In for a penny, in for a pound

[4Gears4Tires]

Penny is tagged, titled, and insured! Big day!

I wanted to take it out, but first I wanted to put in the metal coolant tank. Well, I guess I ordered the wrong one. Shoot, that sucks.

I washed out the rusty crap out of the plastic tank, refilled with distilled water, and let the motor heat up to temp. It will need a coolant flush. After looking at the Subaru motor so much, I have to say I really enjoy the look and sound of the wbx.

It runs nicely and doesnt overheat, seems to bled. But I noticed that if I turn the dash light brightness up, the red coolant LED turns on a little bit as well. Seems like I am getting some voltage bleed from somewhere. This might be why the van kills a freshly charged battery in 3 weeks of sitting. I hate electrical diagnosing. It's pretty faint, look at the turn signal indicator to compare.

Shut it off and let it cool down. Coolant started pouring out. I panicked for a second, but it turned out to be a loose hose clamp in the cross over tube.

But, it wasn't all easily sorted. The clutch master cylinder is leaking. And I just had the dash apart a bunch for the brake booster. Sucks.

I am hoping I can undo the 2 bolts that hold it to the pedal subframe, undo the lines, and simply bring it down. I do not want to unbolt the pedal subframe and all the BS with the brakes that I have sorted now.
_________________
'87 Syncro Ferric Oxyhydroxide Superleggera Edition
'85 Westy Sciuridae Domus Edition

[dobryan]

For that dash light look for bad/missing grounds. That usually is the culprit.
_________________
Dave O
'87 Westy w/ 2010 Subaru EJ25 (Vanaru) 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

[Crooked Designer]

[dobryan]

^^^ Yep!

VW relied on thread contact on all grounds. Fine for the first 20 years…..
_________________
Dave O
'87 Westy w/ 2010 Subaru EJ25 (Vanaru) 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

[syncrodoka]

[4Gears4Tires]

I fixed the link to the image above that now has the slightly illuminated red LED.

The Westy made it out onto the road for the first time in over two decades! I took my mom out to a belated Mother's Day dinner. She's the person that got me into Vanagons after all.

I have a plethora of what appear to be grounding issues. The windshield wipers don't turn off (which was fine yesterday because it was raining.) The gauge lights turn off when the headlights are turned on (but the heater slider vent lights are not affected.) The tach turns off when the headlights are turned on. The coolant gauge starts flashing red with the headlights turned off. I'll definitely try sanding the trees. I should have done that with the dash apart.

I hate electrical diagnostics but these do seem to be grounding related. And the shifter needs adjustment. First gear is very hard to find, second is fine though. Regardless, great success with it's first trip out! I missed that wbx sound!

And, I can officially say I absolutely love the electric brake booster. The pedal effort is so easy, but the pedal engagement ramp up has a lot of movement before it really starts clamping down so you don't sneeze and send the van into the bushes. It looks a lot like this. Once you get past 2/3s and into 3/4 pedal engagement the brakes clamp with some serious authority and no real muscle effort.

I will be looking to do this mod to the Syncro. It's so much better. Anyone wanting to check it out, send me a PM. It's not that hard to do. Four holes need to be expanded and two wires need to be connected. The clevis fits perfectly. Bleeding requires a power bleeder, but ok not that big a deal.
_________________
'87 Syncro Ferric Oxyhydroxide Superleggera Edition
'85 Westy Sciuridae Domus Edition

[dobryan]

I'd look for a brown wire that is not connected to any ground star but should be. Sounds like a serious ground problem, maybe more than sanding will fix unless the stars are horribly corroded.

(And yes, you are going to regret not taking care of this when the dash was out...)
_________________
Dave O
'87 Westy w/ 2010 Subaru EJ25 (Vanaru) 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

[Crooked Designer]

other thing (which I think we talked about) is blue foil issues. All kinds of weird shit was happening before I upgraded that to the vanagon.org harness. Totally worth the cost to do that. Gets you LEDs on cluster as well.
_________________
'85 Westy full camper, Subaru 2.5L, 5 speed SubiGears + 5speedbus shifter kit

[4Gears4Tires]

And I definitely damaged the foil connector by smacking the cluster at one point.
_________________
'87 Syncro Ferric Oxyhydroxide Superleggera Edition
'85 Westy Sciuridae Domus Edition

[MsTaboo]

[4Gears4Tires]

Well I thought I was going to take it down to Staunton. I went to turn it on and heard an awful CLACK and then nothing. Instantly key off. Put the 30mm socket on the crank and no movement. Went the other way, easy rotation for a bit and then a solid wall.

I suspected a dropped valve. My neighbor popped over to help me push it over to the bay with the lift. I guessed right on which side, but it didn't seem to be a dropped valve.

I guess I should have adjusted the rockers before I took it out. I always get too excited. F. Any ideas on further damage? I am hoping to pop a new pushrod in there, adjust the rockers, and cross my fingers.
_________________
'87 Syncro Ferric Oxyhydroxide Superleggera Edition
'85 Westy Sciuridae Domus Edition

[4Gears4Tires]

Diagnostics on the bent pushrod documented here. https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=804285

As soon as I started tackling this I started spraying all the requisite nuts and bolts with PB blaster and luckily they came out without issue so I was able to remove the pushrod tube cover.

Easily see the bent pushrod. I removed it with a drift and a hammer. Just bent it more until it fell out.

I used a magnetic to slowly get the lifter out. It would stick, move, unstick, repeated it a dozen times and it was out. Honestly it looks fine and at this point I knew it was the valve, but for $40 I am replacing everything I can here. I saved it and put in the box the new one came in.

The cam looks good.

The samba recommends to disassemble and bench bleed the lifters because they can get air locked. Well, they came full with oil so I am not sure this was necessary. Getting the clip back in at the end was a very trying process but I did bleed it. And the poster is right, oil goes everywhere. I followed this guide. https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=331065

I don't know what the spec is on the pushrods but the passenger side had one that was ever so slightly out of true. So it was replaced. Looking at this picture I don't even remember which one it was, left side I think.

Collapsible pushrod tube in place. Very easy to use.

Even though the valve cover gaskets were not leaking, I put new ones in there and gave them a smear of grease.

And she instantly fired up and purrs!
https://i.imgur.com/WG347P3.mp4

Of course now I am totally gunshy about turning the van on... I don't trust the machine now! It'll take time to rebuild that trust. And definitely putting marvel mystery oil or seafoam in the gas to help clean up desposits.

Big thanks to Ken at Van Again (and dobryan who recommended him) who let my friend rush up to NJ yesterday and pick up the parts during the day so I could get it fixed during the night.

I also picked up a radiator for the Syncro and a muffler for the Westy. But honestly, that rust perforated muffler sounds kind of good!
_________________
'87 Syncro Ferric Oxyhydroxide Superleggera Edition
'85 Westy Sciuridae Domus Edition

[4Gears4Tires]

On Saturday I swapped the muffler out for a new one. I was fully prepared to go total destruction on these bolts even though I had been hitting them with PB blaster for a bit.

Surprisingly they all came out with zero drama, which for a muffler that looked like this.. I guess the Machine God blessed me with a small victory.

I think these two gaskets from each side of the catalytic converter are the clue. They don't look very used. I think the cat must have been replaced. It is not rusty like the muffler.

New muffler and tail pipe in. That tail pipe is straight up goofy. I took a sawzall to it when I had the wbx on the Syncro because I was worried I'd crush it on a rock. I will leave the calf burner in place for the Westy though.

I also changed the transaxle oil. I think I am looking at one of those "lifetime oil changes." The oil came out very clear because it had 25 years of sitting and the magnet collected just about everything over that time span. Biggest puffball ever.

Clear

Just look at that guy

I spread all the metal sand looking for any large bits, but I didn't find any. Just lots and lots of small dots.

I put STP 75w90 in there. I'll run it for awhile and then change it again. Didn't change the shifting any, it shifted just fine before and it still does now.

Then the not so great. The high and low pressure have the same looking valve, but running the AC created a ~25F temp differential, so we knew which one was the cold side. Hot side driver side, cold side passenger side. I will laugh if someone points out I was wrong. The AC system had pressure so I didn't want to open it. I wanted to connect a gauge, see where I'm at and add a bottle or two. Well that was not to be. I bought some really rare items, cans of R12, from a really nice guy and had a good time chatting with him about cars. I got the manifold gauges hooked up, I got the R12 can sidetap, and off we go.

Well, the system took a can but the pressure didn't increase. Second can in, pressure is still negative.

Third can in, pressure is still at 19in HG and the cold side got covered in frost.

So the expansion valve must be blocked or the drier or somewhere there is a blockage. Which really sucks, because replacing that expansion valve means the cabinets and top case and all the rest of that BS needs to come out.

But! The Westy made it's first real voyage. I drove down to see a friend in southern MD on the eastern shore. That was over an hour each way. It ran well, the suspension is absolutely in need of complete replacement, the blinking red coolant light has started to turn off when the van is started like it should, and the low oil pressure light has gone from a constant flicker at idle to an off 95% of the time at idle. So that might just be a grounding issue. But I'll continue to monitor and might T in an oil pressure gauge just to really verify.

The gauge cluster lights and tach still turn off when I turn on the van when the van is running. If the van is off and the lights are turned on (amber side markers illuminate) then the gauge lights turn on. So that's some weird grounding issue, possibly the connector when I accidentally smacked the cluster and bent the blue film leads.
_________________
'87 Syncro Ferric Oxyhydroxide Superleggera Edition
'85 Westy Sciuridae Domus Edition

[4Gears4Tires]

I also replaced the clutch master cylinder. I think I blew the seals out of the top when I accidentally left paper towel in the cylinder and then tightened up the line. It was fairly easy to replace, just 2 bolts and the line. Finding the clutch rod was a bit of a pain but really no big deal, and then bleeding it was fairly easy. I bled it in place, just attached the reservoir line, undid the clamp, and then thwacked the pedal a few dozen times until air stopped bubbling into the reservoir.
_________________
'87 Syncro Ferric Oxyhydroxide Superleggera Edition
'85 Westy Sciuridae Domus Edition

[jimf909]

Nice work on all the progress!

[4Gears4Tires]

That's that same calf burner! I wonder if it was originally designed without having a cat in the exhaust system.
_________________
'87 Syncro Ferric Oxyhydroxide Superleggera Edition
'85 Westy Sciuridae Domus Edition

[jimf909]

Hmm, if not that tailpipe, there is one that's shorter and won't extend beyond the bumper.

Maybe this one?
https://vancafe.com/tail-pipe-2-1l/?

Not a big deal given all that you're doing getting it back on the road.
_________________
- Jim

[4Gears4Tires]

Yeah that's the one I need! Argh, what a waste of $40! Well, I might take the sawzall to it.
_________________
'87 Syncro Ferric Oxyhydroxide Superleggera Edition
'85 Westy Sciuridae Domus Edition

[dobryan]

I am pretty sure I replaced the a/c expansion valve on my ‘87 westy without removing any of the cabinets. I think there is room if you remove the screened back piece from the overhead unit. The one you see when you open the rear hatch.
_________________
Dave O
'87 Westy w/ 2010 Subaru EJ25 (Vanaru) 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

[Abscate]

Keep the faith !