1973 Bay window,1700cc and automatic transmission, with a/c

[Wasted youth]

Update...

At the Tehachapi High School parking lot, I added more ATF to the near-full mark, then we went the back way to Mojave via Oak Creek Rd. The transmission shifted into 3rd where it is supposed to at 45-50 MPH and also shifts into 3rd by manual shifting. Kick-down and return to 3rd seems to work fine. We are now at 85,610 on the odometer. I’m surprised by how much ATF keeps disappearing, but also real glad the shifting problem seems attributed to the reoccurring low ATF sump levels.

I notice that the engine oil has hardly been consumed... and I’m starting to hope that my supposed engine oil drips are actually ATF that is getting dirty as it leaks out of the transmission and travels on the engine “cleaning” it as it goes. The drips don’t smell like ATF, and they are black, not pink... not really smelling like oil either... just have that ‘old engine’ scent, if that makes any sense.

[pioneer1]

Could the black oil be hypoid gear oil? That stuff stinks
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"Always waiting for tomorrow ruined everything"

'85 Porsche 911 Targa

'76 Westfalia project

[Abscate]

Snip off a sausage in the bushes and call it a night

If it doesn’t stink it’s engine oil

The stain , not the sausage
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.ssS!

[Wasted youth]

We drove on out to Harper Lake Rd and are now at 85,665 on the odometer with no further issues. I’m closely monitoring the fluids, but we’re good so far and have set up camp.

No coils cut off in the creosote bushes this evening. Maybe tomorrow!

[Wasted youth]

A little bit back-up here... I posted photos after I made some commentary, so it's a little confusing!

Here we have the bus hosed off and loaded up for the first leg starting on Friday afternoon from our home. Not very pretty inside... and of course some things were left behind! Odometer at 85,453

These are my good luck charms: a 1973 Fowler, California phone book (two towns north of ours) and a 1973 Amtrak System Timetable. I also scored a 1973 Owner’s Manual.

First stop was at Pixley to check things out. Everything seems good at this point!

Next we see possibly the largest citrus packing house and shipper operation in California near the town of Delano. Delano is still as much a working class town as it was when Ceaser Chavez made his name.

These are refrigerator boxcars, each capable of over 180,000 pounds gross loading weight. Union Pacific Railroad runs solid trains of these to points east of the Mississippi a few times a week. They start here with citrus and I’m told they meet up with another train of eastern Washington produce on the way east. The two trains combine and serve the Midwest and eastern markets.

We stopped at the Flying J truck stop north of Bakersfield to check fluid levels (no issues at this point), topped off the gas tank, get a slice of pizza for my son, some afternoon coffee for me and I couldn’t pass up my boy’s suggestion of buying a personal copy of Steve McQueen’s epic.

With sunset coming behind us, we blasted by the potato sheds of Edison and got up to Caliente planning on camping there. Average highway speeds were an easy 65-70 MPH most of the time. We passed a lot of trucks, but lots of people passed us, too!

We found this mess at the north portal of Tunnel 2... this is what is known as ‘stringlining’ and it typically happens when too much pulling power is tugging on a heavy train around tight curves. Physics demands that at some point the flanged wheel tracking on a rail shall be relieved of this duty when the lightest cars’ weight keeping it all down on the track (in this case, several empty boxcars) are overcome by the energy of being pulled in a curve, instead of straight like a string being pulled taught... if that makes sense. I know I’m not saying that as coherently as I like, but I think you can figure this out!

I paced this auto carrier train at 14-15 MPH on the service road while my son tried to make a quick video.

Here is our kitchen... good ‘ol Coleman gear! I bought the stove from our neighbor and refurbished it.

[Wasted youth]

[Wasted youth]

(Sunday morning update posted before I could upload pictures)...

We made it out to Barstow, Calif after breaking camp this morning and are now setting out for an afternoon hike around Keene, in the hills just west of Tehachapi. Odometer at 85,802... and I have yet needed to add any ATF. Go figure!

Also have not needed to add any motor oil so far, so I’m pleased with that.

[Abscate]

[notchboy]

Love it brother. Looks like a nice relaxed trip so far. I dont know what the heck you were cooking but its making me a bit farty.
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[Wasted youth]

[Abscate]

Love that long focal length shot of the Bus and the stringlining result,
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.ssS!

[notchboy]

Still looks like a very cool road to Treffin on.
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[Wasted youth]

After we finally got into the town of Tehachapi, it was time for more drinking water, ice, gee-dunk and some matches (Yep! We forgot the obvious! Duh! ) ...and I needed to check the hypoid oil level in the Final Drive to ensure it wasn't getting filled with the ATF. All good there!

By the way... speaking of last night's camping and gross-looking dinner. If you forget your matches while camping, and you're far from a store, but would really like to get that stove lit, then do this: Get a Dixie cup, form up a triple layer of aluminum foil on the outside of it. Remove. Put a few ounces of dirt in the bottom of the cup for added stability, then insert that formed up foil on the inside. Get a rag or towels and ball them up... put them in the foil-lined cup. Add about a half cup of motor oil to that. Get out a highway flare, ignite it, then light the oily rags. Ensure you have a flame. Knock out the highway flare by snapping it on the toe of your slightly uplifted boot... that super-hot phosphorus will break off in little chunks under your boot. Keep your heel dug in for balance. Most people don't want to be smelling or seeing a 10 minute flare while camping.

You now have a 'candle' that will burn quietly for some time. Get some twigs and light your stove and lantern. And don't bullshit me... I know you have a supply of both motor oil and highway flares. You're driving a VW bus!

Anyway... From there, we headed out Oak Creek Rd. to go the back way to Mojave. We made a pit stop at a turn-off where the bike race organizers set up Porta-Potties with a little hand wash station. No need to poo in the bushes today! This is also where the Pacific Crest Trail crosses through the wind farms. That's a water cache that Trail Angels keep stocked. I expected someone's ashes in the urn, but all that was in it was some foam strips. My son noted someone lost a pair of reading glasses on the table, and after I cleaned all the dust off them decided I needed them more than a lonely table and an ash-less urn.

Also, these cool shovels mark the entrance to California Portland Cement along the same road...

At Mojave, my son spent a bunch of his birthday money in the Military Surplus store, and I decided to finally re-install my interior driver's side door latch, window crank and door pull. I had pulled the ratty door cards off last year for rehab, but of course got busy with other brush fires and shiny distractions.

I'm sure that never happens to you.

At Kramer Jct, I was eager to check things out after doing 70 mph across the desert from Mojave. That's about 37 miles. I was happy to see all was well back in the engine bay, and I treated myself and son to a loaded up Cinnabon at the truck stop. We drove across Hwy 58 to Hwy 395 to check out the antique store, but it was closed... so we visited it Sunday afternoon on the way back.

We headed out to our second camp site (Saturday night) off of Harper Lake Rd off Hwy 58. We drove a dirt access road along the railroad for just over a 1/4 mile and came to a small rise. Now for some fun! Two cases of clay pigeons, Remington 12 ga. and 500 rounds of .22 long and a nice plink board my brother made for us. The .22 needs to go to the gunsmith, but we tore up the clay birds. Yes... we picked up all the shells!

That's the Black Mountain Wilderness in the far distance, and the Abengoa Solar Project (lights visible at night) near Lockhart.

It was a great day overall!

Next: Sunday morning to Barstow, the turnaround point.

[Wasted youth]

[Abscate]

Are you my mother? ...asks the Bus?

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.ssS!

[Wasted youth]

[notchboy]

Actually Treffen. Yes to meet up and cruze Least thats what weve always done and called it here in SoCal.

But always on very scenic paths like this.

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=571113&highlight=borradori
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[Wasted youth]

That's cool! Yep, PCH from Monterey to the Gold Coast is perfect for that.

[Wasted youth]

Sunday morning...

First stop was gasoline and fluid check... and for some reason the ATF didn't seem to be consumed as before. Anyway, I just kept monitoring the situation. We stopped at Western Area Railroad Museum next to the Casa Del Deserito at Barstow. The Route 66 Mother Road Museum is in the same building, and both are really worth a visit.

The bus sits next to a Electro-Motive FP45 rated at 3,600 horsepower when new in 1967. The Type 2 is rated at roughly 80 Hp when new in 1973. You choose!

The bus is now sitting next to a Santa Fe Railway Horse Express car. Prior to the advent of the national highway system, these cars were used to transport race horses around the U.S. One entire end of this car features two swinging doors for loading, and has horse stalls inside.

We headed out to the east end of town, where Hwy 58 merges with Interstate 15, and found this drive-in movie theater. It seems to be in business and my son knew about these, but had never actually been to visit one.

Along that same stretch of road, we found these gems...

We started our return trip back home. Odometer now at 85,686 and no real problems so far, except the annoying consumption of ATF. Later and further west, I took a picture of this bus which I've known about for awhile...and check out that Fleetside!

Back at Tehachapi, I pulled off to make lunch. I didn't really like the way the bus was sitting in the wind/shade/sun situation, so I got back in to move it. It would not turn the starter over. WTF?

Hoping it was just a misaligned safety switch in the shift tower, I opened that up and bypassed the switch. No luck!

Next, I crawled under there and connected my remote starter button, and the starter motor solenoid quickly did its job. We screwed around with this trying to replicate the issue, but could not.

So we had grilled cheeseburgers, Cheetos, grapes, Fanta strawberry soda and huge slices of old/discounted cherry pie.

After lunch, we headed back down to Keene and went on a seven mile round-trip hike to Cliff and return. It was a really nice late summer afternoon, and found this red-tailed hawk also having lunch...

We didn't get back to the bus until after dark, but it was totally worth it. The bus performed without trouble all the way home, except for one more episode of the starter circuit. At the Flying J where we stopped Friday, I finally had to add one quart of motor oil. I also noticed my ATF consumption had gone up again.

We did 70 pretty much all the way home.

Trip Stats:

Begin odometer: 85,453
End: 85,918
Total miles driven... 465

Gasoline: 9.0, 5.0, 6.7, 10.6 for a total of 31.3 gallons. 465/31.3=14.85 MPG
Type 4 1700cc engine, pre-heated Weber Progressive DFEV jetted per Redline specs. 205 S distributor.

ATF consumed: 10 oz. west of Bakersfield, 8-10 oz at CHP scales near Hart Flat 8 oz at Tehachapi, 12 oz again west of Bakersfield; total of 40-42 ounces.

1 quart oil.

I had not planned on taking the bus on this trip... It really needs a lot more attention in my opinion. There are a lot of small things that need cleaning up... did you see all that crap hiding in the shift tower?! and I have the Progressive functioning well enough, but it is really a compromise. Dual carbs are really the way to go.

But I had no other car available, and I promised my son this trip for his birthday. So yeah, it actually worked out great and I have modified my laundry list of things to do. This trip will also help us decide which bus to keep, this one or the '78 sunroof. Can't keep both...

[Abscate]

Love the trip report. Red tails are my favorite raptor after snowy owls.

I love this pic - Juxtaposition of fore - mid- background, the curve of the train drawing the eye to the background, but the Van, I mean, Bus keeping it focus.

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.ssS!