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Sun Nov 23, 2008 11:04 pm

great find, man we dont get those down here in Puerto Rico, they are gold here!

Thu Dec 04, 2008 12:05 am

Quote: 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.

I have been having this same exact problem. this is the only time I get gas smells as I have already had all my fuel lines replaced. I haven't checked all of the tank ventilation lines, but I did visually inspect the elbow at the filler and it seems good and flexible still. its not cracked or torn.

today i took off what people call the paint can cover and i couldn't see any signs of gas leakage. tomorrow im going to try to remove the firewall to check the rest of the filler tubing.

my bay is also a 76 but the transporter

Thu Dec 04, 2008 7:21 am

Man I love Sage Green Westies. I need one.

Off to the Classifieds I go. :P

Thu Dec 04, 2008 8:28 am

Wow that was an awesome deal and you got the foot print gas pedal. Far out no doubt.

Thu Dec 04, 2008 10:46 am

I've enjoyed reading through this thread. It sounds like you've made a lot of progress on your camper. I'd love to have one just like it.

Thu Dec 04, 2008 11:01 am

thanks all! didnt realize people were still reading this thread.

i come here basically every day and sift through posts on this forum and others, cause i just love VWs and always have. this is my 3rd baywindow, altho it is my first camper. love it. also have owned 10+ bugs and a sweet 68 ghia that i wish i still had.

and im really bummed that right now, because i am not bothering to attempt to drive the bus anymore because of a cold starting issue. the thing cranks and cranks and cranks till the batt is dead, or i get lucky somewhere in that time and it will decide to fire. once it fires, it starts right up, sounds great, idles great, runs awesome. its just gettin 'er started thats a bitch.

ive got a new cold start valve and i think i have a new thermo time switch, as i found an old one in my box the other day. i dont remember replacing it, but why would i have another unless ive replaced it (or maybe this is the replacement?). ive put my LED test light on the CSV connector, and im getting pulses of light. i was expecting a solid "on" while cranking. anyone got experience with this? the fact that i have any light at all leads me to believe the TTS is ok... i know my CSV is brand spanking new. so im leaning towards possibly poor electrical connection? or voltage issue or something? the pulses of light grow bright when the engine is turning through a part of low compression, then when the compression gets high, the voltage dips and the light goes out. know what i mean?

i would sure love to be driving again. wasnt a problem until my last engine drop, when i fixed the exhaust leaks near the intake manifold. it used to fire right up every time no problem.

thanks for any replies... =D

Thu Dec 04, 2008 1:20 pm

on the gas smell front, ive noticed that there is a metal elbow that screws into the side panel at the gas cap- i have in mind to see if i can pull that sucker out to inspect it. because everything else i can see seems to be in proper order.

foot print gas pedals are in the 'cheesy add-on crap' section of your local FLAPS, FYI =D they cost like $10 and its hard to get em to stay on in a way that doesnt interfere with something... =D mine is actually removed... for the time being, or indefinitely, im not sure.

and i certainly have made a lot of progress with this old girl! thanks all for the compliments =)

i have also been comtemplating an idea, because my gas gauge still doesnt really work even after all that trouble; it is "working", its just way innaccurate. ive read that bending the arm of the float can help with that, but i was thinking about addressing the problem electrically, behind the dash, with a potentiometer. im not sure if i need to add resistance or subtract it from the equation, but i might be able to do either by wiring in series, or in parallel, whichever is required. i'll let you know how that goes =)

Thu Dec 04, 2008 3:41 pm

if it is your fuel elbow, i will gladly sell you the one i just bought. i thought i had the same issue. i should've read up on it a little more first.

before you mess with the elbow, check the ventilation tube rubber. someone made a diagram on the samba somewhere but i cant find it again. anyway the culprit in my car was behind the spare tire well! i never would have checked there had it not been for these forums!!! (TY!)

that is some serious leakage!!

this is a better one

Thu Dec 04, 2008 7:02 pm

thanks for that, i'll keep you in mind about the elbow if i need it. and yep ive replaced em all. altho i want to go revisit every single one and put brand new hose clamps on all of them. i think some of em are not clamped at all. and yep ive got pics of my own! =D heres what mine looked like...

edit: uploaded smaller image to thesamba

Fri Dec 05, 2008 2:37 am

lol, that old rubber just doesn't hold up well! thats almost identical to mine, but its wierd that my hose in all the other locations was fine. just the one behind the spare had failed.
i cant wait to top off my tank tomorrow!!

Sat Dec 13, 2008 3:29 pm

todays update- was hoping to have better news to post, but itll get done eventually...

on the fuel gauge front- i think i have lost the war. tore down my firewall, played with the sender, and found that my adjustments did basically nothing... so i brought the sender up front into the cab and started playing behind the dash. found that my setup does work! for about 10 seconds. then im guessing the vibrator gets warm and decides it does not want to work anymore. the needle drops, and thats the end of it. voltage output of the vibrator at that point is zero.

i have the original vibrator, and a brand new one i bought recently, and one from a dash cluster that i bought off ebay a while back. all 3 are bad. the 2 non-original ones put out about 5v. SO. i give up, im gonna get a VDO fuel level gauge and install it where the blankout plate in the cluster is. im done screwing around and i want a working fuel gauge. dunno what else to do, if im buying new vibrators and they dont work... hey that doesnt sound right...

one thing i have been telling myself i want to do is move my VDO gauges to the spot on the dash under the radio, so i decided to bite the bullet and do it. and oh i was being so careful and measured everything and tried to make it perfect perfect and its not. :lol: but i guess it doesnt look too atrocious.

heres where they were- steering wheel seemed to always be in the way

and good news on the fuel smell front- i decided to pull out the filler neck and have a look, sure enough the rubber is shot. i think i read those two words, "filler neck", all the time here on thesamba, and never bothered to look at my own. mine is toast.

pretty amazing that this relatively small hole can spill out quite a bit of gas. it used to drip down the inside of the panel and onto the ground sometimes when i fill up. not good!

so one is on order, i guess my bus is down for the count for a while.

thanks for readin' 8)

Thu Jan 01, 2009 2:15 pm

well i got my new fuel filler neck, but havent installed it yet. while i was waiting for it to arrive, i decided to patch my old one so i could continue to drive. i wanted to use a glue that would likely hold up to seeing gasoline, and chose hot glue for this application... doused and filled the cracks in the neck with hot glue, gas smell is now gone =D i will get around to putting the new one in one of these days... =)

ive also been talking in other threads about CSV issues.. well, TTS issues really, as my CSV is brand new. works fine when i connect some alligator leads while starting, starts the bus like a dream every time, even in the cold. so i decided to take the leap- im now officially a "PO"... i wired up a relay to activate the CSV. i was gonna route the control wire of the relay to a switch in the engine compartment, so i could activate the CSV while turning the key... but its new years day and radio shack is prolly closed, so i dont have a switch =P So... i decided in the meantime to just wire the control wire to my starter relay control wire, which happens to already be in the engine compartment at my remote start switch. =) SO what all this means is i now have a relay that activates the CSV any time the starter is on AND the key is in the 'on' position (pulling my source voltage from the 12v terminal of the coil)

i have an extra wiring harness, so i cut one of the connectors off so i could connect properly to the CSV. i can always put it back if i need to. hated to cut it tho.

sounds like a mega-hack, i know, but its really quite simple and can always be put right again, the wiring harness in the bus is untouched.

i'll have to see how this affects warm starting; i did let it warm up and try restarting a few times, it did start fairly well, altho i could tell it was almost too rich. if it becomes a problem, i can pull a wire temporarily =P (and install that switch in the cab!)

on a sour note, i blew out my head temp gauge =( hooked it up wrong, put 12v on one of the sense terminals. im way bummed. new one should be here any day.

and what else? oh, Randy long ago sent me some templates for some kick panels, i finally got around to making them. dragged my son out to the garage to help, he's a less-than-enthusiastic fellow for sure. but i think he appreciated a little bit being out in the garage with his dad working on something cool. the panels... well, they aint perfect but theyll work. i dont have any carpet up front at the moment, thanks to some cats that got into my bus and sprayed the effing thing :evil: luckily the smell is gone with the carpet.

oh, i also repaired my passenger side dogleg, same as before, welded it up. looks good! i have a BIG project in the distant future, the ass of the old girl is in sorry shape. the taillight lens on the drivers side is busted, and the panel where it goes is very dented and rusty. i want to replace most of that panel. also, the panels above and below the engine compartment door are rusty and look like crap, i havent found replacement panels for those anywhere... anyone know where i can get em?

hackalicious- my new relay...

doesnt look too awful i guess...

pics of the ugly;

i dont know what to do about inside the engine compartment- it is lookin really bad, the metal looks really thin and rusted through in places

Sat Jan 10, 2009 12:18 pm

Nice one i have a 76 as well westys rule!

Sat Jan 10, 2009 12:53 pm

I had the same problem and tracked it down to the filler hose also, I used the black silcone for motors and smeared the crap out of it, and eventually replaced it. luckly I found the problem by looking in the inspection cover and seeing the fuel had leaked from it.

Sun Jan 11, 2009 12:04 am

akscooter wrote: I had the same problem and tracked it down to the filler hose also, I used the black silcone for motors and smeared the crap out of it, and eventually replaced it. luckly I found the problem by looking in the inspection cover and seeing the fuel had leaked from it.
Same here. After replacing mine, I think I will attempt to fab one from aluminum, or possibly stainless. Doesn't look too hard to do. Would last forever. Anyone ever try to do this? :?:

Sun Jan 11, 2009 9:27 am

thats an interesting idea.. got me thinking about how you would fab one up. i guess it wouldnt be too difficult... youd have to get the angle right.. would you weld in nuts on the flange, and use machine bolts to hold it in place? use some rubber gaskets inbetween the neck and the panel? seems to me, though, theyre cheap and easy to replace, i for one wouldnt bother. you got an aluminum welding rig?

i got a question for you guys... ive got a snapping noise with wheel rotation on the passenger side, so i pulled my bearing housing and CV joints on the passenger side yesterday, and the CVs will need to be replaced. im guessing the ones on the drivers side are in similar condition, my question is; do you have to jack up the bus in order to remove the CVs? the passenger side is on a jack stand cause i removed the bearing housing, i dont want to risk jacking up the drivers side too, my jack stands are cheap and small and my jack is a pos. there should be enough room to work without jacking it up. seems like i should be ok without jacking it up, yah? isnt all the support on the rear torsion arms?

Thu Jan 22, 2009 10:58 am

well, little update, new CVs are in, snapping noise is gone. also replaced pass side front & rear wheel bearings, because... idunno. wasnt sure about the CVs at the time, and it sounded like a wheel bearing problem. anyway i got new ones now.

and now... the front brake caliper is done, new one ordered should be here today. broke the metal brake line while screwing with the caliper, bought replacements at FLAPS. thanks to VDubTech for the assist on that.

wifey promises a new garage jack for my bday in 2 weeks =) i cant wait.

hope to get home today, install new caliper and lines, and DRIVE! =D

Fri Jan 23, 2009 3:38 am

Very nice thread indeed...
Thats exactly what i want to do with my own family/bus when i get older but for now its a party bus.
Truly inspirational and that video of your daughters dancin is the best. :lol:
Many good bus times await you... 8)

Fri Jan 23, 2009 9:03 am

thanks! :D

as promised, new caliper and brake lines installed, drove it to work this morning. runs great! 65-70MPH =)

this weekend im gonna change the trans oil, and do a little wiring... gotta reinstall my VDO voltmeter and i want to run a wire to the cab so i can control my CSV- giving me trouble when the bus is warm, too rich. i realized yesterday that the little green OG rear defroster switch does nothing, and i am not inclined to fix it, so im gonna use that switch as my cold start switch. pulling the switch will switch my relay on, which will allow voltage from the starter to activate the CSV. should work famously! =D

Sun Jan 25, 2009 12:58 pm

famously indeed- not. i hate it when i do more harm than good.

i love the door buzzer relay mod, where you grab power off that one relay terminal under the fuse box and get power when the key is in the ignition. figured i'd draw power from there, use the defunct rear defroster switch to power my CSV relay. well it turns out one side of that switch is case ground, so i cant run power through it. i figured i could, however, use it as a ground-interrupt instead, i.e. give the relay power from another source, and use the switch to interrupt it's path to ground.

well the switch has a built-in light, a nice feature. gotta apply voltage to that, however, so of course stupid me i figure i'll use my door buzzer voltage to supply it. well, FYI, that door buzzer voltage is not fused. and the switch did not do what i expected it to, so when i flipped the switch, pow, off goes the radio. no blown fuses. looks like i fried my ignition switch! just that one terminal of it, starter still works fine. there is now no continuity from that terminal to any other terminal of the switch.

just thought i would share this with everyone, if you are using that terminal as a voltage source, you might want to fuse that line and/or use it to power a relay, and draw load voltage from a more robust source. the wire that that line uses is fairly small, around 18ga.

s'now i get to replace my ignition switch! luckily for me theyre relatively cheap.

:?