75 Tub Bus Timemachine

[orangebug60guy]

I’ve been working on the rear brakes lately. I need the pin and clip that holds the ebrake lever on the brake pad. Does anyone have 2 extra?

I also have a question about the rear brake pads. The backing plate doesn’t have holes for the springs and pins that hold the pad in place. Is this actually how they sit, just floating? I did take any pictures but probably know what I mean. The brake hardware springs?

Slow work but October seems to be “tub bus” month.

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Arachibutyrophobia- Fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth.
Coprastasophobia- Fear of constipation.

[Spike0180]

I have holes for the pin and spring in my backing plate. Being used too. Mine are old and rusty, I wouldn't be surprised if they are original.
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Brutis Patches Izabich: 1970 VW Transporter - 1776cc DP
Current State: Projects never truly end...
Location: Grosse Pointe, Michigan
Other cars: 2003 F150, 2003 Jetta GLI vr6-6sp

Sambastic: adj; the quality of being nit picky, elitist, expecting everyone to do things the way they believe is best with no regard to situation, "sambastic"

[orangebug60guy]

Found this thread while searching about backing plates and the retaining springs!

[orangebug60guy]

My brother and I have made some progress with tub bus. We finally got the engine back together after many months of finding the right parts. Last weekend we installed the engine and trans. Put the axles back on. Finished the rear brakes.
How to properly install a bay window motor.

Still have to wire the fuel pump, and sort some electrical issues. This pig should be running soon.
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Arachibutyrophobia- Fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth.
Coprastasophobia- Fear of constipation.

[Spike0180]

Whoop Whoop! Gonna be cruising soon!
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Brutis Patches Izabich: 1970 VW Transporter - 1776cc DP
Current State: Projects never truly end...
Location: Grosse Pointe, Michigan
Other cars: 2003 F150, 2003 Jetta GLI vr6-6sp

Sambastic: adj; the quality of being nit picky, elitist, expecting everyone to do things the way they believe is best with no regard to situation, "sambastic"

[orangebug60guy]

I was finally able to hook up the fuel pump and everything sorted out and now it runs!

Link
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Arachibutyrophobia- Fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth.
Coprastasophobia- Fear of constipation.

[orangebug60guy]

After installing the engine I noticed the engine wouldn’t hold an idle. After looking at the wiring diagram I noticed each carb was missing it’s electromagnetic idle jet. It just had 55 idle jets installed.

Ordered new ones on Busdepot and now it holds an idle. Now I just need to sync the carbs. I’ve got some reading on Ratwell to do.

So I installed the engine seal.

Earlier this week I finished the front brakes. New pads and rotors. Bleed the brakes and adjusted the rears. All new metal and hard lines.

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Arachibutyrophobia- Fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth.
Coprastasophobia- Fear of constipation.

[orangebug60guy]

My brother and I finally did it. Tub Bus lives. The first time we tried to shift with the engine on it stalled hard! The shifter was stuck and we thought, oh no we messed up big somewhere. We replaced the shift coupler and it was still stuck. Then we jacked up the vehicle and spun the wheels. Success but now it was stuck in neutral. When the engine was running you couldn’t shift into gears. So we turned off the engine and put it in third gear and pushed the bus forward trying to dislodge the clutch. We figured it was stuck. Low and behold the engine turned! We assume the clutch was stuck on the input shaft and we were able to get it unstuck! Thank god.

Link


Link

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Arachibutyrophobia- Fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth.
Coprastasophobia- Fear of constipation.

[60vwnewengland]

whoop whoop!!!!
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77 Westy - Cape Cod Sage
LLAP

[60vwnewengland]

Welp... after 3months of trouble shooting ignition issues, Jack got the motor running like a top.

Long story short, I ordered a rebuilt vw bosch distributor from BD and it ran good for about 150miles on the highway and city. After the 150 miles it kept burning up points, back firing, and running poorly. Finally took the BD rebuilt distributor out and realized it had Chinese condenser, points, and rotor. The points, rotor, and condenser had no markings on them so thats why I think they were Chinese. So I, ordered some NOS German ignition parts from Dave at Bug City in CT swapped out the bad Chinese crap from BD and now it runs like a top! Lesson learned here - buy nos ignition parts from Dave.

Here’s a photo from the pre-trip engine button up before leaving for Flanders. I did and oil change, switched over to 20-50, tighented all the sheet metal screws and stuff. Then I prayed to the gods for an uneventful 450mile trip from Mass. to DC.

I met up with Tom, Stan, Lucas, and Randy in Hartford and we made the easy trip to Flanders! No issues at all.

At Flanders, Schwinger helped me out tighten my alternator belt and I was good to go. Gibbs also hooked me up with the correct spare vw distributor! So I was ready to finish the remaining 200ish miles to DC.

Well, I made it!

It was a nerve racking trip, but the engine seemed to run better and better the closer I got to DC. The rings must have finally set and I cruised 55-60 the whole way.

Big shout out to my brother for doing all the mechanical work on this bus. And learning type-4 motors, dual carbs, and the other gremlins that go along with Baywindow buses. I cannot thank him enough. All his hard work resulted in zero trouble on the trip from Mass. to DC. Also big shoutout to thewalrus (Big Jack), Isgro, and Nate for their countless hours of help and cleaning parts. I’ll never forget that we spent 3-4hours during my bachelor party putting the motor together and cleaning cv joints and axels.

Next job is to clean out the shell, get the windows to stop leaking and install the full westy interior. Stayed tuned for more progress.
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77 Westy - Cape Cod Sage
LLAP

[thewalrus]

[Abscate]

It will run forever if you keep it at 55-60. That pancake engine is really happy at that stress level.

Also good to keep it at that speed as you don't have shinola for brakes compared to ROW. Mom in her Soccer Van has ABS ESP OCD and VD and is going to stop a lot faster than you.
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.ssS!

[advCo]

Sweet ride! Really surprised how solid that bus is for a New England ride (I grew up/lived on the South Shore - until about 2 years ago) so I’ve seen my fair share of projects too far gone.

I’d love to swing by and check it out next time I’m up that way, although I see it’s in DC now. Anyways subbed for updates. The high tops are pretty sweet. Cheers to a successful first trip
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"He pulled the mirrors off his Cadillac ‘cause he doesn’t like it looking like he looks back"
'68/'70 Ghia Coupe Project
'70 Westy Project - Champagne I Wannabe
A bunch of vintage Japanese motorcycles
"Much ingenuity with a little money is vastly more profitable and amusing than much money without ingenuity." -A. Bennett

[60vwnewengland]

Photo cred for Crukab (Tom) and the only action shot of Tub Bus somewhere in CT or NJ last weekend heading to Flanders.

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77 Westy - Cape Cod Sage
LLAP

[60vwnewengland]

Another action shot of Tub Bus crossing the Hudson River. Who knows the last time this bus crossed the Tappan Zee Bridge?

Photo Cred: Stanagon (Stan)

I've crossed this bridge more times than I can count, but this time, in Tub Bus was awesome. The weather was beautiful, Crukab (Tom) was driving in front of me, and about 3/4 of the way over the bridge, Crukab stuck his arm out the driver's side window and fist pump the air three times. And when I saw him do it, I had this feeling like he was rooting me and Tub Bus crossing the river. It was a great feeling. It's something I'll always remember and what a great feeling it was.
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77 Westy - Cape Cod Sage
LLAP

[Abscate]

[60vwnewengland]

So the government shutdown has given me lots of time to make progress on Tub Bus. The first thing I had to do was sort out a flooding carb. Ended up being a stuck needle float valve. Thread on that fix here. https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=711514&highlight= it was running like crap afterwards. So I spent time rechecking that the carb was tightened down to the intake manifold and tightening the screws that hold the top of the carb to the base. Which sorted it all out. All in all, there must had been a huge vacuum leak. Checked to make sure the carbs were synchronized and we're good to go now.

Then I decided to give the sun visors and front head liner a wipe down with bleach and water to get rid of the nasty mold and gunk. Looking and smelling better now.

Then it was time to pull out the nasty foam padding and weird bathroom/shower walls off the fiberglass hightop.

Then I used 1-2-3 Primer and a quart of mis-tinted paint to get the fiberglass roof looking good to also get rid of the nasty mold and gunk.

While the ceiling was drying, I decided to test the A/C plug on the side the bus to see if it worked. It did not, so I removed the inside outlet and housing.

When I connect my extension cord to the plug, it has power on the back side. So I plan to re-wire and install a GCFI outlet in the bus somewhere (probably in the new panels I made). No plan on using the auxiliary battery converter or anything.

I also spent a lot of time reading about the Dometic refrigerators in multiple threads here on the samba. There are some mixed reviews, but I decided to remove the fridge innards and use the fridge as an cooler/ice box.

Long story short here, you have to take the whole cabinet apart to remove the fridge bits and pieces.

The other day, I wire wheeled the rusty spots on the floor and hit it with some rustoleum. It's so cold here in DC it took about 24hrs for it to dry.

Finally, I painted the floor and made some new interior panels panels with some scrap wood and left over stain/poly I had in the basement.

If this shutdown goes on any longer, I'll be ready to go camping by President's Day Weekend. #Endtheshutdown
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77 Westy - Cape Cod Sage
LLAP

[airschooled]

Just caught up with this thread… Very nice work so far! I hope all the hard work pays off, because that's a lot of hard work. It's also nice to see another uneventful road trip with the factory dual carbs. I had many pleasant road trips with them in a Very similar bus out here on the west coast:

Thanks for bringing back good memories, and for sharing new ones!
Robbie
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[wcfvw69]

Kudos to you for bringing this dead bus back to life. I enjoyed your first drive videos as the engine sounded good. I agree with Robbie in that you and your brother put in a lot of work to accomplish this.

Well done.
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Decades of VW and VW parts restoration experience.
The Samba member since 2004.

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[60vwnewengland]