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Fri Apr 04, 2008 10:13 pm

onion456 wrote: .... paint on the side of the bus said 'Mud Fairies Only'- the girl i bought from... well.. here; http://www.mudfaerywood.com/

HAh. No doubt about it, that thing has seen more than it's fair share of hippyness...

Exhibit A........

p.s. great camping photos!

Tue Apr 22, 2008 10:29 am

yeah. =)

well we had an interesting weekend. We decided it would be great fun to register for the Texas VW Classic show in Fredricksburg, TX, which is 250 miles away from Houston. I had been driving the bus every day to work and it had been running great, i figured we'd take it slow and get there fine. and we did. but once we got there, the clutch started acting funny, like partially engaged at times. I figured it was a long journey and things were hot and it would probably clear up in the morning.

we camped, it was very cool to be there, surrounded by all makes and madels of aircooled VWs. The next day was the Bluebonnet Cruise, and we figured we had to do that. Everybody lined up for the cruise, and we got underway... we had almost made it out of the park when suddenly, from a stop, i couldnt get the bus into any gear. people were lined up behind me, i had to push it off to the side of the road to let people pass. i played around with the gearshift for a while and finally got it into first and limped back to our campsite. we were a bit worried at this point, with no other way to get home. i talked to some of the staff of the event, some real VW gurus they were, and we thought about it and figured it might be a clutch or cable problem, as i was able to find all the gears with the engine off, but when running i couldnt find any. that kindof ruled out linkage or internal transmission problem, thank god...

i had my wife push on the clutch pedal while i watched the clutch lever on the trans, there was not very much throw of the arm at all. i happened to have brought a new clutch cable, so i decided to install it. somebody had installed an oversized nut on the cable, used as a spacer between the cable nut and the arm, so i reasoned maybe that nut was moving around and that was why sometimes i would have gears and other times not. so i swapped out the cable, the new one was nice and tight and i didnt need to reuse the nut. i adjusted it so that i had maximum throw, and it felt better at the pedal. Since we were still set up to camp (poptop open and crap everywhere) i decided it would wait till the morning to test it out. (surely that fixed it) =D

next morning, same problem, no gears. its now sunday, the show/judging is today. we decided to go ahead and call AAA and arrange for a tow. my wife had just upgraded to the cadillac package; gold or premiere or whatever they call it. they told her over the phone that there was a 10 day grace period before they will agree to the new terms- in other words you cant sign up today and then tomorrow expect a 200 mile tow for free. they said they would cover 100 miles, and it would be $4 a mile after that. that would end up costing us $600. which we dont have. my very pregnant wife, god bless her, was quite aggro about this situation =) so i decided to take a little walk and think. as i was out walking, i noticed there were many more vendors out today than there had been the day before, and one of them had a lot of new parts in boxes. he had a clutch disc, pressure plate, and throw-out bearing, for $30. wow =) im thinking there must be something wrong with my clutch, maybe with the old cable not adjusted right, the heat of things slipping maybe fried my disc or something. who knows.

so i went back to camp to let my wife know what i was thinking, she said she had cancelled the tow cause she didnt know where i had disappeared to. she said if i think i can do it, go for it, we dont have $600 anyway. so ok, its drop engine time. i had in my posession:

full socket set
adjustable wrench
slip-lock pliers
phillips and flathead screwdrivers
a mini floor jack
wire cutter/stripper/crimper and some butt connectors

everything i could possibly need =) so i dropped that sucker right in our campsite. used some C-clamps from my homemade awning to clamp off the fuel lines, and at times i used firewood to prop the engine up off the ground. i didnt want to bugger up the bottom of my engine with that little jack so i borrowed my five-year-old daughters coloring book and put it inbetween the jack and the engine. when i got it down i pulled the clutch- it looked pristine. disc was like new. im like wtf is the problem? i look and notice a little piece of metal in the center hole in the flywheel- i pull it out and its a little piece of bearing, like a needle bearing. i stick my finger in the hole and feel all the rest of the pieces of my pilot bearing, which had apparently disintegrated. i gather up some of the pieces and go off in search of the 2 gurus i had spoken to previously. they couldnt figure why that would cause me to be unable to put it into gear, but they figured if i cleaned all the bits of junk out of the hole and put it back together, i might be able to limp home.

so i put everything back together, sans pilot bearing. i had no clutch alignment tool, so i used a 13mm deep socket to eyeball the centering of the disc. we got the engine up and back in (god bless my wife, pregnant and wrenching on VWs with me) got it all back together and started her up, and i had gears. by this time we had basically missed the entire show, i think it was about 5:30pm when we were up and running again. i took it slow, got gas in town, and hit the road. noticed the bus did not like high torque gears like first or reverse, but she did ok in the higher gears. i averaged 50mph home, which really wasnt any worse than the way up. my temps seemed high the entire trip, but we had never taken a long journey like this before. we rolled home at about midnight i think, thanking our lucky stars to have made it!

as i was driving home, i realized that if some bits and chunks of pilot bearing had gotten inbetween the splines of the transmission shaft and the clutch disc, it could prevent the disc from moving, therefore keeping it bound to one of the drive surfaces and keeping the transmission spinning all the time, and preventing me from finding any gears. a possibility i guess.

anyway, another exciting chapter in the life of my crusty '76... :D

Fri Apr 25, 2008 9:27 pm

Man that is what I would call heart. My wife wouldn't be half as patient about that and I definitely dont have the skillz like you do. (wish I did) Keep it up and you will have a great running Westy.

74 Westy "elmo"

Sun May 11, 2008 5:42 am

thanks =)

well i replaced the pilot bearing yesterday- funny how when the bus is not running, i dont want to have anything to do with it, and when it is, i LOVE it and cant stop thinking about it. =D but the job was not too bad, i just took my time, and i defnitely had better tools this time than i did in the campsite =) the ATV jack sure made a difference when installing, engine went right in with zero fuss.

cool thing, i found that my FLAPS rents pilot bearing pullers- and if you return it within 45 days its FREE- after 45 days its YOURS lol. came in super handy, bearing came right out. got the new one in nice nice, packed it full of wheel bearing grease. bus started right up (after some slight confusion with the coil wires) and drives great.

here are some pics from the Texas VW Classic =)

heres me about to break down before the cruise =D notice im still smiling

i believe this is us limping back to camp instead of going on the cruise...

Sat Oct 25, 2008 10:59 am

welp, been a long time since i added to this thread, thought maybe i would =) i dont even know how much ive done since my last post- certainly gotten my fridge/charging circuit working again... new water tank pump... replaced missing glove box, have new fuel gauge sender and vibrator to install, new oil temp sensor and modified taco plate too. oh, new drag link, i have a new steering damper to install. still need ball joints, but reading about that can o worms... i'll put it off a lil longer. =D

i also got a welder and a compressor- YESSS! :D just got done doing my first attempt at some bodywork. man, what a lot of work that is. ive been itching to try this, so even tho this may not be perfect, its certainly better than what it was. this is just a patch, anyway. when my skills improve i'll replace the whole dogleg. but my skills wont improve unless i do crazy sh!t like this. anyway, im happy with it for now. i am surprised, i have been doing nice welds on the bench, but for some reason on the bus i was getting a lot of popping, burn-through, sputtering, not easy welds. my fitment was pretty good actually, but with all the burn through i was getting, i was having to build up the metal again.

anyway here it is

(yes i ground down my embarassing looking welds and didnt take pictures of them :P)

there is no bondo at all on this, just bare metal. quick coat of this green primer i have been using. i can always go back with the wire wheel and clean it up if i want. but im not shooting for perfection.

thanks for lookin 8)

Sat Oct 25, 2008 11:08 am

Looks good!

Sat Oct 25, 2008 11:10 am

onion456 wrote: i have been doing nice welds on the bench, but for some reason on the bus i was getting a lot of popping, burn-through, sputtering, not easy welds.

Funny how things work better on the bench :P .

You don't have to be good at welding, you just have to be good at grinding :wink: .

Good job!

Sat Oct 25, 2008 4:45 pm

56ovalbug wrote: onion456 wrote: i have been doing nice welds on the bench, but for some reason on the bus i was getting a lot of popping, burn-through, sputtering, not easy welds.

Funny how things work better on the bench :P .

You don't have to be good at welding, you just have to be good at grinding :wink: .

Good job!

:lol: Isn't that the truth. Lookin good man. Keep up the good work. :)

Sun Oct 26, 2008 9:08 am

thanks guys =)

i was just out at the bus, i have this pesky exhaust leak i cant seem to get rid of. i tightened up the exhaust manifold a little and fired it up to listen; i took some fuel hose, one end by my ear and poked around with the other end to try and find the puff puff... turns out it is coming from the top of the engine?! on the 1&2 side, right near the intake manifold. very loud, high frequency.. i thought it was ticking hyros, as it kinda sounds like ticktickticktick.

any thoughts? im thinkin blown head gasket/shim? sounds like an engine drop investigation is in my very near future. i prolly need to drop it anyway, as i need to install a new fuel gauge sender.

Sun Oct 26, 2008 1:18 pm

The intake manifold gasket may be shot or it may just need to be tightened down a bit.

Sun Oct 26, 2008 1:54 pm

Check to make sure the header coming off the cylinder head isn't cracked. I had the same tick tick in mine and it turned out being a crack up near the head. Take of the lower sheet metal and poke your head up there to check.

Sun Oct 26, 2008 3:32 pm

Quote: The intake manifold gasket may be shot or it may just need to be tightened down a bit.

that wouldnt be considered a vacuum leak? i didnt think the bus would still run...

Quote: Check to make sure the header coming off the cylinder head isn't cracked. I had the same tick tick in mine and it turned out being a crack up near the head. Take of the lower sheet metal and poke your head up there to check.

im guessing you mean the exhaust manifold- yeah i keep thinking the problem is there, but ive done EVERYTHING- filed down the oval mating surfaces even (per Ratwell), ground down the stud bosses, opened up the stud holes, (dealt with numerous broken exhaust studs in the process...) used exhaust goop, and the problem persists- now i notice the sound is very loud from the top of the engine, not the bottom.

i will check the intake manifold - thanks

Sun Oct 26, 2008 4:53 pm

onion456 wrote: Quote: The intake manifold gasket may be shot or it may just need to be tightened down a bit.

that wouldnt be considered a vacuum leak? i didnt think the bus would still run...

Yes, it would be a vacuum leak. I rebuilt the engine in my (now gone) '77 Westy. After the engine was in and running I was hearing what I thought was a squeak/chirp but was actually a vacuum leak between the head and the intake manifold. The nuts were torqued to the correct specification but was still not making a perfect seal. I snugged them up a little more and 'VOILA', no more squeak/chirp.

Sun Oct 26, 2008 5:11 pm

well i thought i had found it- my tin was slightly out of shape and part of it was over into the gasket area of the intake manifold, which looked like it could have been in the way and prevented a good seal. i busted out the dremel and buzzed off just a hair of the tin, so that the manifold and gaskets would definitely sit flat. they all looked good, by the way. i tightened everything back up, fired it up, and... still there.

i pulled out the fuel hose again to check; the sound definitely originates about 2 inches from the manifold, in line with the manifold, towards the rear of the bus. there is just tin there, so there must be something under the tin making the noise.

:?

Sat Nov 01, 2008 7:40 pm

update... :D

stumbled across this in a recent thread, entitled "what are these pipes for" and VDubTech brought this up:

VDubTech wrote:
From Ratwell.com:

If you have the head from the 74 bus, then you'll notice two holes on either side of the intakes. These are not breather openings to vent pressure from behind the valve cover. They are air injection holes to allow oxygen to be introduced into the exhaust stream to help burn unburned mixture (afterburning). Two tubes were hooked up to those ports which lead to an air pump that way driven off the pulley. Removing the air pump is a good ideal because it's overly complicated and not very effective.

Some people rebuild their engine using these heads and have no idea why there is soot in the engine compartment or why it's so noisy. The holes have to be plugged up after the pump is removed. Two tubes are screwed into the holes and they are difficult to remove sometimes without stripping the threads. After removing the tubes you need to plug the holes and the best way to do it is with a 10x1 valve adjusting screw and some Loctite 518. If the threads are in bad shape you will have to chase them with a tap to clean up the threads.

i read this and it really rang true for me, and an engine drop was kinda needed anyway, as i wanted to install a new fuel gauge sender and clean up my crusty firewall.

my 6 year old daughter gets her hands dirty...

engine dropped...

and sure enough, these holes muzzbe the holes vdubtech/ratwell were talking about. the one on the #2 side was puffing air, and was black with soot around the hole. (sorry for the crummy pic)

you can see the hole, just to the left of the intake, where that little cutout in the tin is.

originally my plan was to tap the hole and put a bolt in there with some loctite (which is what i thought ratwell said)- but the more i looked at it, the less i wanted to do that. the hole is actually a small section of steel pipe, that runs though the fins and into the combustion chamber (reading back, i think that ratwell meant to completely remove these tubes, and tap the aluminum where it enters the combustion chamber). the walls of the pipe seemed really thin to be thinking about tapping, and i dont own a tap and die set (yet) soo... true to my impatient form, i busted out the JB weld. got a 1/4 x 1-1/2" bolt, thoroughly gooped it up and slipped it in there. i actually feel pretty good about the result, i cant imagine having any problem with it (till the steel tubes rust through, anyway). it was either that or pull the heads and get all machinist on it, lets try the JB weld first.

it feels like i did a zillion things today to the bus- got the fuel gauge installed, painted my firewall, plugged the EGR system finally. reinstalled the engine. i also rerouted some wiring, welded a post on the firewall for the dual relay to bolt to, and endless other little jobs...

and currently it wont start- plugging the EGR i figure was a major change and will probably affect my timing, as it was getting a healthy dose of unmetered air before. not to mention now there isnt a leak on #2. so its 9:30pm and im tired, i'll deal with getting it to run tomorrow =) gives the JB another day to cure anyway. i cant wait to see how it sounds, how it runs, im anticipating its going to be much, much better :D

thanks for readin 8)

Sun Nov 02, 2008 4:40 am

WOW! It must have been full of fun on that camping trip!

Sun Nov 02, 2008 9:10 am

got it running again, leak sound is gone :D dont know why it wouldnt start, i kept feeling like i was flooding the engine... so i charged the batt and let it sit a while, then took the air filter out and gave it WOT while starting, she fired right up. engine sounds much more even and quieter. must drive it to see how it affected the power. off i go! :lol:

Sun Nov 02, 2008 9:18 am

forgot to mention my *&^#% @#$*)(*% fuel gauge is again not working, it worked briefly yesterday, so i buttoned everything up. sigh. if i find out its burnt up again, im gonna be pissed. i had bought a new fuel gauge voltage vibrator thingie, but it didnt work when i tested it with the new sender, and the old vibrator did, so i decided to use the old one. :?

heres a pic of my old one. i am not sure if the old vibrator caused this to happen, or if i mistakenly put unregulated 12v on the sender line. that would certainly cause this, so i was more careful this time.

Sat Nov 22, 2008 8:14 pm

i should post this before it is forgotten =)

so now i have this (relatively) quiet running bus, just in time for Ren Faire! which, last time we went, we a) partook of the festivities a bit too much before driving home, and b) learned that they have on-site camping, and vowed to take advantage of it next time. so this was the time, and in the forecast was a cold front, with lows at night in the 40's. sounded excellent to us, cold is one thing we dont get a lot of in houston.

so off we went! the bus ran excellently there and back. i was even surprised to find myself in the fast lane a few times! i generally take it real easy on the old girl, but she must have been in the zone or something.

so we get to ren faire, find the camping situation to be... interesting... an absolute sea of tents, i never expected to see so many people camping. but it makes perfect sense to camp at ren faire. so i found this spot that was a little wet, so people were avoiding it with thier tents- doesnt bother us a bit! we popped the top and headed over to the faire, took this pic looking back...

i was actually a little surprised not to see another pop top there somewhere... not even a vanagon, nothing.

so day 1 of the faire was a blast, and after the fireworks we headed back to the bus. got lost in the sea of tents but eventually found it.

here are the girls whoopin it up in the bus! it was probably 50 degrees out and we were pretty cozy in there...

we were told by the people who sold us the camping permit that we were in the party area and there would be a bonfire, and if we wanted quiet we should head over to the 'quiet family camping' area. well after quieting down in the bus, we realized this wasnt gonna work- too many people blasting thier stereo, whoopin it up; we wanted some sleep. so i dropped the top and we headed over to the quiet area =)

in the morning we were ready for day 2! it was pretty chilly, actually it was straight up cold till the sun came out. we all bundled up while i made coffee, it is soooo nice having this little home away from home. i used the range quite a bit to heat up water for the little one's bottles, too. Here is my oldest daughter showing off her mittens.

that picture was pretty late in the morning, the sun was out, or we wouldnt have had that slider open! from there we headed to the faire for a full day, didnt leave till well past sundown. bus ran great the whole way home.

well thats about it for now, bus is running good, which is great for an unknown engine i bought off ebay. i got lucky. i have lots of projects and very little time! i have a full time job and an infant and im also going to night school, so im quite slammed.

one recent development since the last engine drop is hard starting when cold, and today (a week after ren faire) i found that the thermo time switch connector had no metal clip on it. i took a metal clip off my spare harness, put it on the TTS, and the problem seems to be fixed.

also i am having an issue with a stong gas smell when the tank is full and i take left turns. of course all the gas is swishing over to the right side, up the filler tube, and i think right at the fill hole there must be something going on, like a leak or something. ive noticed it does leak inside the panel when im filling up with gas and the gas backs up the tube, i get gas on the ground. this is obviously not good and needs to be fixed asap. i'll let ya know what i find.

Sun Nov 23, 2008 7:25 am

That's a great video. We started camping about 10 years ago and have many good memories. The kids are now 12, 15 & 18. We don't go as often as when they were little, and scheduling seems harder, but it's worth it.