After looking for awhile and following a few leads to dead ends I decided to try another approach. Jason Weigel suggested I try modifying a Type 1 or Type 2 part to fit. Yes, 1950s beetles and buses also had oil slingers, and they're easy to find due to much higher production numbers, so I was able to buy a pair of Type 1 oil slingers advertised on The Samba for a reasonable price. Here is one of them (left) next to a Type 3 slinger from my car (right):


As you can see, the Type 1 slinger is considerably flatter. The Type 3 tube is also slightly longer. I stuffed the inside of the tube with a few pieces of wire to keep it from getting crimped closed and then carefully re-bent it to match the Type 3 part using a vice and a pair of metalworking pliers. The steel was more malleable than I expected.

The idea was to get the tube to correspond as closely as possible to the inside surface of the brake drum, as did the original Type 3 part, allowing clearance for the brake shoes and wheel cylinder. The slightly shorter tube length turned out not to be a problem.


Couldn't hear any rubbing with the drum back in place, so I think it will work. I'll still try to find another real Type 3 slinger but this will get me by for now. Next step: pulling everything apart again to redo the brakes themselves.
No comments:
Post a Comment