badly but it did fall forward a bit let's remove this fan it was this fan is actually only held on there by this strap strap isn't just for looks I kind of want to this looks like a jet turbine and I kind of want to buy a bunch of these and use them as I don't know exhaust extractions fans or something that would be kind of cool look at that now we should remove the engines mask no longer shall it hide there we go as I previously alluded to just in the time it took me to get this engine out of the car and onto the workbench I made a discovery no not the Land Rover kind I've been saying this whole time in previous videos even at the beginning of this video that this engine has developed new holes in the back of the cylinders and the reason I thought that is because when the engine was running in the car I could shine a light down in there and see exhaust flying out the back of the engine where there are no exhaust exiting orifices you can even see the backs of the cylinders are coated with oily exhaust residue now that led me to believe that there were new holes back there that shouldn't shouldn't be there but I've discovered upon taking the engine out that there are no holes back there what's really happened is this the exhaust manifold shook loose so there's a massive exhaust leak around here you can even see all the oily residue on the exhaust manifold itself and exhaust was escaping around the cylinders because there's an air shroud around all of this and out the back of the engine which is causing the oil residue oily residue build-up back here the exhaust flying out the back of the engine the loud noises the whole lot of it so I've been proven wrong and frankly I thought the whole new holes in the cylinders theory sounded preposterous anyway how would that even happen and how would it happened to both cylinders at the exact same time in the same place it really didn't make any sense but now I've completely proven myself wrong and no it doesn't really boid the point of this whole engine rebuild because I have several other things in this engine that I want to take a look at but we'll get to them when we get to them in case you're wondering what this shroud is over the exhaust manifold to imagine your engine fans right here because that's where it would normally be this is the intake this is the outlet air blows over this for your cabin heat and this is why if you own a Trabant and you use the heater you pray for no exhaust leaks here and off we come and my God look how oily the bottom of this thing yes there we go laughs that's not a lot of torque holding those on because it's the head bolt on a Trabant Kesey and off with your head all right let's take a look at it my side first I get to say wow that's fascinating look at that I dropped all the nuts oh that was stupid some carbon buildup here and a little bit here but really it's not bad when I replaced these cylinders you can see they're a little bit newer I replaced them about three years ago and when I did that this was just all carbon up and I clean the heads and it's not too bad since then I think anyway and this carbon just kind of scrapes right off with my finger a little bit worse on the top of the piston but again not terrible here's the other head again same sort of carbon pattern I can scrape it off my finger now when I replace these cylinders about three years ago I did it with the engine still in the car because I didn't have any tools or much garage space to work with and getting to these little nuts that hold the cylinders in place was a bit of a nightmare especially on the back of the engine back here I had to just reach in and go by feel basically but now the engines on a work bench in front of me and it's a million times a year now to remove the privacy curtain between the two cylinders I believe they this in place so each cylinder doesn't get performance anxiety from the other cylinder watching it alright let's start with jug - I forget something yeah and here we go let's like the inside of it keep doing that I need to collect the washers before I just dump them now jug number one and there we go now let's have a look inside the cylinder here obviously there's no holes in it well except aside from the intake and the exhaust ports there's no holes in the cylinders that aren't supposed to be there like I stupidly thought before but I doubt you'll be able to pick this on camera even the honing pattern is still good in these cylinders and like I said these cylinders I replaced them three years ago so they shouldn't be bad anyway but these will not need replacing because they're perfectly fine nothing wrong here you might be able to see the honing pattern on that side yep so these are good no replacement needed here for either cylinder now to check if the crankshaft bearings are good everything in here is a roller bearing because it's two-stroke there's no oil pressure so on so forth and to test the roller bearings that just give it a little wiggle wiggle and on the top of the Pistons there's basically no play at all in this one here there's a tiny bit more play but again I don't think it's a problem and here's where a lack of knowledge comes into play because or it becomes a problem because there's a little bit of side-to-side play on the con rods on both sides but this is a Trabant I know the tolerances are low but I don't know if that's too much play or not so I'm going to have to consult the people of the internet that own other Trabant and see if that is too much or not it doesn't really feel that bad and in addition if I try to move the con rods up and down there isn't any play at all it's just the side-to-side wiggle but there's no play up and down so I'll have to find that out later let's just continue with the rest of the engine teardown if I didn't mention that this carburetor is also basically brand new I bought it three years ago brand new pre-tested pre tuned for this for the engine and there shouldn't be any issue with it it's all brand new on the inside just dirty on the outside oh there's still gas in it you stupid see if you get these I can get these Pistons off without damaging anything just two little spring clips on each side and then the whole thing just sort of presses into place again using roller bearings the last time i instalay tit and removed these piston connection rod things i don't actually know what they're called I just used a socket and a wacky stick and kind of braced it against my hand I don't want to do that this time because that's a lot of side words for so I'm putting on this Conrad bearing here and I would like to preserve that so what I did so I made my own tool here I have some scrap materials I cut a slot in the board here for a steering wheel puller I think it is I think the steering wheel puller and I kind of dug out some grooves in a hole on this other chunk of wood here to accept the other side of the piston it just fits over the piston like so let's screw this a bit still uses a socket to push out the rod bearing thing make sure this hole is lined up so the rod comes out the other side and just start cranking on it I just finished making this it only it took me about two hours something like that I don't know if this will work let's find out oh my gourd it's working beautifully as it coming out this it is oh man I'm a genius it's a little bit crooked but I used scrap wood and scrap steel so you know a little bit of crooked eNOS is perfectly excusable this is so much better than hitting it with a hammer and this this tool I made was free except for all the Parts I had to buy pull the socket out and the piston comes with it and here is the roller cage just sitting here in the con rod this is how the piston connects to the con rod with iron roller bearing make sure the hole lines up which it doesn't there we go now it does and continue with unknown name of object extraction as always I am NOT a mechanic this video is for entertainment and not instruction I don't really know what I'm doing heck I don't even know the name of this this little piece I'm extracting connects to the piston of the con rod and that's that's about the extent of my knowledge socket extracted now the piston comes out freely there we go now I discovered a problem with this engine that I'll show you in a second but first let me explain something about two-stroke engines in general and specifically the Trabant engine just in the event you're not aware how this stuff works in a two-stroke engine like this Trabant engine the fuel air mixture is drawn in through the intake into the crankcase and then pushed up into the combustion chamber around the sides of the cylinders if you didn't know that's why you mix the oil with the gas in a two-stroke engine because it's the gas is being drawn through the crankcase and that's how all the bits get lubricated by the oil that's mixed in with the gas a lot of two-stroke engines will have something called a reed valve which is just a one-way flap or valve that valve seals off the intake so when the piston goes on its downward stroke the fuel air mixture is pushed up into the combustion chamber instead of out of the crankcase the Trabant doesn't have Reed valves it also doesn't just have an open intake like a lot of two-stroke engines do what it has instead are rotary valves which are just little metal veins that are pinned to the crankshaft and right around with it and they just swipe past the little intake port on the crankcase here you can see it as I turn around the engine just wiping past and open and close that little port it's a very simple system now the problem with my Trabant engine are these rotary valves the problem with this rotary valve as you can see here is it doesn't seal against the port so that's going to allow air to rush back out the intake which is probably because of my backfiring issue I don't know if the valve itself is bent or the springs are dead or what's going on here but I'll find out when I take it apart the problem with the other rotary valve isn't gap it's sealed against this port just fine there's no issue there the problem with it is it's all waller down on the guide pins so it flops back and forth the other one does it a little bit but nowhere near as bad as this one so both of these rotary valves are kaput and I need to replace both of them oh God off with the generator or alternator I'm not actually sure which one it is but given the car six volts I'm just gonna say it's a generator all the website listed all the websites listed as a dynamo so it doesn't really tell me anything look at these tiny little fingers Oh cut everything on this engine is adorable here's the clutch it looks like it's alright I'll probably end up replacing anyway while I'm in here but looks fine I'm but look how small it is it's just so tiny but the flywheel is so rather surprisingly held on by a gigantic nut rather than a bunch of little screws I don't think I've ever seen that before I've got the flywheel nut off I think I can take the flywheel off just as easily after I split the crankcase in half but before I do that all the bolts are on the bottom here I don't have a surface on the top to roll it over so I'm gonna reattach the cylinders just kind of sit them on top here so I have a flat surface to set the engine on well maybe this is a terrible idea I don't know I already decided that was a bad idea and I made these little scrap wood engine stand thingies look at that it's like a proper engine stand but with spider nests in it oh my god that's gross there's one put my knee into the action there we go that was the ticket I consulted my poorly translated manual had told me to split the crankcase by applying slight blows with a rubber hammer which I'm guessing is a poor translation of whack it with your tap II go lucky stick until it comes apart so I'm gonna do that I think the years of grease are creating a glue all right I feel like I'm missing something because the crankcase isn't coming apart like it should so I'm going to wait until I can take this flywheel off just to make sure I'm not missing anything because the manual poorly translated as it was did say to take the flywheel off first for actually pulling off the flywheel the poorly translated manual recommends a specialty tool that screws into these two m14 bolts they're both holes on the flywheel and it's basically just a gear puller now I bought these m14 bolts to screw into these holes and I was going to make my own version of that but instead as you can clearly see I'm just using the giant gear puller so hopefully this will work forgot this bit I don't know that this is working oh it's not working oh it's pulling the starter ring gear off back all right that didn't work so I had an alternate idea these bolts that I have in the flywheel here where the actual specialty tool flywheel puller would bolt into I think I'm just gonna screw those through and sort of bear on the crank case housing itself and maybe that'll push the flywheel out I did grind a little bit of a taper on any of these bolts so that's at least pushing on a point or a flat ish surface so hopefully I think the flywheel just fell off yep wow that works amazingly well there's a ring here clamping the two halves together so I was right there is something behind the flywheel holding the two halves of the crankcase together good thing I didn't pry even harder than I already did and off the delicate ring comes unfortunately my exuberant efforts to pry these two crankcase halves apart I did actually break this ring there's a little chip out on one of these screw holes here and I need to replace this ring I probably don't cuz it's just on one corner but I'm gonna do it anyway just to be safe I think that was it oh yeah I believe before I take this crankshaft out of here this whole assembly I have to remove something over here I believe I'm not sure it could be wasting my time another little tidbit of information if you don't know that just the Trabant does not have a distributor it just has two points down here and here's the mechanical advance mechanism let's see how it works when it starts spinning out the weight spread and it changes the timing both sides at once there we go all right I'm an idiot they forgot to hit record so here's what you missed I got the top half of the crankcase separated from the crankshaft I had to go buy a new axle not 32 millimeter to take this in nut off actually now that I point that out I didn't need to do that to take this crankshaft out that's just for this just pulley to come off so I didn't need to do that now I'm caught up to and that's pretty much all you missed now the crankshaft is out of the crankcase housing entirely and I'm going to go set this off to the side with the crankshaft out of the car I can clearly see that I need a new crankshaft assembly this whole thing as far as I'm aware is just pressed together like these connection rod bearings you can see there's no way to take the the connection rod off it presses together right there and it's assembled in place and the reason I need to replace this is because listen to this bearing that sounds fine it's the only woman listen to this other one garbage garbage and then this one slightly less garbage but still garbage and I already mentioned the rotary valves need to replace him because they're all waller down on the pins but on further inspection I realized that this one it isn't the rotary valve that's bad it's the actual pin that it rides on there's a deep groove cut into the locating pin which is no good at all that it needs a new pin in there and I can't do that so whole new crankshaft assembly is required for this engine and that's it the Trabant engine is now disassembled down to its smallest and most complex component this crankshaft here the obvious next step is I need to reassemble this engine too with new parts and I'll be doing that in part two but don't expect part two to be out for a while because I have to source and order all these parts from Germany so I have to wait for all those parts to ship and obviously reassemble the engine before the video can come out so that'll be out I don't know a month or two something like that until then thanks for watching and thanks again too tight reach extension your inches for sponsoring this video

Channel: Aging Wheels

Views: 837,035

Keywords: Trabant, DIY, Two Stroke, Roller Bearing, Crankshaft, Tite-Reach, East Germany, 601, Engine, Engine Rebuild

Id: Yq5jTB9S5GU

Length: 23min 47sec (1427 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 20 2018