In for a penny, in for a pound

[4Gears4Tires]

[Wildthings]

[4Gears4Tires]

^ Yeah that's what I am going to do.

Ever since I adjusted the valves, the van has not been that easy to start. Sometimes it takes a few minutes! When cranking it sounds like cranking a motor with no spark plugs in. Very fast crank, high whine. I thought it was the starter, but I put it in gear and cranked and it jumped forward. After some random indeterminate time, it starts with some playing of the throttle, then it runs on 3 cylinders. After idling for a bit, it runs on 4 cylinders and idles smoothly.

My first thought was that I messed up adjusting the valves. But if that's the case, why does it run just fine after heating up a bit? My second thought is that I am not getting proper fueling, but usually a clog in the fuel system is fine at idle (low fuel needs) but struggling at highway (high fuel needs) and that doesn't line up. When I went to get video of it, it didn't happen and started normally. Next time it happens I'll post video.
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'87 Syncro Ferric Oxyhydroxide Superleggera Edition
'85 Westy Sciuridae Domus Edition

[Wildthings]

[4Gears4Tires]

I'll give that a shot. Thank you.
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'87 Syncro Ferric Oxyhydroxide Superleggera Edition
'85 Westy Sciuridae Domus Edition

[4Gears4Tires]

Instead of just backing the adjusters off a full turn a shot, which would have been easy, I decided to just redo the valve adjustment with a warm motor and do 1.5 turns. It's just easier to do it on a lift in my garage than on the street. However, this delayed me quite a bit which would prove to be quite a stress (and stressful) test.

Schau is das Buch! Although I used the reverse rotation of the crank so I could go 1-2-3-4 instead of firing order. Double checked every TDC with a screwdriver. Quintipled checked every adjustment before turning in 1.5 turns. Finger contact a few times, screw contact a few times, and then finger contact a few more times, visual inspection the whole time, then still anxious I turned in 1.5 times and locked it down.

Cylinders 1 and 2 after about 120 miles

Cylinders 3 and 4

After messing with the Syncro, then the valve adjustment on the Westy, then packing, I was seriously delayed leaving. Instead of leaving at 7pm, I was leaving at 11:15pm. At least, I expected, the roads would be clear, temps cool, and I could cruise on down the 175 miles. Boy, was I wrong.

35-40 minute delay over probably 2 miles going to VA on 495. In the beginning, it was drive 50 feet, turn off the van, and sit for 3-4 minutes. Which I am actually totally fine with. But then it was constant creeping 2-5mph for 20 minutes which super stressed me out. Because that is Overheatville, Fubar, USA. I had the heat cranked and the fan on for max heat dissipation.

But the van RAN LIKE A CHAMP! At least as far I can tell. I still have high anxiety about it. Temps stayed steady right at the LED light the entire time. And I got through the traffic with no issues. And when I shut the heat off, no hot foot! All my work resealing the heatercore paying off! Over a minute or two the temps slowly dropped down until it came in cold.

After 100 miles traveled, I stopped at a gas station to fill up. Even with the 40 minutes of BS, It looked like I got 17.5mpg. The van runs great. Going up hills on 66 West that I knew the Syncro would be struggling in 3rd, WOT, to maintain 50mph, the Westy cruised up, 4th gear at 62mph. With no issues and much relief I arrived in Staunton.

Dobryan once drove the Syncro with its previous 1.9 motor and he said, "The problem isn't the waterboxer. Drive a properly sorted 2.1 and it's just fine. Your motor is just a dog." He was absolutely right. Honestly yeah, the EJ25 is of course much faster. But if my Syncro moved like this I am not sure I would have done a Subaru swap. The 1.9 wbx is totally acceptable. I'm very pleased with how it cruised down here. Of course, I am still very anxious about everything. I have another trip planned for this weekend, going down to Pisgah, NC. I am hopeful it goes without issue!
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'87 Syncro Ferric Oxyhydroxide Superleggera Edition
'85 Westy Sciuridae Domus Edition

[Wildthings]

Try setting your timing to either end of the acceptable range and see what effects doing so has on how much power the engine makes.

[4Gears4Tires]

Ehhh, if I'm getting over 17mpg and easily cruising up steep hills at highway speeds, I certainly don't want to touch it. I should check the timing and write it down so I can set it back to that in the future though. I'll do that next time the Westy is back in my garage.
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'87 Syncro Ferric Oxyhydroxide Superleggera Edition
'85 Westy Sciuridae Domus Edition

[dobryan]

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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

[4Gears4Tires]

I wanted to fix the turn head lights on / gauge lights and tach die issue, which I assumed was a result of me accidentally smacking the cluster one time and damaging the blue ribbon connector.

After years in the Syncro, it's amazing how much space a Westy has. Very nice to work in.

Yeah, I am not surprised the gauge cluster is acting funky.

With a metal rod and super glue I carefully did my best to glue the leads back down. I wiped them down with a q-tip and acetone afterwards to try to clean off any super glue on top of the leads.

Next up was sorting out the stereo. I figured this would be an easy wire in because the aftermarket Sony head unit from the early 80s only had 4 wires. Yellow, Red, Black, and Blue. Should be, Constant, Switched, Ground, and Amp Control. And with the amp and RCA speaker wiring already all in place, no problem! I connected Yellow to Yellow, Red to Red, etc to the new stereos pig tail and no dice. Nada. No sound, no clicks, no clacks, no lights. I was about to give up since I had forgotten my volt meter in MD when I saw that there was a cylinder type in line fuse. Popped that open and that thing was smoked. Ran to the FLAPS and got a replacement and the stereo instantly powered on. But no sound! I moved the amp control blue wire to switched power and tied it in the with Red wire and suddenly there was music! I wired this in permanently like this, please let me know if there any issues with this approach.

Now that I had power, I needed to get the rear speakers in. I had left them out because I didn't have a working stereo and the driver side wiring needed to be repaired after mice had gotten to it. Did I mention how nice it is to have built in working spaces/tables?

Once that was sorted it was time for a test drive! Of course I wish the screen was more amber or darker but it's really not too bad and it's in a great location for me to interact with. It's right in front of the shifter, maybe 2-3 inches of space from 3rd gear. No interference issues. Clears the dash nicely when it's fully seated too. In fact, it clears the dash enough that I rotated the screen to face me a bit. It can slide up about 2", currently it's all the way down. I may try the up position. Overall, I really like it and it's nice to have Android Auto.

The one oddity is that messing with the cluster must have changed the resistance in the temp gauge lead. The temp gauge now reads just below the LED when driving around. I am not super happy with that but I am loathe to disconnect the cluster now and potentially break the leads more. After I shut off the van, the front radiator fan kicked on for 30 seconds so I know it was fully up to temp. Although that was the first I've seen the van do that, so of course that also made me worried. On the flip side, the oil pressure light does not come on at idle anymore. It's unfortunate, but I don't think I will 100% trust the cluster until I replace the blue foil with a good one.
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'87 Syncro Ferric Oxyhydroxide Superleggera Edition
'85 Westy Sciuridae Domus Edition

[4Gears4Tires]

I HAVE FIRE!
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'87 Syncro Ferric Oxyhydroxide Superleggera Edition
'85 Westy Sciuridae Domus Edition

[4Gears4Tires]

Printed off a cutlery organizer. This used a surprising amount of filament. I think I spent about $10-12 in filament, plus electricity, wear and tear, the machine, etc etc. GW sells roughly the same one for $42 printed in PETG as well. That's not much of a profit, so I think that's a pretty good price. https://gowesty.com/products/volkswagen-vanagon-we...3642269040
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'87 Syncro Ferric Oxyhydroxide Superleggera Edition
'85 Westy Sciuridae Domus Edition

[4Gears4Tires]

I replaced the canvas top with one from GoWesty. It went ok. I might try to adjust it to remove of the wrinkles, but it's really not too bad so I might not.

I didn't remove the fiberglass top from the van since I wanted to pull it tight from the bottom. The bottom has a rubber gasket running around, the screws need to go through that for water purposes. The top can go anywhere, really. But I don't think I would do that method again. Next time I would just take the fiberglass top off, install the rails and top, put it back on the van, lower rails, and then adjust as needed. It's not like keeping the top on meant no adjustment as I was hoping.

I also washed the 3 foam mattress covers. Not that bad to reinstall the covers, but it definitely is easier to do it with help from a friend.

I am going to tackle the front suspension next, but I need to figure out two things. So I appreciate any input.

The first is that the engine is eating alternator belts. The alternator seems to be slightly cockeyed. I am going to try to shim or do something to align it.

The next is that the new freaking valve cover gaskets leak like crazy! It's amazing that this motor doesn't leak oil from any difficult to replace gaskets or anywhere else. It doesn't even burn oil. But it leaked a quarter of a quart in 1000 miles of traveling through the valve cover gaskets. They're new. The springs need a screwdriver to pop on and off. I coated them in grease, so it's not like I can RTV them in place anymore.

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'87 Syncro Ferric Oxyhydroxide Superleggera Edition
'85 Westy Sciuridae Domus Edition

[Wildthings]

The original alternating mounting on these engines is a crime and yours has likely been repaired poorly. You can buy a brace for the alternator mount from GoWesty and others and you can add the simple mount I made up as well, the two together give a nice hearty mount that isn't going anywhere.

You can see the added strap in this picture, you can also see the added weld for the factory mount beneath the alternator. If your original mount broke and was repaired it might be catawampus, if so buy a new mount and added the weld before installing. The mounting hardware for the factory mount can also break or strip their holes out.

Best to do everything you can to improve the mounting so your alternator mount doesn't leave you stranded far from help.

FWIW I have been running a Delcotron alternator for nearly 20 years now, as my original Bosch seized a bearing outside of Ely, NV and a replacement Bosch was days away. I jury rigged the Delco on and have never seen any need to go back to the Bosch, though I have never been able to get my idiot light to work.

[4Gears4Tires]

Good idea on adding whatever bracing can get put on. That looks a lot beefier. I do have the original gen 1 GW alternator bracket on there, but I am sure I can get more metal on it.
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'87 Syncro Ferric Oxyhydroxide Superleggera Edition
'85 Westy Sciuridae Domus Edition

[4Gears4Tires]

I replaced the top with a GW canvas. I wanted to replace the canvas without remove the fiberglass because the bottom installs on the rubber gaskets and the top installs wherever it gets tight. Well, in hindsight if I were to do this job again I'd remove the fiberglass top, install the top to it, and then go around the bottom. It was a bit of a pain to install, but not too bad. It might have helped to look at GW's install directions but I like the adventure of figuring it out on the go.

Removing the top was the easiest part.

Of course I installed it backwards on the first go. Luckily it was only one rail in when I noticed this. Black windows to the outside.

Overall, it came out pretty ok. I might try to loosen a few screws and snug the top in a few places, but I am totally ok with how it currently is.

Next up was the front suspension. I laid out all my parts and found several sets of duplicates. I need to buy less and install more!

Again, I probably should have read some directions or maybe the Bentley before doing this job. It's definitely different from the Syncro. In fact, I think the front suspension is more difficult to maintain/replace/service on the 2wd vans. My key points are the brake rotor wheel bearing and accessing the lower ball joint. Feel free to counter point me, but you'd be wrong. That said, I really prefer driving the 2wd vans. The steering is lighter, more agile, and more enjoyable. The smaller tires I am running on the Westy probably help with this Fahrvergnügen as well.

First up, remove the tie rod nut, my cotter pin was totally frozen and it required drilling and a punch to remove.

When I was a young lad I would just hammer the crap out of my suspension to get ball joints out. Now I use a ball joint tool to really put some separating pressure on the joint and then it only takes a few taps to get apart.

Smack here

And here

In order to get to the alignment shop without a totally whacked out alignment, it's good practice to measure the radius rod arm threads and mark the upper control arm bolt.

Surprisingly all the ball joints and tie rods were in decent shape. Some had cracked rubber boots from age, but not use. The only part that was not in great shape were the shocks. I thought they were completely blown, but they expanded over night. So probably a few molecules of gas still left in there.

The spring just pops out at this point with a crowbar

My radius rod arms were completely seized. They came out with the arms.

Measure the old and new tie rods so, once again, your alignment is totally whacked out on the way to the alignment shop. The old inner tie rods have 4 surfaces for a 32mm wrench. The new inner tie rods only have 2. I would pay the 5 more cents for 4 surfaces to put a wrench on.

Getting Alika's PS rack boots on was a bit of a pain. I don't see them going anywhere. I used a radiator hose pick to carefully get the first one on. The second one I just used my fingers and paid less attention to how much I stretched it. I still secured the inside with a zip tie on both sides.

The sway bar end links popped off and the bushing popped out by hand. I used a press to get the new bushing back in place. I wrestled this back on to the sway bar by hand. That sucked. I think it took me an hour. Lol.

I had cut my spring compressors with my rip saw last time I used them on the Syncro. I forgot about this and I was surprised that I had no spring compressors. Oh well, bring out the sketchiness. The van is now the spring compressor. I have to say, having my head near the strut to get the shock into place while that spring is under tension is a puckering experience. Would not recommend.

I had forgotten, even though I had seen discussion on the 2wd lower ball joint tool here, that I needed a special tool. So I didn't replace the LBJs. But they were both in good shape with good boots. I'll still replace them in the not too distant future though since I have 4 of them! Two GW with zerk fittings and two stock.

The upper control arms got new GW bushings. I used a dremel to grind off the spot well and pressed the new bushings in place. I used a ball joint press kit part and a vise to remove them.

And a socket once they bottomed out

Pressed the new ones in

I got even sketchier with the drivers side and just lowered the van onto a block of wood. Seeing it slightly tip and having my face near it was just, mmmm, so good.

Because my radius rod arms were frozen, trying to get the nut started on the outside was impossible. If I could have backed it out a quarter inch, I could have gotten it started. My solution was to use a rachet strap to torque the strut forward half an inch. No problems bolting everything up and getting the front bushing seated properly once it was pulled forward with the strap.

Passenger side together

Driver side together

and finally back on the ground!

I had expected this to take me my full Saturday. It ended up taking Saturday, half of Sunday, and Monday evening. Wrestling with the sway bar end link and trying to figure out how to press out the LBJ without the special service tool wasted waaaaaaay too much time.

It drove pretty straight right off the lift, but I got an alignment this morning and I'll be on to the next maintenance item.
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'87 Syncro Ferric Oxyhydroxide Superleggera Edition
'85 Westy Sciuridae Domus Edition