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Sun Jun 01, 2025 7:24 am

After spending the winter at the dealership, the bus emerged from it's slumber. It was tired of selling new VWs :lol: It was happy to leave and see the sun again.

Thu Jun 12, 2025 6:51 pm

Globedog12 wrote: Started going through my fuel injection harness to replace some connectors. Looked at a bunch of posts here and decided on a complete rebuild. I think it turned out pretty good. I may have to make a few length adjustments when I install. I used a braided split loom with shrink tube at junctions. All new connectors except TTS and CSV from digi key.

The proof of the pudding is in the tasting, as they (are supposed to) say.

Let us know how it works once installed.

Fri Jun 13, 2025 6:11 am

jtauxe wrote: Globedog12 wrote: Started going through my fuel injection harness to replace some connectors. Looked at a bunch of posts here and decided on a complete rebuild. I think it turned out pretty good. I may have to make a few length adjustments when I install. I used a braided split loom with shrink tube at junctions. All new connectors except TTS and CSV from digi key.

The proof of the pudding is in the tasting, as they (are supposed to) say.

Let us know how it works once installed.

Great work!

Tue Jul 01, 2025 9:16 am

Took 30 mins yesterday and adjusted my rear brakes on the Bus. The star adjusters on the passenger side were a bit of a pita to get moving but the ds adjusters adjusted smoothly. I'll need to pull off the drums the next time and clean and re-lube the star adjusters but good for another 6 months. Went for a drive last night and it felt much better.

Tue Jul 01, 2025 7:19 pm

I was battling a slight hesitation on my ‘71 double cab. I took off the carb, cleaned it, and now it runs smoooth. No hesitation, I also adjusted my throttle cable and greased the pedal. So smooth!

Wed Jul 02, 2025 9:09 pm

Rebuilt Kaddies on my ‘71 with new jets and bigger vents and Kaddie Shack deluxe rebuild kit. Replaced crushable aluminum heater tubing with the CSP stainless steel crushless tubing. In the midst of replacing my brake servo.

Sun Jul 06, 2025 4:43 pm

Thanks to everyone that helped me through this i finally got to put my engine back in this weekend. New heads pistons and cylinders. Replaced a bunch of worn out rubber parts. Alternator and starter rebuilt. Throttle valve and distributor refurbished. Cleaned and painted everything that came out. Took longer than I thought but I’m pretty happy so far. Hopefully I’ll finish up the last little bit this week before giving it a start.

before

Mon Jul 14, 2025 6:09 pm

tl;dr - I used a ratchet strap to assist in replacing a clutch cable.

Dropped in a rebuilt transmission and a 1904 engine (up from the worn out mystery 1600 that was in it).

I ran into some problems with the clutch pedal (absolutely no pressure to drop the pedal to the floor, but it would always, SLOWLY return to the 'up' position).

So I decided to change clutch cables while I was renewing everything else. The old cable was just stretched so much and the adjustment end of the cable was covered in rock solid grease so I couldn't make adjustments. Pretty sure the clutch cable had not been replaced by the previous owner - he included two with the bus when I bought it and he was more the "everything is a hammer" kind of guy, and this was intensive (removing the clutch assembly to access the front pin holding the clutch cable, for example, would require a sawsall for him).

The new cable ended up seemingly shorter. I don't know what the paddle is called where the adjustment wing-nut fits, but I couldn't pull it back, move the clutch cable to position and screw the wing nut on (old germans must've had 4 tiny hands to do most of the things in an assembled vw)...

After wracking my brain to find some way of creating the leverage I needed and have two free hands, I loosely hooked up a ratchet strap right above the spring on the paddle and the other hook to the frame and cranked on it. It worked a treat and left me with two free hands to apply and adjust the wingnut.

Tue Aug 05, 2025 9:55 am

I made some wooden parcel shelves with cup holders. The cup holders came from a sports store from the boating department.

Super easy.

They are also sturdy enough to hold a few pounds of whatever.

Tue Aug 12, 2025 5:11 pm

Finally finished off my A/C dual zone project in my Bus. Had a 1 evaporator design ready to install last year but decided to make it a dual zone and modified and added a 2nd heater core and A/C evaporator unit from a friends Subaru swap project between the seats last year. The heat works great in the winter and now the A/C is working well too.

We had outside temps in the low 30C (high 80s F) today and took the Bus for a 40 minute drive on the hwy out further in the valley where the temps were a bit higher and the temp inside the Bus hovered around 25C (77F) and was comfortable. I should have closed all the curtains in the back too, to see if I could bring it down to 22-23C (~75F) but could notice the drop in humidity inside the Bus.

Happy that it has all come together. I used everything from my 2000 Subaru Legacy donor including the heater - A/C control as well as the original compressor, just had new lines made up with tee junctions and bought and installed a new dryer. We reused all the original fittings.

Sun Aug 24, 2025 1:48 pm

I discovered, on my recently purchased 1969 Kombi with 58,xxx? miles and a brand new(30 miles) engine and transmission from Darryl Auch, that a quick way to clean out the gas filler door drain tube was to use a 1/4"(on the business end) plumber's snake. My plumber recommended it because it's hard to get stuck in a pipe, and it won't do any serious damage.

Sure enough, with some WD-40 and about 5 minutes of working both ends of the tube, I had it wide open. A small victory!

After that, I pulled out damp insulation from the nose of the bus, only to pull out one of the wires for the right turn signal. Out came the crimpers.

Also deleted a pressure/temp underdash cluster with a kludge of wiring and a toggle switch to nowhere. There's a third switch I'll post a photo of- some kind of round momentary switch, to the right of the OEM interior light switch, that sure looks like it was installed at the factory.

Sun Aug 24, 2025 6:33 pm

i pulled the cylinder-head temp and oil-temp wires.

turned the cht gauge into an ambient temp gauge for outside temp.

and put my og dipstick back where it belongs.

years of way-too-high readings from both just created worry without reflecting any engine damage.

free at last!

Tue Aug 26, 2025 8:49 pm

dodger tom wrote:
free at last!

There was a thermometer on the dipstick of my BMW R100, which bugged my father(a mechanical engineer by training) to no end;

"it's a goddamned air-cooled engine. It's hot. If you feel hot, your engine is really hot. That's all you need to know."

Wed Aug 27, 2025 8:35 am

My automatic transaxle pan started sweating a few months ago and gradually got worse and was dripping about a bottle cap of fluid nightly.

I took a few hours over the last couple evenings after work to take it off, clean it up, add some gasket maker (similar to Hylomar), put on a new gasket and filter, and put it back together.

While I had the fluid drained, I swapped in a different transmission fluid cooler with a spal fan and thermo sensor and added a new fluid that member "Metahacker" recommended.

Took it for a 30 min drive in 28C ambient temps and didn't see the fluid temp go over 80C. The fan never came on and operating temps were about 15C less than with the old aluminum finned fluid cooler.

The fan will make the difference when we pull the trailer in the mountains as I saw the temps hit 120C during the climb over the Coquihalla in July.

The inside of the trans pan was clean as was the filter as I had changed the fluid back in Dec 2024.

Wed Aug 27, 2025 10:57 am

Shonandb wrote:

The fan will make the difference when we pull the trailer in the mountains as I saw the temps hit 120C during the climb over the Coquihalla in July.

I've never had a VW Auto trans, but that temp seems way too high for a transmission. Smart move to help things keep cool back there.

Wed Aug 27, 2025 11:27 am

cdennisg wrote: Shonandb wrote:

The fan will make the difference when we pull the trailer in the mountains as I saw the temps hit 120C during the climb over the Coquihalla in July.

I've never had a VW Auto trans, but that temp seems way too high for a transmission. Smart move to help things keep cool back there.

The regular operating temp at hwy speed with the aluminum cooler hovered around 95C, 95% of the time so I didn't worry too much but thought I would install the different cooler the next time I drained the fluid.

Usually the oil temp would be within 5 degrees of the radiator coolant temp in a regular Vanagon so although a bit high, it seemed reasonable. Happy that I took the time to change it out.

Mon Sep 01, 2025 12:48 pm

Since my las post of what I did...

I replaced the rear axles from a FLAPS special to a brand suggested by Bus Depot (I think - could've been Jbugs). Added the torque distribution washers that were missing before.

I also added a leisure or house battery setup with a dc-to-dc auto charger for making coffee and charging gadgetry.

Finally, I did some troubleshooting on the reverse lights and figured oout the washer for the backup switch on the transmission lifted the switch away from the internals of the transmission... taking the washer out and going a 1/4 turn farther than finger tight, my backup lights now work... which means my 10in screen now shows me a reverse camera when I put the bus into reverse.

One of these days my "what did you do" is going to be: "I drove it!"

Sat Sep 06, 2025 1:43 pm

Removed the sills as they’d all rusted out, and took out the floor for access:

Sun Sep 07, 2025 6:47 pm

Installed a set of Sachs front and rear shocks(removal of the vintage Sears shocks went much easier that I feared), mounted the General Grabber HDs I had installed at Farm & Fleet(they still have a balancing fixture for that style of 5 hole rim), and took the bus out for another 40km engine break-in drive.

I like oil shocks.

Mon Sep 08, 2025 9:07 am

Noticed that my fuel pump started making a whing/humming sound late last week. I recently rerouted my fuel pump and fuel lines about 2 weeks ago and thought I would change out the fuel filters before and after the fuel pump.

The one I had ordered (12mm to 7mm outlet/inlet) from a well known VW Parts vendor and had as a backup, looked super cheap and flimsy when I pulled it out of it's package but I installed it anyway.

I should have kept and reinstalled the old filter as this new piece of junk filter had about 3mm of space for fuel to flow into it but as the plastic is so flimsy, it bent slighty in the 2 weeks of use and closed the gap to about 1.5mm so the fuel pump started cavitating as it couldn't get enough fuel.

I spent 30 mins at the weekend removing the filter and replaced it with an adapter from 5/16" to 1/2" and added a new steel 5/16" filter upstream of the adapter and the pump runs quietly again.

I would not recommend using this filter.