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

[thebusandus]

No oil bath, I'm running the AEM dry flow that most dirt racing trucks seem to use. So today I changed the fuel pump, filter, cleaned the air filter gave it a good bath and found a shitty rubber fitting on my intake that one of the vacuum lines went to was deformed and leaking.

I went to get my oil changed, I couldn't believe it when I saw the guy changing my filter using a filter wrench to put the filter on. When I got back to the shop Im working on my bus at I find the new filter leaking. I think they gave me the wrong filter and forced it on, the mechanics here sure know how to "make it work". I ended up putting on my last spare oil filter.

I found someone to weld a new fitting into my aluminum intake and it solved the vacuum leak. It runs well now but the idle is all over the place, I'm thinking the IACV sucked in quite a bit of dust on the drive and isn't working properly now. I'm going to push for 1000KMs tomorrow and hopefully I'll be able to clean the IACV tomorrow night and solve the issue.
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2.2 Suby powered - 75 Westy - Rita

Panamerican Highway - 2014-2017

[thebusandus]

I cleaned the IACV it was super dirty, but the culprit was a broken sauder connection in the throttle body extension from these damn roads. Also one of my Koni shocks was leaking oil so I got some shocks from a auto parts store, they seem to work but the top is a rubber mount that sticks out a bit. I tried to run them and the top bolt backed out while driving. I'll try to shave the rubber tomorrow and find new bolts, still have another 500km drive tomorrow to make it to Santiago. My clutch cable is maxed out and I can hardly shift right now so I'm happy a new clutch cable awaits me in Santiago. It's funny the trip was going smoothly until now.
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2.2 Suby powered - 75 Westy - Rita

Panamerican Highway - 2014-2017

[skills@eurocarsplus]

[thebusandus]

I run washer spacers instead of a drilled out wing nut. I found the issue today when going to install two more washers, the shitty weld job on the last bit of tube previously done had begun to fail, I went to a "Volkswagen" mechanic today who tried to reinforce the last little bit of the tube that keeps failing, ended up welding through to my cable and breaking it. At least the tube is reinforced now. I filed the inside of the tube and installed my last spare which was to my old transmission (shorter) and just fit with two washers. Drove 500km to Santiago for New Years and it's still shifting good. Hopefully problem solved.


When the shock bolts backed out they elongated the tube before the welded nut and bent that metal area a bit before the nut. I bent the metal back so I could drive a new bolt in, shaved the rubber and they performed well on the drive. I'm a bit worried that there's to much play in the now oval led tube and it will break off the nut now, but I don't think there's anything else I can do at this point.

Skills I appreciate your advice, I just forget to respond sometimes 👍
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2.2 Suby powered - 75 Westy - Rita

Panamerican Highway - 2014-2017

[skills@eurocarsplus]

no problem....just trying to help/make sure you guys are as safe as can be
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[thebusandus]

Following the trend of my bus breaking the front suspension began making noise, and a most horrible creaking sound is now being heard while turning. Sounds like it's coming from the drivers upper ball joint. These were new with rebuilt arms 20k ago from bus boys!!(WTF)

I have a 400 KM drive to Bariloche tomorrow, there are good mechanics there that I can have take apart the from suspension.. Can I even make this drive? The boots on all the joints are good so I have no idea what the condition of the joint is or if there's a way to test. I have heard the noise before while in Bolivia but it went away, literally overnight. Likewise this time the noise came when we crawled into the bus in the morning, but has stayed for two days.. So now I'm getting worried. Anyone have any advice on ball joints or how to tell if they're bad?
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2.2 Suby powered - 75 Westy - Rita

Panamerican Highway - 2014-2017

[Tcash]

Ball Joints
Good luck
Tcash

[danfromsyr]

maybe get some new fresh grease in there with a needle greaser fitting thru/around the boot?
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[skills@eurocarsplus]

[thebusandus]

I guess I'm just super disappointed they only would last twenty if the seals still are holding, I assume quality ball joints would last at least 100k even with some bumpy roads. I'll try to find a needle to stick in there tomorrow, that's a good idea until I can find the replacement. Thanks guys
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2.2 Suby powered - 75 Westy - Rita

Panamerican Highway - 2014-2017

[thebusandus]

I have a really cheap autozone mini grease gun with a needle valve, I broke the needle valve earlier in the trip trying to add grease to the CV joints externally. I still ended up poking a hole in the rubber on both drive side ball joints and filling them with CV Grease. About 200 KM later there was no more noise. I think the joints have increasingly worse play as I am hearing more of a knocking sound from the suspension when I drive on rough roads.

I had family and friends visiting for the past month so maintenance sort of took a back seat. I would like to figure out if I can make it back up to Santaigo or Buenas Aires before replacing the joints as the mechanics I've come across outside of the main cities have been so horrible I would not let them touch my bus. I know there are testing methods that can be done on most cars to test the joints while they are still on the vehicle but there doesn't seem to be much concrete info on the samba. It seems the best test is to try to pry the joint apart to find movement, and to compress it with big channel locks or something similar to find movement that way as well. If anyone has any other advice for testing the ball joints while still on the bus please chime in, I booked a hotel so I can work on the bus in the parking lot tomorrow.

Thanks
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2.2 Suby powered - 75 Westy - Rita

Panamerican Highway - 2014-2017

[Tcash]

You need to unload and load the ball joints and measure the play. A ratchet strap around the control arms as indicated will work.

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=7800007#7800007

[thebusandus]

I'll give that a shot this afternoon thanks Tcash
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2.2 Suby powered - 75 Westy - Rita

Panamerican Highway - 2014-2017

[thebusandus]

Does anyone know if all the Brazilian buses and German made buses used the same size ball joints? I am in a land of 0 "kombis" at the southern most city on continental South America. There is not really any support here. In fact I found a Bosch certified shop who has a lift and a press, but they refuse to even inspect the suspension without essentially having parts available in the city. I am hoping to avoid having to ship anything down from Santiago, or worse Europe / America. If they indeed used the same ball joints I can probably convince them to inspect / repair. If there are other issues with the front suspension, are the beams and steering parts the same as well?

Thanks

Dillon
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2.2 Suby powered - 75 Westy - Rita

Panamerican Highway - 2014-2017

[shiningstar76]

For what it's worth, mercadolibre out of mexico lists bus ball joints as 72-01.
http://articulo.mercadolibre.com.mx/MLM-534762830-...2-2001-_JM
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KK4NTP
96 Tacoma
86 4Runner
My bus caught on fire and is now on the other coast with someone who gave me money for it.

[thebusandus]

Thanks Shining.

I found a kombi mechanic in Punta Arenas, the shop I was going to still wouldn't touch the bus even after I knew I could get parts. I found that most front end parts are similar because there is a parts store here that listed parts for German and Brazillian manufactured as they indeed sold both down here. I've seen a few Westfalias, usually in mint condition not being driven. We ended up replacing the wheel bearings on the drivers side and found one of the hex nuts loose. It seemed we fixed the issue but the clunking noise is still there I discovered once I was on the Tierra Del Fuego island and hit really bad dirt roads. So I'm taking it easy, if I go slow I don't hear anything.

It's amazing how long it takes to run simple errands, to find parts / supplies, and to get anything fixed in latin america. It's just a different pace of life that doesn't mesh to well with having set dates to meet people.
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2.2 Suby powered - 75 Westy - Rita

Panamerican Highway - 2014-2017

[thebusandus]

I know I haven't shared to much with the samba about the trip. If you want trip updates you have to follow on Instagram or Facebook (Instagram is better).

Well that's all folks. End of the road. Beyond the end of Panamerican Highway, Ruta 3 stretches through the old prison colony of Ushuaia into Tierra Del Fuego national park where the road ends on the Beagle Channel. -54.81990 \ -68.46841
We are beyond elated to have made it to our ultimate destination but the truth is we still have many miles to go, because we can't just leave this bus in South America...she's coming back to Alaska with us! With many more miles to go, places and people to see we will continue to take you along this journey with us! It says 17,484 KM's to Alaska, but we more than tripled that on the way down .


In celebration of reaching the end of the road we will be doing an epic vanlife giveaway with Native eyewear, Gowesty, Boom Speakers, Renogy Solar panels, Coldsmoke outerwear, and Layback Hammocks. It's going to be done through Instagram so follow us on there and you'll see details coming up this week!
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2.2 Suby powered - 75 Westy - Rita

Panamerican Highway - 2014-2017

[thebusandus]

Our vanlife giveaway is LIVE!!

It includes sunglasses, a jacket, solar panel set up, speakers, a rumpl blanket, and a hammock.
All you have to do to win all this new gear is follow us and the companies on instagram and tag three friends in our giveaway post.

https://www.instagram.com/thebusandus/

We also put up a new blog from cruising through Central America if you'd like to check it out.

http://www.thebusandus.com/blog/2015/11/16/central-america
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2.2 Suby powered - 75 Westy - Rita

Panamerican Highway - 2014-2017

[thebusandus]

Well we encountered a problem.

We were driving a particularly barren stretch of the Ruta 40 in southern Patagonia, 200 Km's between small gas station towns. Going through really rough roads, large rocky roads that aren't maintained, driving at night, 60 MPH winds. When I suddenly notice I can't make it up a small hill in third. Downshift to second and I can hardly push up the hill. I stop, let it idle.. idling very strangely, can't hear engine because of wind, I figure something most have shooken loose from the road, I pull up OBDII codes and find missfires on 1&3.

I take off the air filter and filter sleeve, the sleeve immediately gets taken by the wind and disappears into the night. I replug all spark plugs and wires, get the dust off the filter and it doesn't help. We haven't seen a car for 100 miles and decide to just push to the next gas station about 50 miles away where I can investigate in the morning once it's light.

Luckily the gas station had wifi and I quickly learned it was likely a timing issue when two cylinders are throwing codes at once (the timing belt has 10k on it). I am running a 97, interference motor. I'm screwed I think. I pop the covers off and find the left cam jumped 7 teeth! Now I'm kicking myself for driving 50 miles more..

I took off the timing belt and heath shield.. I found most of the stand offs from the RMW heat shield broken.

How to compress the tensioner..

I found two of these cracks in the timing belt.. I know a new Gates belt doesn't just do this..

Sheared stand offs.. you can imagine how fun it was trying to get sheared bolts out of nuts mounted in plastic.. my timing covers are pretty destroyed now.. I ended up cutting out most of the imbedded nuts and doing a nut / bolt / washers combo.. better for the long run.

I realized after digging rocks out of the timing belt area what had happened. A big rock must have jumped up and smashed into the RMW heat shield (which is partially bent now), knocking it back and at the same time opening up the timing belt cover. The timing belt cover then had enough room to let small rocks in, some of those small rocks got in between the belt and some of the teeth and well that's when it skipped.

So.. I got it all back together. Spun the engine a few times and it spun smooth. So I fired it up, ran like crap, but once I warmed it up a bit and revved it to clear the cylinders / spark plugs it ran fine again...

I've driven it about 500 miles since, and changed the oil. It still seems to run fine although it seems a bit less responsive and a bit less power. I don't know if this could be a symptom of a bent valve (or a few) or just that the spark plugs are pretty shot and I need an overall tune up. I don't have any codes and I figured I would if I had bent valves... I have another few thousand miles of driving before I'm in Beunos Aires and I'll ship the bus to Florida from there. Hopefully all goes well
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2.2 Suby powered - 75 Westy - Rita

Panamerican Highway - 2014-2017

[Stuartzickefoose]

Metal timing covers next time then right?
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Stuart Zickefoose

2011 Jetta Sportwagen TDi 6 speed manual

206-841-7324
[email protected]