What did YOU do to your van today?

[leecat]

FINALLY found a reasonably priced ARB 2500mm side awning local, bought it the second I saw the new listing pop up online.

Happy as a clam - last thing on my spring want list (barring a full grey Westy camper interior showing up) for our newest sunroof tintop and kinda necessary seeing as I already have the side tent.

[BCE56]

Yesterday-
Tracked down a small coolant leak, it was a loose hose clamp.
Noticed my 10mm end wrench was AWOL...

Today-
Applied a temporary patch to sunroof which had an annoying
habit of dripping on my lap during the recent rainstorms. Embarrassing, very.
Attempted to repair inop side marker light.
Nope. Socket assy is too far gone.
Refilled windshield squirter tank.
Found the missing wrench.
Used it to readjust shifter plate- I am zeroing in on the sweet spot.

Test drive to the beach:

Shifting noticeably improved.
No sign of leaks.

Saw a heron (!) sauntering near the bike lane.
Plenty of gulls, pelicans, some pigeons (the crows seem to be keeping in check) around here.
Also a couple flocks of raucous green parrots.
But this was the first heron I ever noticed.
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=BCE56=

'86 Syncro tintop
EJ22, OBD II early SC adapter plate conversion

Side project: '69 Frankenbug "It's alive!"

[bobbyblack]

[BCE56]

[Mckinleyvillian]

chased and clean up a bunged up spark plug hole yesterday, put in new plugs and called it due to lack of light.

put the cleaned breather tower back on, new alt belt, checked for loose clamps in engine bay, put the AFM back in and tried to start her up.

haven't started up since early Decemeber or so and after I put her all back together, she wouldn't start. Figured the battery might need a charge so I goes inside to get the multimeter. Walking back I think about that special theft prevention measure i've got hidden away. Sure enough, it was engaged.

Disengaged and she fires up.

Took the van for good 45 minute drive, between 20-60mph to see how she's rolling after a month of more off the road. Seems like new plugs, freshly serviced Bosch injectors from Mr. Injector, and a newly cleaned and sealed breather tower have this van running pretty well.

I've been dealing with some intermittent stalling at deceleration once fully warmed up and this afternoon, it didn't happen once. We'll see if it keeps up. Not sure what the issue has been as I've done a few things that could have contributed it to it, but it was good today.

Only issue was some rough idle after getting off the freeway. pulled into a parking lot to see how the idle was going. It was rough and didn't seem to be firing on all 4 cylinders. Not stumbling, but a rough idle and seemed to be missing a cylinder, 1,2,3, POP, 1,2,3, POP, 1,2,3, POP. got back in and drove a mile to the store at 25mph and the van was firing on all four.

All told, it was good to drive the van. Put a radio and speakers in there while it was immobilized, some new interior paneling, and started some auxiliary battery work as well, so it was cool to put it to use. Oh ya, cleaned up the needle on my OEM speedo cable and it's all working smooth as silk.
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so many roads i know
all i want is one to take me home

85 Vanagon GL 1.9 stick

[Schnippzle]

Not exactly today, but on Saturday I picked up my van after 2 years and 14 days since purchase and work began on the Subaru FB25B & syncro conversion

Spot one excited Schnipps in the background

Stopping off for lunch with my friend who drove me down to CoastVW

And now she's home.

Parked up next to the other noise machine.

Some exhaust porn

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1988 Caravelle - FB25B - Syncro converted
2016 MB E63 AMG S - The daily driver
2019 Harley Davidson FXFBS Fat Bob - The leisure

[Mckinleyvillian]

tracking down rough idle after warm up led me to swap a piece of old vacuum line.

caught a loose fuel hose clamp in engine bay after the hose from fuel rail came flying off and gas started spraying. very, very glad i caught it at idle, at home with while working with the bay open.

nothing seemed to be helping the rough idle.
-checked for vacuum leaks, replaced what needed to be replaced
-as noted earlier, replaced plugs and injectors, tested the whole shebang with multimeter. read to spec and still brutal idle

As the van is driving wonderfully, much stronger than it has in the time i've owned it and it's just been idling really poorly with the engine shaking like a that 6.4 quake we had last month, figured it might be time to check sensors and such.

-swapped temp 2 with no improvement
-unplugged AFM and there was no discernible difference in idle. very concerning. led me to think there's a crack in the loop.
-disconnected idle stabilizer, connected stabilizer plugs and the van is now idling quite nicely for the time being.

not sure if there's something happening with the AFM as well, but ohms up there were to bentley spec as well.

either way, i drove the shit outta my van
_________________
so many roads i know
all i want is one to take me home

85 Vanagon GL 1.9 stick

[Mckinleyvillian]

woke up and saw a small puddle of coolant under the passenger side head. dum dum dum. crawled under, cleaned up, looked around everywhere and could not find a leak. So I figured what the hell, go for a drive and see what it looks like in 10 minutes. parked at the bank and noticed a drop of coolant on the ground.

Alas! I remembered that i'd swapped temp II and in the process had to loosen the coolant hose clamp right next to it. loose hose and too much time fiddling with the temp II washer allowed air into the system. Had seen with my own two eyes bubbles in the expansion tank while fiddling with idle the other day. Thought nothing of it since i was doing other things.

So, I took a hard drive up into some minor elevation (1400ft). Got nice and hot, parked on an incline and cracked the metal bleeder. HIIIIIISSSSSSSSSS and no coolant. went back to engine bay, held that throttle to 3k RPM for about 45 seconds before walking to the front of the van where i saw the sweet, sweet stream of coolant streaming from the bleeder.

no more coolant under the engine, nothing after being parked. Morning will tell the truest tale.
_________________
so many roads i know
all i want is one to take me home

85 Vanagon GL 1.9 stick

[bobbyblack]

increasingly distressful smell of gasoline vapor from the underside of the '87 lead me to get my rolley thingy rolling me under the bus. Weepy hose clamps at both sides of the fuel filter were dealt with. I was surprised to NOT have the usual fuel rail leaks in play this time! It seems more that the rail clamps leak at the coldest times of the year. I guess double clamping them has got me past this week's problem of the weak Vanagon fuel delivery defugalty.

Oh, and added furnace fuel to the furnace fuel tank while I did the nitty gritty on the hose clamps.. Guess having a SLOW A** transfer pump does have advantages.

6 minutes.

-bobby
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'87 Westy 'Flossie','86 Westy 'R1','86 tintop GL - Subi2.2 'J2','83.5 stock tintop L 'ZoomBus','74 Karmann Ghia, '63 Notch

[fxr]

I became fed up with the struggle to unclip the cluster cover and remove it. So I fought with the spring clips and managed to subdue them into being not so fierce a grip on the cluster plastic. It took a couple of goes to get it 'al dente', but the cover now unclips easily but remains securely in place.

Happiness.
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Jim Crowther
1984 1.9l EJ22 Westy Wolfsburg Edition
Vespa GTS 300

[TomInAlaska]

Finished installing my VaniStan cabin air control kit. The only snag I ran into was having to shave a little material from the 2 1/8" hole I drilled into the airbox so the flapper valve would fit. All in all though, I'm very happy with how it all went in and sure I will be happy with blocking freezing outside ram-air!
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'73 Super Beetle (resto-mod/rally look, 1776)

'84 GL adventure van project (1.9L, 4speed) https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=755844&highlight=

[Mckinleyvillian]

Glad to have gotten aver the fear of using the angle grinder on the van… just like I’d done under passenger seat a while back, cut out that strip of sheet metal under the drivers seat to create under seat storage. Sanded, painted, and RTV’ed metal, glued carpet back in place. Got a nice stash spot.

Lightly sanded, cleaned, vacuumed debris from front seat rails. Did the same with the seat tracks as the seats were out. Hit em with a coat of WLG. Smooth as melting buttah.

Bolted down storage cabinet in cabin thru existing holes used for middle bench tracks. This was a PITA!

Set up the 3 wires which went to the rear speakers to be used as an optional power wire running from front to auxiliary battery under bench

Good day
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so many roads i know
all i want is one to take me home

85 Vanagon GL 1.9 stick

[leecat]

Waxing the sticky zipper on the new ARB awning! Almost spring - have to try to get stuff ready. Can't wait to be under the van(s) once better weather arrives - we don't actually use our vans much, just work on them a lot!

[4Gears4Tires]

Are you waxing the zipper for waterproofing or ease of zipping?
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'87 Syncro
Ferric Oxyhydroxide Superleggera Edition

[dhaavers]

^^^ I expect yes & yes…BTDT, it works for both!



- Dave
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86 White Wolfsburg Westy Weekender
"The WonderVan"
<EDITED TO PROTECT INNOCENT PIXELS>

[leecat]

Dave's correct - for both; I didn't want to use anything oily like WD40 because I fear oil stains on everything. Wax seems to work pretty good - used a Fjallraven bar but probably will go over it again with a little softer wax type, once I find one.

[dhaavers]

^^^ Any old wax candle will do, even birthday candle…or ski wax, furniture wax, whatever.

- Dave
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86 White Wolfsburg Westy Weekender
"The WonderVan"
<EDITED TO PROTECT INNOCENT PIXELS>

[Schnippzle]

Installed the Front Runner awning with quick release mounts.

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1988 Caravelle - FB25B - Syncro converted
2016 MB E63 AMG S - The daily driver
2019 Harley Davidson FXFBS Fat Bob - The leisure

[Vanspeeder]

Slept in the Captain's Quarters before installing the rear cabinets.
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Would love to replace these OG curtains since the dang clips keep breaking.

[bobbyblack]