Seamus-77 westy resto

[ImAddicted]

Good week to be in the shop with all the shifty weather, nice progress, Jay!
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1979 Transporter (sold)
KC1MUR

[Jetfxr69]

Been busy coupleweeks but glad to get cracking on the front beam rebuild.

The steering pin was an easy piece of work with the beam out of bus and in a vise. Just used a spark plug socket and drove the two VERY dry and unlubricated shitty old bushings right out. Took very little effort with the hammer.

Striped the rest of parts like bolts and grease fittings. Started to clean old grease from inside. Will pressure wash and wire brush the outer tomorrow and then off to my buddys welding shop for the tube crack repair. Decided to let him do it rather than me waste a couple hours of spattering birdshit weld just to have to take it to him later anyways. “A mans gotta know his limitations” Dirty Harry.

Got the wrong size needle bearing from Busdepot. Not too impressed with them anymore. Had several other problems in the past, but couldnt find anyone else selling them. In the end, theyre selling the wrong ones anyways. Back to the internet for a correct part somewhere else I guess. Heres what I need, not what I got though.

Will be cleaning and removing balljoints from arms while tube is at welders. Need to order Balljoints still. Think im gonna stick with the Nakatas. They seem to have the better feedback vs. other brands lately.

Looking for an old electric oven to set up for powdercoating in the garage.
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You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline. It helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer. Zappa

‘77 westy Seamus
‘76 tintop Crusher
‘77 westy The Judge
‘72 tintop bastard westy Hudson

[skills@eurocarsplus]

[skills@eurocarsplus]

I take that back...

there was a piece of butchers paper in there.

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[Jetfxr69]

Plus $10 off your next order!

That fixes everything
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You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline. It helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer. Zappa

‘77 westy Seamus
‘76 tintop Crusher
‘77 westy The Judge
‘72 tintop bastard westy Hudson

[Abscate]

[Jetfxr69]

After sleeping on it and staring at the beam for an hour this morning, it was decided to get the hybrid hippie splitty off its blocks and rolled it into the garage for beam removal.

With at least one cracked torsion tube end, gouged torsion arm, worn inner torsion arm and bearing on the other side, decided its worth the trouble to pull this one out and strip down. Hopefully between the two of them, I can salvage a good beam, and/or any other parts needed for Seamus.

What sucks is that all the broke and junk shit will have to get reinstalled into Blue just to get it back out of the garage before this weekend.
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You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline. It helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer. Zappa

‘77 westy Seamus
‘76 tintop Crusher
‘77 westy The Judge
‘72 tintop bastard westy Hudson

[notchboy]

[Jetfxr69]

Got some good with some bad today on the replacement beam. The good definitely outweighs the bad however.

The good: 4 very nice torsion arms with no damage and all OG ball joints tight and boots intact. Just saved a shitload of time, money, and concern about installing aftermarket joints.

The bad: a couple small holes in the bottom of the beam box structure on one side. Small enough to scab patch over and carry on though.

Feel much better than what I was up against with Seamus’s old beam; cracked needle bearing boss area, and 3 inner bushings that needed replacement.

Also found two uncracked set of torsion leaves. They are going On the shelf.

All the damaged pieces, sans the leaves, go back under Blue to keep it a roller.
_________________
You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline. It helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer. Zappa

‘77 westy Seamus
‘76 tintop Crusher
‘77 westy The Judge
‘72 tintop bastard westy Hudson

[Jetfxr69]

Its been a few weeks since ive had time to work on my own rig. Busy with ryans motor, and now daughters tintop. Finally got my beam welded up (ryans handi-work), and cleaned up.

Before he welded up the bottoms, I poured some ospho in and sloshed it around over a couple days. He welded in some patches and ground everything out.

Then the fun came when I took it to my neighbors job. He runs a heavy equipment manufacturing plant. While the plant is shut down for a few weeks and all his employees are away, the mice will play.


Beam hooked to the trolly and headed into a heavy duty, industrial sandblaster. AWESOME!

Once it come out, we flipped it over and sent it back in for a second pass.

We then tried sending a wheel through.

It did a nice job, but the pressure from eight blast heads, knocked it around inside like a pinball. Didnt want to press my luck and fuck his machine up, so these will have to be done old-school.
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You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline. It helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer. Zappa

‘77 westy Seamus
‘76 tintop Crusher
‘77 westy The Judge
‘72 tintop bastard westy Hudson

[Jetfxr69]

Better shot of beam weld areas after blasting

Red sky morning over the mountains today.

_________________
You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline. It helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer. Zappa

‘77 westy Seamus
‘76 tintop Crusher
‘77 westy The Judge
‘72 tintop bastard westy Hudson

[Jetfxr69]

Got beam all cleaned up and painted. Starting reassembly. First was the swing lever and new pin set. Gonna put leaves back in and then time to remount on bus.

Got a feeling this will be coming back out in a couple years. Had plans to do all the underbelly stripping and painting, but the seasons are so short, and the salt is off the roads. Time to ride.
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You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline. It helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer. Zappa

‘77 westy Seamus
‘76 tintop Crusher
‘77 westy The Judge
‘72 tintop bastard westy Hudson

[Clatter]

Can’t stress enough to clean out that beam before you reassemble.

Sand is forever.. The eternal sands of time..

Unless you figure out a slick way to clean inside there,
A grain or three will find your freshly-greased rollers or bushings..

High-pressure soap/water? Solvent tank soak?
Something about bits of leftover grease in there.. And then sand.. BTDT.
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Bus Motor Build

What’s That Noise?!?

[Jetfxr69]

Took Seamus out for a visit with friends. First chance at some live music at a friends place, just a few miles down the road.

Great time with some old and new friends. Most people came up from places down south. We were one of about 3 locally. The 76 westy has been done by the owner overbthe last dozen years. Its a gem.
_________________
You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline. It helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer. Zappa

‘77 westy Seamus
‘76 tintop Crusher
‘77 westy The Judge
‘72 tintop bastard westy Hudson

[Jetfxr69]

Seamus was pulled out of the snow back in March and was tooled around town on and off since then. Christ, were still getting snow as of last week.

Have picked up a hiccup that I started to feel last year, but pressed on as the season was getting late. Have gone through all the normal checks of timing, valve lash, points and condensor, fp, etc. its running ok, but every now and then when you just barely come off the throttle, and I dont mean decelerate, just come out of the pedal, it has a slight sensation as if someone is flicking the ignition on and off rapidly. Not enough to slow me down or cause panic, but its there and I can feel it.

Thought about maybe a wear spot on AFM wiper bars, but dont see any obvious areas of deformation.

Decided that since Emilys bus Crusher is in garage for prolonged period of metal work, that her rebuilt motor sitting under the bench needs to be run and broke in anyways, so today is drop day.

Not bad, 2 hours to drop. Made 2 major “rookie” mistakes though. 1st was that I was blocked up about 2 inches short of clearing the back. The other dumber one was that I forgot about the hanger bolts. Doh! For as many times as ive pulled these engines, still get bit in the ass. Only a couple minute delay, but still feels stupid.

Crusher probably wont get this motor in her till next year, so I might as well throw some miles and shake things out here at home before it goes out west on its own.

Probably wont get it running this week as im gonna spend some time redoing shift tube, cv’s, heater cables, and a few other things before install. Also headed to Georgia for another parts run in the woods.

Will be nice to feel the difference from old, honed, wore out p&c’s and cam, to new ones.
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You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline. It helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer. Zappa

‘77 westy Seamus
‘76 tintop Crusher
‘77 westy The Judge
‘72 tintop bastard westy Hudson

[ImAddicted]

Good call, that new motor needs some miles on it . No better place to break it in than the north country.

Waiting for replacement s-boot then I’ll be on the road. Maybe a shakedown in the old stomping grounds next month. I still owe you a rack beer .
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1979 Transporter (sold)
KC1MUR

[Jetfxr69]

Shit, i got s-boots. Need one now? Come get one of mine.
_________________
You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline. It helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer. Zappa

‘77 westy Seamus
‘76 tintop Crusher
‘77 westy The Judge
‘72 tintop bastard westy Hudson

[ImAddicted]

Thanks,I might do that. Spent the day dealing with no charge issues it’s been a hot minute since your visit, I really need to get ver to the Whitefield ranch:)
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1979 Transporter (sold)
KC1MUR

[Jetfxr69]

Got about 500 miles on the new motor. From first light off its been running great. Ran around town and through the mountains over to Maine and back and it was pulling well at 60-70 mph.

Noticed a drop off in my top of gear speeds though. The last couple days have seemed a little sluggish. Decided to check compression.

Rut-ro! Number 3 looking pretty weak! A quick valve adjustment and all better at 125. Exhaust was tight. In fact most valves were tight. Got em all to .006” and top end performance is back. 130-125-125-130.

Oil light is flickering at idle after a hard run. Already changed the oil once at 50 miles, but its time to change again and get the break in 30 wt oil out of there. Cut the filter open and found just the usual engine build up material inside. Also gonna pull the op relief valve and spring and make sure the passage is all clear and that looks ok.

Ready to road trip around new england for the summer. Wife says she will help scuff up the yellow panels and rattle can them to match the front. She doesnt like driving around all ghetto like the way it looks now. We’ll see if she follows through on that one. School is about to let out, so no more excuses about time.

Gonna be at some concerts and gatherings in New England area this summer. If anyone sees us, stop bye for a beer.

Tedeschi Trucks. Shelburne VT
Warren Haynes Swanzey NH
West River Westies VT?
Deerfield NH VW show
Boogie and Blues Fest Thornton NH
Grateful Campout Thomas Point Beach Maine
_________________
You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline. It helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer. Zappa

‘77 westy Seamus
‘76 tintop Crusher
‘77 westy The Judge
‘72 tintop bastard westy Hudson

[ImAddicted]

Yeh, it wasn’t sluggish Sunday for sure . Has she noticed the bus in the basement yet lol?
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1979 Transporter (sold)
KC1MUR