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Fri Jul 10, 2009 7:58 pm

entschuldegung! nice work, man. great motivation, too. keep up the good works. love the gauge cluster below the radio unit, i've a mind to do something like that (couldn't see gauges mounted below the steering wheel- seat don't tilt back that far).

Sat Jul 11, 2009 7:55 am

Looking good. That new bus looks nice. A little buffer action and I bet she shines right up. I feel another bus day soon.
I'd also like to check out that ac system. I've been driving only the bus and damn Houstons hot!

Mon Jul 13, 2009 12:06 am

Greetings from I-45 ! What a wonderful family and growing family of wheels you have ! Congrats and great thread. This is my first post, so hello to everyone here. :) Already received alot of inspiration. Muchas gracias.

Quick question .... you seem to be familiar with the fuel injection system. I have a '77 transpo I am looking to have rebuilt soon. I talked to a guy and the first thing he said was he'd want to convert it to a carb. Seemed unusual. He also seemed to think it was a type 4 (it's a 2000cc), and wanted about 4k. I have another guy who has said about $400. :D

If you have any ideas about the FI vs. carb I'd appreciate it. Here's a couple of pics. Enjoy and good luck on the new hardtop.

Mon Jul 13, 2009 12:17 am

karo wrote: I talked to a guy and the first thing he said was he'd want to convert it to a carb. Seemed unusual. He also seemed to think it was a type 4 (it's a 2000cc), and wanted about 4k. I have another guy who has said about $400

Not to hijack the thread, but stay as far away from the guy that wants to convert to carb as you can. Search the forums, there is a lot of material on the subject, but let me sum it up for you real quick: KEEP YOUR FI!!!!

As for the engine, again, a search will yield a lot of reading. The absolute best you can do for your Bus is a camper special from Jake Raby if you plan to spend the $4K and do it once. I wouldn't go anywhere near a $400 rebuild, your machine work will cost more than that. Another good option is boston engine. Your best bet is to start your own thread so we don't impose on this one with all of your questions.....and yes, you should have a Type 4 motor in your Bus.

Mon Jul 13, 2009 12:30 am

Yeah that's what I figured. Oh well. Supposedly he hot-rods porsches, hasn't worked on a van in awhile, but I thought he might be a good source. I didn't ever know if it really was a type 2 or 4. Always liked the FI.

Thanks. Maybe I could start a thread for a good mechanic. 8) :D No thread-jack intended.

Mon Jul 13, 2009 2:41 am

absolutely keep your FI. if youre in houston, i'll help you with it! its easy really.

nice bus you got there!

Tue Jul 14, 2009 6:01 am

Hey OP ! :D I'm in Dallas. Thanks man, I'll be checking in on the progress. Hope to make some of my own. I got the bus in '91. Has been down for awhile. Got it cleaned up, cleaned out (had a dead bird inside,ugh), 2 hours with a high-pressure hose, and new tires.

People told me I had really good luck with the bus, drove it out west and back. Had a killer mechanic in Santa Cruz ... it floated back. Never could find anyone here. Yeah I got the moon roof man ! :P

Tue Jul 14, 2009 7:29 am

that rules- i really wanted a sunroof bus. there was one up for sale when we were just beginning to look but didnt have the money yet- missed it, bummer. but im quite happy with the one we got. love the color.

Tue Jul 14, 2009 9:55 am

Bombass thread...I think it's one of the only ones I've read five pages of, hahaha

I started because my '77 is a twin of yours...I've had several of the same issues. For example, I'm dealing with the cold starting right now myself. It only does it the first time I start it in the morning. The rest of the day it gives me no trouble...first time I hit the key it'll kick right on. I usually give up because I'm afraid to A) burn up my starter and/or B) kill my battery. So (when it's possible) the next step is to hop out, push it as fast as I can, hop in, put it in gear and pop the clutch. I've had to do that a couple times now, :lol: :lol: But if I can't do that, it usually helps just to pump the gas a couple times to shoot it a little extra gas to make it fire. I've heard that you're not supposed to do that on a FI engine, but until someone tells me why it's a bad idea I'm gonna keep doing it because it works for me! :wink:

Anyway, great thread man...super cool stories and photos. Makes me think mine still has some hope. :lol: I'm sure I will be stopping back to see what's new. Later!

Tue Jul 14, 2009 11:54 am

glad you like it! i appreaciate the comments. this thread has been fun, i need to update it more. i also need to mess with the settings on my camera- for some reason the pics it has been taking lately are too big to upload to thesamba,so i got a bunch of pics waiting in the wings... such as my fathers day present!... anyone care to guess what it is? :D

Tue Jul 14, 2009 12:01 pm

btw goodfight, you gotta get some pics on your thread! post up your issues- folks here are real helpful. heres an example of a problem i had, i took lotsa pics and video and we figured it out fast:

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=347808&highlight=scraping+drum

but really i just want to see your bus =P

Tue Jul 14, 2009 12:19 pm

Man having so many pics and no ability to upload sucks! I'm in the same boat as my computer is jacked at the moment. Trying to sell an og empi wheel with no pics is tough.

Tue Jul 14, 2009 1:15 pm

come over for a bus day and i'll loan you a laptop. :D

Tue Jul 14, 2009 7:05 pm

well i got some pics resized... sorry for the blurry. if and when i ever get this thing runnin i will pull it out for proper pics!

tail end- pretty straight!

interior in decent shape

yanked out the exhaust whole. note the broken manifold! :shock:

new thunderbird from raby, getting ready to go in

carb & intakes out... anybody want it?

FI back in, and seems to be in running condition now.

there is a problem with this engine tho, has a pretty loud knock. #1 exhaust was very oily, like practically dripping. sad to say, i think this engine is done for.

and now....
drumroll please....
the bestest fathers day surprise ever...
kids came into the garage and said 'dad! dont go in the backyard for about an hour!' im like, ok! and thinking to myself its a fathers day present, and i have been wanting to get a smoker bbq for a looooong time (texas bbq, yum!) and figured that must be it, they are assembling it or whatever. im so smart, i got it all figured out.

nope!

they come back after about an hour, blindfold me, and walk me out to the back yard...

surprise!

my jaw absolutely hit the floor. needless to say, my wife is pretty awesome =) she gets the OutDid Yourself award on this one. holy cow. the tent is in really awesome shape, i didnt notice any rips or anything, tho my wife said there are some... she got an excellent deal on it too.

cant wait to use it! is it october yet?

Wed Jul 15, 2009 1:51 am

Damnation! Nice man... Your wife and my girl need to hang out.
I gotta check that thing out in person, bus day real soon. Like maybe Thursday or sundAy.... Pm me

Wed Jul 15, 2009 10:04 am

Interior in "decent shape" ?! Holy Mack'ral, that reminds me of when I first got mine. Wow, love the 2-tone colors. I yanked the middle bench as soon as I could and put a nice piece of plywood in w/ a leg assembly on it. I could slide it back and forth to put luggage under it, had a futon on it. Also went and got some colored industrial carpet, looked really good for cheap. Much more fun than a bench seat.

That yellow looks good in the sun !! :D You just need a new bumper. Awesome. Yeah my 2 Westfalia buddies throw tents. 8) They go up to Arkansas every year.

Wed Jul 15, 2009 10:29 am

Posted a link to some photos in that other thread, per your request Onion. :)

http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseacti...Id=2542762

There's the link to save you some time. ha

Wed Jul 15, 2009 1:57 pm

why thanks, Mr. Goodfight, youre alright by me. :D

our busses are absolutely twins, arent they?

Sun Aug 16, 2009 12:09 pm

thot i'd post up some pics

REALLY hot in houston these days, been using the gilmore AC more often. the issues ive been having are that at idle, using the AC drops the idle pretty significantly, and also my voltage would dip down to about 11v. The gilmore has 3 fan settings, and the higher the setting, the bigger my voltage drop. so this week i decided to try a 70A alternator, and i installed that this morning. considerable improvement voltage-wise, i can now stay above 12v when my RPMs are up, but the low idle issue remains. i would like to come up with some way of boosting the idle when the system is on. if anyone has any ideas, let me know.

system off:
idle @ 800RPM
13.7v

@ 2K RPM
13.7v

system on- setting 1:
idle @ 550/600 RPM
12.2V

@2K RPM:
13.5V
stalled going back down to idle from 2k- boooooo!

system on- setting 3
idle @ 550/600 RPM
11.9V

@ 2K RPM:
14V
stalled again going back to idle! hissssssss! :evil:

i will borrow a thermocouple from work on monday and get some good cabin temp readings to share. today would have been a great day to do that, its quite hot out and running the system definitely made a difference.

here are a few pics:

holes drilled in topside tin- lucky i placed em pretty good! system can be filled/checked without removing tin.

compressor- belt runs behind fan shroud. pretty wild! pulley was present behind fan already, even without a dealer installed AC.

hoses run under tin towards front of bus

condensor

drier in front wheel well

hoses run over front beam to front of bus

big ol evaperator under glove box. bitch to install. guess i should tidy up before taking pics :P gotta cut 2 holes in the floor for the AC hoses. my bus is hammered so i dont mind too much.

more pics of my mess

i cut a hole in my splash pan for the drain

im looking forward to taking some cabin temp readings!

and progress is being made on the other bus as well- all new window seals installed except for the windshield which i am procrastinating... cores for the CS are with Raby, he should get to them around the 1st of sept.

Sun Aug 16, 2009 9:15 pm

Just found your thread. Nice bus bro! Crusty? Not. I've seen crusty buses. From day one when you got it, this was not one of them!