We Bought an Old Sand Rail for $700. Will it Run?

well we've done it now we accidentally bought another project oh no what in the world a 1970s vdub sand rail we picked this beauty up for $700 we got a spare 1600c engine and this came with a stock vdub 1200c let's dig in it looks nicer than I remember we're scooting Luke texted me about 8 o'clock saying he was headed to pick this up for 500 bucks with our money but he got there and he was in for a surprise so I get there and I look over the this sand rail and I handed him the 500 bucks I said all right let's do it and he goes no and he hands me the money back apparently he didn't agree to our $500 deal that we talked about on the phone and on Marketplace anyways he talked me up 200 bucks so we got this beauty for $700 and they felt so bad for me they threw in an extra vdub 1600 I don't think they felt bad here's what we know this was granny sand rail and this thing has not run since she last rode it and parked it in the shop so the we believe the engine is not seized the engine's wiggling um I worked on a lot of sand rails and by a lot I mean this is the first sand rail and Volkswagen engine I've ever touched so we're in for a treat there's nothing we can't do first up let's check the oil wetter than a mud guppy M well that's a good sign that means it's nice and lubricated in there all right we immediately noticed that's the spark plug wire is missing luckily we have a spare engine and can just steal it from this nice all right hook that up over there wiggle it on there thread it through there's a bunch of water in there so we're going to clean that out we planned ahead we got a nice charged battery that we stole from our model A wow we have a lot of projects all right we are working on getting this belt on and then we're going to start testing the electronic holes unfortunately there's some disconnected wires and some serious knackering that has gone on but for the most part this thing looks pretty complete well we couldn't get the freaking tally Locker battery into the battery slot cuz there's no freaking room freaking German engineering tank I don't even know if it's going to fit now if it doesn't fit we're probably just going to give up after 3 hours of struggling we finally got it in place now let's hook up our wires and get cranking and get skting we should be cleaning our terminals we would even get a frig one of the things I hate the most is wires and we're trying to figure out where these wires go this one's broken this one's sniffed we got sniffed we got a star motor here and then if you come over here we have no key so we're going to have to wiggle up some sort of ignition system if you're not wiggling up some sort of ignition system you're probably doing it wrong holy sand there's a lot of stuff going on there Safety First holy smok just crusty I knew I was keeping this for a reason this has been hanging in the barn for at least 2 years I thought I'd never use it but look what we have here this is the greatest thing since sliced bread if you're not ripping open your nut sack with your teeth what are you even doing when you don't know how to wire just swap one wire at a time and there's a 50/50 chance you get it right I can hear scooting already things are going suspiciously well this early in the project nothing ever goes this well which means we're in for a doozy later we're screwed we've got the key action you wanted to see all right back to the battery wiring hey look three go-karts we got our nut off we don't need it we got our little red wire here I think it was red or oh there is some red down there we're gonna twerk this down and then I don't really know what's gonna happen here's the moment of truth I highly doubt anything's going to happen but if it does here goes nothing and by nothing I mean nothing it didn't do nothing no all right let see if this will jump she's spinning but nothing's happening all right here's what's going on nothing basically what's going on is we can jump the starter motor the starter motor spinning but it's not engaging with the engine we need them engaged so we're going to yank off this star motor and take a little Peak yeah perfect how she look we're going to do some very technical testing here well after dropping 400 bones at O'Reilly's we got a starter motor a battery a new coil and we're going to get this thing scooting we better with that price starter motor sko all right the first test start we got our wires all cab Wampus on here send it yes Merry Christmas you know what we're doing next we got our CRC starting fluid let's scoot let rip she's choing that's probably good let's probably check for okay I guess we'll check for spark now like have we checked the oil no nope have we checked the uh thingy B that spreads our Sparks to all the different areas no all right you got a KN IU there yeah send it nothing all right here's the situ czy boy why is on your face I don't know here's the situation we had 12 volts to here we have 12 volts to the center cap on the distributor but we weren't getting spark roonies so I took this off I took this off and I found the crustiest bungus I've ever seen in my whole life and I've seen a lot of crusty bungi okay I'm trying to wiggle some sandpaper down here so we can clean these points um let rip all right send it no spark all right get out of there so what we're what's going on we polished up these little point contacts and now take a look down here sparkage little Sparky so now we're going to put it back together help I'm 100% confident that this thing is going to spark NADA no spark I don't know why it wasn't running anyways we're just going to put this random piece back on the distributor I don't think it's that necessary oh boy reenacted let her rip sparkon fat and juicy all right we're ready to rip let's freaking send it oh stop you're a clip [Laughter] [Music] well that'll do it disappointing end to day one we started it kind of but then it's not working now and it's dark as ever anyways we'll catch you guys in the morning love you guys bye we're back day two I freaking love Washington weather it is so much fun so much dry weather we can work on our projects we're going to get this thing dragged into the barn where it's still pretty wet and hopefully we can finagle some water wiring and get this thing scooting all right we got this thing prob logged in here it's super dark in here last time when we left off the starter motor was spinning and woring but it was not engaging the engine so time to do some problem solving we had this battery trickling all night long now we're going to hook up the wires we did finally look at a wiring diagram so I think we know we were doing it completely wrong so you guys did not see anything we know exactly what we're doing okay we got the wiring off fidd dick this is for all the marbles either we give up or we're Cru nuts what that but it looked like it moved forward do again yeah it's engaging all right here's what we think is going on we think we ground the teeth off our fly wheeel come look down in our hole she's an accurate all right get a little close closer eye view right down in there you can see the spot where this little sprocket these geared teeth were grinding away so we're going to put it in gear try to move it to a different part of the flywheel and hope it engages then when we took off the other starter there was metal shavings in there so this might have been knackered from the start say a prayer here we go come on Bessie oh and we're right back where we were that flywheel is toast send it yeah all right here we go for all the glory ready yeah third times a charm go third time is not the charm I'm feeling really really good about this time 10 time to charm go ah it's bright all right it's probably about time we're going to take the carburetor off we're going to Triple think triple team this bad boy two of us are going to be changing the oil one of us is going to be tickling this carburator and then we'll be skiing I can't see you but we have this nice booger or boar carb let's get in doesn't come out watery really oh boy out it again what's your guess well based off the oil they just took out of there feel like there's still a screw somewhere I've got all my screws loose here we go oh I don't want to break her gasket we didn't buy a gasket kit there we have it I think there's some crusty bungus down there can you say that one more time crusty chungus all right we got fresh oil in it science you know what we're going to do that's what we're going to do all right for all the glory that's all the glory well as much as we wanted to try to just send it with our knackered flywheel it is not going to work so we're going to have to order up a new flywheel we're going to get the carburetor back on and cleaned up and uh that's all we got for today take a look down in here take a little peek flashlight boy hey diad well you can still see all the metal shavings ground to a p what's up you crazy grasshoppers we got everything put back on the car is clean and our flywheels knackered but we're just going to try it out anyways I'm going to put some fuel in our fuel tank and then we're going to try to tow start it with the tractor cruise into the sunset wonder if the inside of this tank is clean definitely not the chances of this thing going in are about 100% some nice 30y overhand knots clean off my feet before I get in this beauty turns out you need the throttle cable hooked up who would have thought well I'll have to do it down the hill because the tires are just skiding right yeah we got a little smoke we're cruising at a good speed until the throttle cable came out so here we are we're going to be scooting we'll do second going to be your fastest stretch we got her all put to bed this thing's knackered we don't know what to do what should we do love you guys bye it's freaking day three Dune what the heck whoa who's that we're going to check our valves yep there's valves we have them come over here we're going to do a little wiggle check those things are wiggling more than a they be wiggling they do be wiggling turns out our valves were way too tight also it turns out we lied to you and the sun is blinding my eyes but uh Joe Knows Volkswagen from Tik Tok told us that this thing is actually a 1600cc so we're going to be scooting you'll know the Valve gap is Right based off feeling that's why they call these feelings gauges all right this is the first look inside our cylinders how we doing can't see I can't see nothing that's just rust so we got some pretty decent cylinders you can still see the cross-hatching on the cylinders definitely a little bit of crust the Piston looks pretty decent overall she'll be scooting this will be scooting if you're not checking out your holes what are you even doing I'm fiddling with our gaps Levi is checking our holes how's this one look watery more moist than we just did some heavy duty research in we looked up a diagram and showed our uh firing order was correct the red wire here goes to number one counterclockwise this one over here goes to two three and four we can count to four you guys are making fun of our freaking pool noodles so now we have to take them off putting our precious little Noggin at risk in dangerous way look at that beautiful paint under there all right here's a little midday update for you all four of our cylinders are looking pretty now we're going to check the bushing that the starter motor slides into and who knows what else come on Bessie coming out yeah we got our bushing out our bushing didn't fit so we're going to grind it down we're do some Hightech things here all right here's what's going on you dirty grasshoppers we thought that maybe the starter motor wasn't engaging right because of the bushing we tried to switch it out with the bushing that was with this starter motor in the kit this one didn't fit it cracked so then went to the two different auto part stores now than had the right one so now we're going to put the original one that we threaded out back in here we're going to fix our timing and then we're going to toast start this what we got here is a nice little electronic ignition and a cheek full of seeds we're going to take our distributor cap off take this stuff off then we just get rid of the points boom easier said than done that thing is clipping in there nice we're going to be scooting all right we got got our distributor pointing to the number one wire spot we got our crank pulley at the notch which should be top dead center the light is on now we just want to wiggle this till it's off that'll be going clockwise we're going to go counterclockwise till that light turns off it might never turn off we might have done it wrong that' be the first time ever all right we think we did our our timing oh hey Jim hey we had our electronic ignition and it just wasn't doing the trick but this should do it we're getting close we're getting all our tidbits tighten down spark plugs back in F tank hooked back up and then we're going to Tower then we'll be scooting we're losing daylight losing our marbl we got the tractor we got our rope let's head down to the field and get this thing scooped is there fuel in that scooting this is the most fun we're ever going to have with this thing cuz it's never going to run punch [Music] it [Music] go it was running it was running I don't think it's actually running I feel like the car probably hasn't filled with f fuel yet with fool yet all right here we [Music] go send it [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] well not a freaking bad day three we got this thing to crank crank over with starting fluid now I think we know that it's a fuel problem it's not sucking fuel into the carburetor and it's not scooting today we're going to get our $700 Sandrail it's a beautiful wet Washington day we're determined we're going to get some gas in this carburetor and start Towing her so when we were tow starting it the other day all we were able to do is get it to turn over when we sprayed starting fluid in it we think the fuel pump wasn't working it may have been Vapor locking or cavitate um this fuel line's kind of knackered so we're going to hook everything back up make sure we're getting fuel all the way through the fuel pump up into the bowl and then we should be scooting scooting this filter is knackered the fuel line is cracked we got a new filter and we're going to go find some fuel line gas are at boy we're getting this thing filled up we have fuel on both sides of our fuel pump so we should be SK scooting we put some fuel in the bowl if it was ever going to run it' be now little starter juice and we'll be scooting I'm feeling good in the neighborhood it's running Yes W she's burn like a I can't touch the rope woo driving through the mud bog oh sloppy either way what we like to hear what are your last words bye [Music] bro come on Bessie is that you're in Reverse he's rolling is it just a three speed maybe we're scooting now [Music] oh what's going on with the back tire things were going too smoothly oh no tighten your lug nuts [Applause] [Music] folks I think we need to adjust the carb laun the fence over there yeah look at there's a bunch of treasure in our fuel filter maybe that's why our car isn't running [Music] right I think what are you doing taking the carburetor off once again again it was running pretty good but we are having fuel leaking from our accelerator pump right down there I don't think it's that important but we're going to clean the carb anyway we stole some parts off our spare engine we're going to slap this carb on and give her the beans then we will be scooting man it is a bummer these Volkswagen are some of the hardest engines to work on I wish we were working on a Ford or something somehow we made Extreme backwards progress we lost power we don't have spark and the neutral indicator light won't turn on jackpot that was it turns out our clip lead don't work what it worse cly we're running now don't you ever give [Music] [Music] up [Applause] we set out to get this thing scooting and she be scoo she's scooting all right thanks for staying tuned with this series this is a big challenge for us we've never worked on a sand whel dune buggy or a Volkswagen engine uh that's all we got for for now cheese fix for now you guys bye bye

Channel: The Barn Brothers

Views: 181,484

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Id: MZTXtlHQVv4

Length: 29min 58sec (1798 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 06 2024