The Bus and Us - A journey from Alaska to Argentina in a 75

[73sports]

It was cool to see the bus at Flanders. Sometimes things you see on the internet do turn out to be true... Glad you had a good time there. CJVWS has worked very hard over the years to make it a must attend type of show.
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I will never lie, but sometimes the truth changes.

Central Jersey VW Society

[thebusandus]

[thebusandus]

[captincanuck]

[thebusandus]

If I swap it will be in another month or so in Colorado. I talked to someone about backfiring in gear downhill and he said this indicates I have valves damaged on the exhaust side which may mean I can still run this engine indefinitely.. I'm considering holding out to be back in Alaska so I can take my time. I'll keep the thread updated on it. Skills heard my bus run, the engine still sounds pretty good. I don't burn oil, and I still just ran up to northern Michigan on the interstate going 70 the whole way.
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2.2 Suby powered - 75 Westy - Rita

Panamerican Highway - 2014-2017

[skills@eurocarsplus]

your bus sounded healthy to me....

backfire on decel could be a minor exhaust leak....every manual does it to some extent. my blue bus does it too.....bum,bumbumbumbumbum a bit...not like a kabang or anything.

it's a lean misfire when the throttle snaps shut. did you adjust your TPS properly? if it's out of whack it could do it too. give it a tiny bit of throttle on decel and see if it goes away....

after hearing your bus, I highly doubt you have bent valves, but anything is possible. at this point with the mileage you've done, you'd a burnt a valve by now
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[thebusandus]

I could see that considering other people I travelled with burned valves from bad gas which I also filled with.. The tps is set correctly although sometimes my throttle cable sticks a bit and doesn't close the plate fully.

Well I made it to ND

It was about 1500 miles including the detours. Switched oil to full synthetic and used the royal purple version of water wetter and it seemed to really lower my temps. I also noticed an issue on acceleration when the engine is cold in the heavy rains I was driving through that felt like limp mode.. Only lasted twenty seconds or so and didn't throw codes but it happened twice and I wonder if the new speed sensors location is affected by water..

I decided to finish the whole bodywork on the road thing. Bondo, sand, putty, primer, 3 coats paint, three coats clear.. Luckily no campground neighbors within three spots to complain

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2.2 Suby powered - 75 Westy - Rita

Panamerican Highway - 2014-2017

[Tcash]

Looking good.
How are those General Grabbers. Do you get any tire noise, do they catch grooves or any other weird thing?
Thank you
Tcash

[thebusandus]

[thebusandus]

I almost forgot. We are in Canmore Alberta right now, planning on spending the next two weeks up here in Banff, Jasper, Yoho etc. If any Canadians have reccomendations let me know! Or better yet come bus campin with us!
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2.2 Suby powered - 75 Westy - Rita

Panamerican Highway - 2014-2017

[thebusandus]

Since most of my gauges have stopped working I set up a semi permanent mounted tablet to give me readings from OBDII on my dashboard.

Old

New with all the readings I could ever want and code reading on demand!

The code reading came in handy when it started running like crap because a rock had flung up and hit the wires where's they connect into the upstream o2 sensor. I was able to fix the wires with tape and electrical grease until I made it back to Montana.

I also replaced the speedo cable while camping you can see where the male piece broke off where it inserts into the speedo.

The stud also sheared off my drivers wiper so it's been fun dealing with all the rain / snow in Banff and whitefish.. waiting for the new part. Tried jb weld and loctite but neither could hold the wiper on.. using a lot of rainx for now

Heading to Bend Oregon next week for Warmer temps and the descend on Bend meet up!
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2.2 Suby powered - 75 Westy - Rita

Panamerican Highway - 2014-2017

[thebusandus]

We're out hanging out on the coast of Washington and Oregon until December. Getting some down time after what seemed like a rushed trip from the East Coast. We found some free camping near an Indian Casino at Ocean shores, WA when a familiar twang and loose pedal coincided.

There goes my fifth clutch cable of the trips maybe sixth..

In other news my throttle cable completely froze while camping in the sawtooths! We waited until mid day so it thawed out and ran fishing line through with a series of power towel chunks. A lot of water and crud in there even though all the rubber end seals looked in tact ! The end also was becoming so frayed I had to snip it off. I carry one of these extensions in case something like this happens, and used some copper wire which worked for about 5000 miles, I replaced it with some stainless cable today.

I am working on a time lapse vid from camping out near Mt. Adams, here's a little snippet!

Unfortunately we had some family matters we were dealing with and couldn't make it to any of the recent PNW meet ups but we hope to make it to some this month! If you're in the area and want to camp out or surf we will be mostly in hobuck and La Push for the next few weeks most likely.
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2.2 Suby powered - 75 Westy - Rita

Panamerican Highway - 2014-2017

[DougB]

Saw some of the later posts a bit late, but those panel fasteners/plastic rivets are the ones I use for fastening the wood rear hatch and sliding door panels. Because they don't involve a plastic screw there's no chance of buggering a screwdriver hear or having it break off. I've had those rivets off and on a few times with no impact to their effectiveness. And they're faster to remove than ones that utilize plastic screws to spread the "wings".

Good luck with your continued travels!

- Doug
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'75 Campmobile (tin-top to SpaceRoof)
'73 Fastback
'52 BMW R67/2
'41 Zundapp KS600
'55 Puch SGS250
A very, very understanding wife

[thebusandus]

I hate to only post issues on the samba but we use social media for trip updates. This last week has been a bit of hell as we left the Olympic peninsula from rain that has never stopped.

#1 The Vss has begun only intermittently working so we are constantly going into limp mode. On really rainy days which was nearly every day it wouldn't work at all. I monitor all my sensors via tablet all the time so I can tell when it's working immediately. I'm going to try to buy a new VSS and I'll put some sealant on the back to stop moisture from possibly getting in where the wires enter.

#2 Our trans has started acting crazy. Shifting is smooth and normal until the engine / trans warms up then it grinds trying to get into second as if it's hitting reverse. Sometimes it grinds a bit trying to get to fourth, and occaisonally from a stop in first it will just grind, like it doesn't know which gear it's trying to get to, when I go back to neutral and back into first the grinding stops. I replaced the fluid and found our shift stop plate broken in half. I replaced it with a new one but found the new one from Buslab to be so big you can't adjust it, I'm going to try and dremel the ends off to match the origins size so it's adjustable but I'm not sure that will be the fix considering this shift issue is only happening when the trans is warm.

#3. The driver wiper shaft broke off in heavy rain. So we bought a 20 inch wiper, snipped four inches off the bottom so it wouldn't mess up the paint and adjusted it so it almost wiped the drivers side. This got us a few hundred miles in the rain and we found a good used shaft at Fred's garage in Redwood City.

We put in a new stove to replace the shitty South American single burner that would leak if we left the propane on even when stationary !

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2.2 Suby powered - 75 Westy - Rita

Panamerican Highway - 2014-2017

[thebusandus]

Although I'm stuck in Temecula with some drivetrain woes our plan is still to head south into Baja in January! If anyone else is bus cruising down there over the next two months let me know, I have a few other buses that will likely be joining in mid January!


Our buddy Dylan made a video tour of our bus and a little interview, check it out!


Link

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2.2 Suby powered - 75 Westy - Rita

Panamerican Highway - 2014-2017

[chachi]

enjoyed the video and seeing your van. you have a clean, cozy setup.
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'74 transporter panel
'91 vanagon carat NAHT

[wcfvw69]

I enjoyed the video as well. I just revisited the entire thread again and WOW.. you are certainly getting your money out of that bus! I like your set up inside the van.

A couple of questions-

*Are those seats up front stock 75's?
*Tell me about that fridge? I don't know if I've seen that one
*What do you heat the bus with at night when you're sleeping?

Again, kudos to you and yours for saying phuck it and going for that dream trip before life gets all complicated.
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Decades of VW and VW parts restoration experience.
The Samba member since 2004.

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[thebusandus]

[thebusandus]

[The real Curly]

So impressive.
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1975 Baywindow Riviera Camper

1931 Model A truck (Model A folks are smart and handsome)