Reviving a Syncro

[joetiger]

[joetiger]

Yesterday, on my third visit to the testing center, it finally passed emissions!

It took those knuckleheads three tries before they finally completed a test successfully.

It's all registered up and back in business!! Now to daily drive it and see what else I can break...
_________________
Joe T.

'86 NAHT Vanagon GL Syncro/ supercharged ABA 2.0 "Pigpen"
'04 GTI 1.8T
'04 Golf R32

"get metaphysical with it. if it's simply a means to get to and from places, it will let you down. if it becomes your zen, it can't fail you." -dabaron

"Still, it's good to be afield."--VWagabond

Available Now! Vanagon to Louisiana--A Two-Lane Reckoning Through Past and Present

www.josephtrussell.com

[dobryan]

See you at Syncro Solstice!
_________________
Dave O
'87 Westy w/ 2002 Subaru EJ25 and Peloquin TBD

"To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive." Robert Louis Stevenson

MD>Canada>AK>WA>OR>CA>AZ>UT>WY>SD
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=620646

Building a bus for travel in Europe (euroBus)
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=695371

The Western Syncro build
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=746794

[joetiger]

I've had ongoing vibrations in the front end that have really worn me out over the past couple of years. Concurrently, my General Grabber AT3s, which are excellent offroad tires, have been getting louder and louder. The van drives like a tractor and it has only gotten worse.

I had the Generals re-balanced three or four times and could never get rid of the vibrations at 45 and 65 MPH, nor the shimmy and looseness out of the front end. One wheel had four weights on it. I assumed that I had trashed my rims or that I just couldn't find the sweet spot in drivetrain angles even though I've done everything possible.

I finally made a choice to stay off the super-nasty jeep trails and trade the toughness of the Grabbers for something a little less aggressive. I looked a Toyo Open Country, Geolandars (I have lots of good experience with those) and a new option, Vredestein Pinza.

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=...mpare1=yes

I have all-weather Vredesteins on my GTI and they've been great so far. This company was formerly Dutch and had a sterling Vanagon reputation back in the day, but got acquired by Apollo in India a few years ago.

These are 215/75/15 SL100T, mild AT, and have the mountain snowflake thing.

They're not as cool-looking as Grabbers but after tooling around for the weekend, the difference is staggering. They are extremely quiet and at 70-75 MPH in cross winds they hold the road magnificently.

The shuddering, vibrations, and looseness are gone at all speeds. My van drives like a totally different vehicle.

We'll see how they do on the dirt and snow soon enough and how they hold up over time, but so far I am very happy with them. The van is so much quieter and more refined. It turns out my drivetrain is pretty well-aligned after all.
_________________
Joe T.

'86 NAHT Vanagon GL Syncro/ supercharged ABA 2.0 "Pigpen"
'04 GTI 1.8T
'04 Golf R32

"get metaphysical with it. if it's simply a means to get to and from places, it will let you down. if it becomes your zen, it can't fail you." -dabaron

"Still, it's good to be afield."--VWagabond

Available Now! Vanagon to Louisiana--A Two-Lane Reckoning Through Past and Present

www.josephtrussell.com

[mtnhome]

[joetiger]

[joetiger]

With arguably more life-changing events than anybody should have to endure in a calendar year, I had to take some time off from the forum to get a new business up and running and deal with myriad other non-Vanagon issues. However, I have found some time to do stuff here and there so thought I'd revive my thread with a photo dump.

I hit a few more Red Rocks shows before the summer ended and gave some Louisiana guests the full Vanagon tailgate experience.

...and another cold one in October.

I participated in the Louisiana Book Festival in Baton Rouge in October and drove the van down.

The State Park in Childress, TX was closed, so I overnighted in this creepy ass motel.

I did a little book tour as well and stopped at several places that appeared in Vanagon to Louisiana including Mike's gas station in Douglasville, TX, home of the Best Fried Catfish in The World.

Stopped by one of my old favorite haunts in Shreveport. It was a bit more rustic than I recalled.

World Famous Lasyone's Meat Pie Kitchen in Natchitoches, where I did a little book thing at an antique store/art gallery downtown.

At Lea's Lunchroom in LeCompte, I got to sign a few books and talk with some fine local folks.

Typical Louisiana parking...Vanagon surrounded by massive pickups

In New Orleans, the common Mardi Gras Bead Tree

Sunrise in the south.

Prior to the book fest, I stopped by Mecca for a quick photo.

...and the bar where I worked back in my LSU days.

The Book Fair was downtown, in the shadow of Huey Long's monument to himself, the tallest State Capitol in the US.

The Fair was fun, and not a small thing--20,000 people were there. I met a lot of nice people, reconnected with old friends, and sold a case of books.

The van ran flawlessly for that entire trip to Louisiana. Not a single hiccup. Unreal.

Back in Denver, the diesel driving school biz started to thrive.

Here, we're loading 80,000 lbs of stone onto a flatbed for a run up to Loveland Pass.

The Pigpen mobile office during parking maneuver training.

...which brings us to last weekend. I've been driving my R32 too much.

I decided to get out of town for a little winter camping. I went to Jackson Lake, an hour northeast of Denver, and had the place completely to myself.

Leftover red beans and rice heated in my little dutch oven...Delicious and easy winter camping food. (But it was too windy to run my little stove outside.)

It was cold, but my chinese diesel heater was up to the task. It was 17 outside and 55 in the van throughout the night. The heater did make some new, weird whooshing noises--I wonder if there's something clogging the intake. I can't believe this heater has lasted five years so far.

Sunrise through the side window, which did a weird optic thing to the light.

All was peaceful until the sun came up fully, then it was like Red Dawn out there--gunfire of all kinds in every direction. And, in a thicket just south of my campsite, two guys with chainsaws went to work. Chainsaws and gunfire--not the zen morning I'd hoped for.

Carmine was not pleased.

We decided to exit. On the way out, I lost power steering and my coolant temp went skyward...I'd lost the accessory belt. A pebble had somehow wedged into the PS pulley and sent the belt who-knows-where. Luckily I had a spare and changed it quickly, but we decided to head home.

My winter list consists of front brakes, a new power steering rack (I'll explain later,) diesel heater noises, rear bearing re-grease, a different subwoofer, again, and whatever else comes up. Cheers!
_________________
Joe T.

'86 NAHT Vanagon GL Syncro/ supercharged ABA 2.0 "Pigpen"
'04 GTI 1.8T
'04 Golf R32

"get metaphysical with it. if it's simply a means to get to and from places, it will let you down. if it becomes your zen, it can't fail you." -dabaron

"Still, it's good to be afield."--VWagabond

Available Now! Vanagon to Louisiana--A Two-Lane Reckoning Through Past and Present

www.josephtrussell.com

[joetiger]

I'm reading a book called The Vagabond's Way by Rolf Potts. It basically browbeats you daily into traveling. This passage caught my eye:

It's a fun book. Good winter reading to keep me motivated.

In other news, I traded my Westy mattress for a wider GL one for the back deck. My van has been outfitted for solo travel for some time, but I have a new friend (and her dog) who wants to join Carmine and me. It's a good problem to have.

Discarded the giant space-eating subwoofer and amp.

I threw one of these under the back bench, a little powered 6-inch, and it sounds WAY better. And it was on clearance for $60.

I finally got around to replacing the dirty, foul, leaking injectors with some rebuilt Bosch ones. They made a world of difference in acceleration.

I also ordered a new PS rack from Van Cafe. My rack is old and the teflon seal on the drivers side is broken--it clunks horribly. I HAD planned on that being the next job.

Until this past weekend.

Coming out of a parking lot in Estes Park, I heard and nasty grating noise when I released the clutch in first. All other gears grabbed fine, and the shifting is fine. I'm assuming (hoping, praying) that I've got a bad throwout or pilot bearing. I made it back home without issue.

But I also noticed some blue smoke and much lower-than-usual oil pressure on this trip. I knew this day was coming. The bottom end is the only thing I haven't replaced or rebuilt. I think the rings are shot. The oil is VERY gasoline-smelling.

So, it's looking like I'll probably drop the trans and engine for the fourth (I think?) time and finally replace the bottom end. I have a line on a NOS motor that might fit the bill.

But do I do the clutch job now, so I can continue to drive the van, and take my time finding a replacement motor and treat that as a separate project?

I'd really rather do it all at once, but I can't have the van sitting in a borrowed garage for an extended period.

It's all so much more complicated when I'm stealing space to do van work.

Onward!
_________________
Joe T.

'86 NAHT Vanagon GL Syncro/ supercharged ABA 2.0 "Pigpen"
'04 GTI 1.8T
'04 Golf R32

"get metaphysical with it. if it's simply a means to get to and from places, it will let you down. if it becomes your zen, it can't fail you." -dabaron

"Still, it's good to be afield."--VWagabond

Available Now! Vanagon to Louisiana--A Two-Lane Reckoning Through Past and Present

www.josephtrussell.com

[Sodo]

Congrats on the new in-van travel-partner!
Well this sure puts the heat on.... to get it fixed, right?

I'm in a similar bind, the looming van season, and engine coming out (today).
Good luck.
_________________


'90 Westy EJ25, 2Peloquins, 3knobs, pressure-oiled GT mainshaft, filtered, cooled gearbox
'87 Tintop w 47k 53k, '12 SmallCar EJ25, cooled filtered gearbox
....KTMs, GasGas, SPOT mtb

[joetiger]

[joetiger]

[dobryan]

[joetiger]

Ordered a clutch kit, cleared the calendar (except one meeting) and found a nice spot at the office for a full day of work on a bluebird Colorado Friday.

First step, crawl around under there and check everything out, see where I'm gonna start.

But damn, the boot on that CV joint looks crusty. Let's give it a jiggle.


Link


Busted axle.
_________________
Joe T.

'86 NAHT Vanagon GL Syncro/ supercharged ABA 2.0 "Pigpen"
'04 GTI 1.8T
'04 Golf R32

"get metaphysical with it. if it's simply a means to get to and from places, it will let you down. if it becomes your zen, it can't fail you." -dabaron

"Still, it's good to be afield."--VWagabond

Available Now! Vanagon to Louisiana--A Two-Lane Reckoning Through Past and Present

www.josephtrussell.com

[Sodo]

That's one of those "fat axles".
Granny is tough on axles, but perhaps less stern than if you had a locker.
So the fat axle is kind of like a fuse that could protect the spider gears.

But then driving (unknown?) with one axle broken relies upon your ZF clutches to put all of the torque to the other axle.
_________________


'90 Westy EJ25, 2Peloquins, 3knobs, pressure-oiled GT mainshaft, filtered, cooled gearbox
'87 Tintop w 47k 53k, '12 SmallCar EJ25, cooled filtered gearbox
....KTMs, GasGas, SPOT mtb

[joetiger]

[Sodo]

[joetiger]

In my ongoing quest to prove to The Samba that Vanagon ownership and high IQ do not necessarily go hand-in-hand, I found the problem with my axle yesterday.

It wasn't broken. It was an axle from an automatic van. At some point, it over-articulated and popped the axle out of the CV joint on the transaxle side.

The retaining ring was just sitting up there, stuck to the output flange.

And, what should have been an hour long job turned into multiple when I found that I'd lost all three of my triple-square sockets. This is likely a result of having my tools spread over at least three different locations.

I was about to take it off the stands and head to the parts store when our very own MtnHome came to the rescue and gave me a ride.

Much appreciated, Carl!! Always great to hang out.

Back in business. I've gone through so many variations of axles over the years...I should probably pay more attention to what I'm installing.
_________________
Joe T.

'86 NAHT Vanagon GL Syncro/ supercharged ABA 2.0 "Pigpen"
'04 GTI 1.8T
'04 Golf R32

"get metaphysical with it. if it's simply a means to get to and from places, it will let you down. if it becomes your zen, it can't fail you." -dabaron

"Still, it's good to be afield."--VWagabond

Available Now! Vanagon to Louisiana--A Two-Lane Reckoning Through Past and Present

www.josephtrussell.com

[joetiger]

Equipped with a fully-operation drivetrain, I set about to enjoy this lovely Colorado Saturday.

I stopped by the office to move some stuff. I put it in reverse and suddenly, the entire shifter turned to mush. Very strange behavior.

Peering underneath, I spotted the issue.

(also behold that shiny new chinese axle.)

At least I was at the office, it was beautiful outside, and I had all Saturday morning to stare at it and wonder how I was going to get the van back to my apartment under its own power.

I unbolted the bracket for a better look. Selector cup disintegration.

I went to my tire carrier emergency kit (which is looking a little empty) and grabbed a piece of rad hose.

(Purists please avert your eyes from the following photos of Shreveport engineering.)

With a little silicone spray and a lot of cursing, I slid a chunk onto the cup.

Everybody bags on screw clamps, but they come in handy in all kinds of ways.

Good enough to get home. I shifted with the slowest, most deliberate, most delicate manner I could manage. And, for what its worth, the shifting was way more precise.

Van Cafe kit ordered.

'Tis the season to break as many things as possible and fix them before summer!
_________________
Joe T.

'86 NAHT Vanagon GL Syncro/ supercharged ABA 2.0 "Pigpen"
'04 GTI 1.8T
'04 Golf R32

"get metaphysical with it. if it's simply a means to get to and from places, it will let you down. if it becomes your zen, it can't fail you." -dabaron

"Still, it's good to be afield."--VWagabond

Available Now! Vanagon to Louisiana--A Two-Lane Reckoning Through Past and Present

www.josephtrussell.com

[4Gears4Tires]

I dunno about replacing that. That is probably way more durable. My boot is definitely less than 5k miles and it's split. Kind of dumb they're so flimsy.

If it shifts well that looks like a solid repair to me.
_________________
'87 Syncro
Ferric Oxyhydroxide Superleggera Edition

[joetiger]