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

[thebusandus]

I decided to skip Nashville and drive the 500 mile blue ridge parkway/Shanendoah skyline road all the way to Pennsylvania so I can receive the new VSS and join the bus depot camp out on Saturday. I realized the bus runs bad, throws all four cylinder misfire codes etc but doesn't go into full limpmode unless I come to a complete stop and let it idle... The great thing about this road is 45 mph speed limits and no stops !! The bad part is constantly going up and down mountains is slow going on diminished power.

I would take the freeway but with the misfires and what not that the lack of VSS is causing I can't get above 55 ( I think ). I couldn't fix my speedometer cable with jb weld so I'm going to buy a new one from bus depot this weekend. I should have the new VSS installed tomorrow from RMW.

In other news I came the closest I've come to crashing at sunset last night when a damn black bear jumped out in front of me in Shenandoah national park. Full on four wheel skid got about 6" from its back foot as it decided to just try to outrun me in my lane!
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2.2 Suby powered - 75 Westy - Rita

Panamerican Highway - 2014-2017

[thebusandus]

Said bear once it got into the other lane and ran back to its cub

Shenandoah early morning driving.. Roads are empty at 7am so you can stop and take pics

Let the slow cruisin begin!

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2.2 Suby powered - 75 Westy - Rita

Panamerican Highway - 2014-2017

[3 Amigos Racing]

I love the road trips.. I look over the expedition portal often and quite honestly Bus road trips are my favorite.. keep rolling and photos too

[thebusandus]

I modified my clutch cable "arm" to mount the rmw VSS (built for a Vanagon) and I had to put a large nut as a spacer between the included nuts. Is this messing with my magnetic vss? I have it within 3/16 and I'm not getting a reading still!

I'll mess with it more tomorrow but man am I just wishing they would build a direct fit so I don't have to modify !

Anyway, skills same experience?

Also, going to the BusDepot campout Tonight and tomorrow! Whose going?
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2.2 Suby powered - 75 Westy - Rita

Panamerican Highway - 2014-2017

[skills@eurocarsplus]

I have made my own brackets.

is your wiring of the VSS correct?
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[thebusandus]

I put it even closer and it works on a hand on tire spin test. I'm going for a drive here shortly. Here's a few pics of the RMW bracket mounted to the modified arm.

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2.2 Suby powered - 75 Westy - Rita

Panamerican Highway - 2014-2017

[Tcash]

I would remove #28 the spacer plates if you can. The reluctor wheel will spread the load of the cv bolts. Or get longer bolts.
thnx to jeersylooker

GD
Tcash

[captincanuck]

If you don't get a good enough signal from the tabs on that ring, try using the bolt heads. Or flip that sensor 90 degrees so that its pointing at the larger flat portion of the ring and not the thin edge.

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1979 Westfalia "FireFly" Subaru 2.2 with Subaru gears 5spd.
Build Thread: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=634777&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

[TomWesty]

[aeromech]

Tim,
These plates that Tom calls moon plates may have come from what are known as half moon clips. These were used in WWI vintage .45 revolvers. The pistol was made to shoot .45 rim ammunition but you could use .45 acp ammo if you incorporated half moon clips. Very similar looking to these CV strengthening plates. My brother wound up with our Dad's gun.
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Lead Mechanic: San Diego Air and Space Museum
Licensed Airframe and Powerplant Mechanic
Licensed Pilot (Single engine Land)
Boeing 727,737-200-300-400,757,767
Airbus A319,320,321
DC9/MD80
BAe146
Fokker F28/F100
VW type 1 1962,63,65,69,72
VW Type 2 1971 (3 ea.) 1978, 1969
VW Jetta
VW Passat
Capable of leaping tall buildings in a single bound

[thebusandus]

Canuck what speed sensor are you running? If I have any future issues I am going to switch it so it's reading off the bolts as you suggest, or modify it so it's reading the wide side. I suppose the only issue with running the CV without the half moons is that the RMW ring is a semi circle. One of the bolts doesn't secure it. Not sure if this would actually be an issue or if the bolt would max out without the half moon spacer.
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2.2 Suby powered - 75 Westy - Rita

Panamerican Highway - 2014-2017

[skills@eurocarsplus]

I like the RMW set up.

I am running a HELL of a lot more power thru that set up than you are, and have zero issues.

in my testing, the RMW is spot on with a clean square wave. the bolt holes are kind of a jumbled mess on the scope.

RMW pick up ring+proper washers=0 issues

the issue whit the bolt head deal is too much interference. I am probably the only asshole on the planet to hook my scope up to see this...

computers need CLEAN signals...
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[captincanuck]

[vwwestyman]

The speed sender from a Pontiac Fiero (GM p/n 90148828) will screw onto the back of the speedometer, and the speedo cable will screw into the back of the sender.

I have one on my '78. I originally used it to provide a signal to the VW cruise control I installed years ago, and now it provides a signal to the TDI ECU.

Just throwing another option out there for readers of the thread.
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Dave Cook

President, Wild Westerner Club

1978 Champagne Edition Westy, repowered to '97 Jetta TDI
1973 Wild Westerner
My Thing

[thebusandus]

[vwwestyman]

[thebusandus]

Well the past few thousand miles have been fun, we made it up to Burlington Vermont and over to Acadia National park for a sunrise and some surfing.

Well also went to buses by the depot and Flanders aircooled shows which were amazing. Our first VW meet ups!

We stopped by Skills' house in Conneticut to see what the fuck his problem is . What an awesome guy / family, it's really great to put faces to Internet names. We shot the shit for 8 hours and I definitely learned a lot from his conversion examples he even helped me out by doing a quick weld on my bumper.

We then began heading west and a familiar noise from the rear bearings kept back. I've tightened this bearing three times on the road trip, but it keeps making a grinding noise in shorter and shorter intervals. So I finally rented the tools from autozone and tore it apart (I had new bearings with me the whole trip)

I don't know what the issue was as neither race was spinning and the bearings looked to be original and in good shape. I put the new bearings in and I have 1000 miles on them with no sounds / issues. I also noticed my new cv boot with only 1000 miles on it had torn already, this after replacing the same one 5000 miles before that! This one seperated from the metal section.. Argh.


My rust has been coming back with a vengeance after spending 1.5 months on a barge and 2 months in seaside storage ( not to mention all the times we camped on the beach ) so I bought some touch up spray paint from Napa

But I needed to knock down all the bubbles I saw first and metal treat them. My dog legs gave me an unexpected surprise. I'll do a bondo patch for now until I can correctly repair it in Alaska. I sort of took over Autozone for the day here in Niagra Falls, NY.

Now I head towards upper Michigan and over to northern Lake Superior where I'll put the paint on at a campground ( 2 day process for the 2 part paint ).

Any tips on what to see / do up there?
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2.2 Suby powered - 75 Westy - Rita

Panamerican Highway - 2014-2017

[skills@eurocarsplus]

it was awesome to meet the 2 of you. why didn't you mention the bearing issue? we could have blown that out while we were bullshitting...

how is that weld holding up? it was sketchy at best due to that last repair. glad you're still going. if at any time you find yourself in sticksville, CT you guys are always welcome to drop anchor here!
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[thebusandus]

To be honest I didn't know how much of an issue it was, when I was at your place it wasn't making noise. I think what happened was instead of going one castlenut notch forward when originally messing with it two years ago I went one back and kept the bearing to loose. I never tightened it and after a ton of dirt roads in Chile it was making a grinding noise which went away with tightening it to about 250 ft/lbs. However; this came back once in Jacksonville, then again in Asheville, and when it came back in Bethlehem I realized tightening it over and over was likely just a bandaid and there must be tolerances which aren't quite in spec somewhere in there. The other side hasn't made any noise because I originally had been able to get that side to 250 ft/lbs.

The real issue was I had a buddy with a professional 6 ft Torque bar, when we went one notch forward it was something like 400 FT Lbs, when we were one notch back it was like 190 ftlbs, so we stayed at 190. I hadn't read anyone's write ups that you are supposed to go one forward .
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2.2 Suby powered - 75 Westy - Rita

Panamerican Highway - 2014-2017

[captincanuck]

Wish I knew you were at the Niagara Fall Auto Zone. It's like 45min from my house. I would have come down, lent a hand, and enjoyed some fine "US" Taco Bell for lunch.
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1979 Westfalia "FireFly" Subaru 2.2 with Subaru gears 5spd.
Build Thread: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=634777&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0