Sounds like a fair plan.
I honestly would have been fine converting an AWD Astro/Safari. Love all the cheap and easy drivetrain options, etc.
My wife on the other hand is totally Eurotrash when it comes to cars and motorcycles. So in order to get her approval and interest it had to be "Euro" ....and she loves VWs. :snorkel: Which I suppose is why I'm out in the garage sanding a rod bearing with a shoe lace :coffeedrink:
Exactly. I look a little bit because I may sell mine within the next two years or so and suprise, suprise; there is no Kelly Blue Book value for a 4x4 conversion, Astro Pop Top weekender! (My idea is to cross multiply KBB base model Euro van with the base model Astro, and Euro Weekender
to (Astro van X-like mine) and then add in some sort of 4x4 conversion amount) and that could give me an approximate value.
Best of luck with the project. Looking forward to seeing the 4x4 conversion. That was a VW deal breaker for me. :Mechanic:
Well, I never thought that being on a shoe string budget meant sanding a rod journal with an actual shoe lace. :victory:
I figured that best case the crank was already screwed so there was no harm in attacking it with sandpaper. :wings:
After reading a billion threads on the Internet about it! Which are all true of course. I dove in with a shoelace and some sand paper.
After a quite a bit of sanding at various grades of fine paper, all of the stuff I was feeling yesterday with my fingernail is gone. Apparently all bearing material stuck to the crank. There is some visual discoloration in spots that "looks" like groves but can't be felt at all with a finger or fingernail. That and the crank still measures in spec with the other rod journals at every single spot I can measure it.
Starting to think with a bunch more polishing to a mirror shine that it might just work for awhile. These journals were all about .007 under spec so they will run barely loose with stock bearings in them. So the super tiny imperfections will also have room to move a bit.
Hard to get a good picture under tha van with a phone. Most of what looks like its on the rod journal in the picture is a reflection. The other discoloration a on the journal can't be felt at all. Opinions?
