[toomanytoys2]

More updates on the Pojo Dog. Over the weekend while playing with engine fitment, I decided to remove more of the engine/transmission cradle. Since I will be fabbing up my own top mount, the existing frame was getting in the way. Luckily the cradle is made from 1” square tubing, so before I cut off the top of the cradle, I welded in a cross support before I removed the top section. Since the cradle controls the alignment of the engine and the transmission, I am doing everything that I can to keep the cradle square and true to its original dimensions.

Also, my pillow blocks and VW CV cups came in the mail on Monday. The pillow blocks are pretty massive compared to the original parts and they are self-aligning as well. The original pillow blocks had a bearing surface that was right about 3/4" wide. However, with the pillow blocks that I got, the bearing surface was closer to 1-1/2”. So I had to chuck the mid axle up in the lathe and turn it down to match the bearings. That was a royal pain in the rear. The metal they used for the mid axle is junk. It looks like they must have machined the mid axle then hardened it at the bearing surface only when they were done. When I first started to make my cuts, the section adjacent to the bearing surface would not cut well at all (about 1/2"), then as I moved away from that section, it would start to cut okay. Even though the metal had been hardened, it really wasn’t that hard, I could still cut it with a file, but even my carbide cutters would hardly cut it well. So in the end I could only remove 0.010” each pass and I had to reduce the diameter by a little over 0.200”. Needless to say, that took a considerable amount of time and patience (danm Chinese metal).

So now the really tricky part will begin. So I may not be posting any progress for a while. I have to setup the axles to align the mid axle into its proper location. It’s kind of hard to explain, but it will entail cutting the Joyner CV cups to a specific length, then welding the VW CV cups to them. It’s one of the cases where a picture is worth a thousand words. So when they are done, I will show you how I did it.