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Globespotter
Samba Member
Joined: February 16, 2012
Posts: 1770
Location: Newmarket, ON
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Daverham
Samba Member
Joined: August 27, 2009
Posts: 1397
Location: USA
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 Posted: Tue Oct 01, 2019 3:20 pm Post subject: Re: Fixing Up My Bus - 1978 Kombi! |
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Here's the latest update... new meat, all the way around and a spare too!
After extensive research, I settled on the General Grabber 27/8.5/R14s. They fit on the stock bus perfectly, as-is - even though these are actually 6 inch (bead width) Vanagon alloys. Same thing. They fits so they sits.
I would have gone for the BFG All-Terrains, but they have been discontinued. I still see them all over the place (on vehicles). But you just can't get them anymore. Oh well. I'm stoked with the Grabbers. The tire shop guys were stoked as well, commenting how much people love them, how great they are on highway, off-road, in snow, in wind, etc - and how they look great on the bus. Awesome.
I forgot to measure before I dropped it off, but based on some notes I made when lifting the suspension back up to stock a few weeks ago, I'd say these gave me a slight lift - looks like it and feels like it - and looking at a tire size calculator confirms that.
https://tiresize.com/comparison/
According to this, I gained a 0.75 inch lift. Rad. I love how they look and I love how she sits.
I'm going camping this weekend. I'll report back after some road (and light off-road) testing.
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Daverham
Samba Member
Joined: August 27, 2009
Posts: 1397
Location: USA
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| Posted: Thu Oct 10, 2019 7:19 pm Post subject: Re: Fixing Up My Bus - 1978 Kombi! |
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Today marks a historic day! I finally fixed that damn rattly shifter. It has been driving me crazy for YEARS! If you've ever thrown a rod or had your (solid lifter) valves way too far out of adjustment you would find the noise that I've been living with very unsettling. It sounds like that. Plus it just BUGS me. I could alleviate the problem by resting my hand on the shifter temporarily... but that means I can't do anything else with that hand like fiddle with the radio, drink my drink. etc.
I'm so happy this is done.
This is the part. See one page back where I said "I'll fix it tomorrow" a little over a year ago:
Anyway - yeah - it's done now. It took about an hour. Something like this:
1. Remove the belly pan and confirm that the donut/ring/thingy is missing.
2. A few feet aft on the shifter coupling rod there's a grub screw. Remove that so you can slide the forward part of the rod back and out of the hole enough so you can get the new donut in. Don't even try to get the donut in there with the rod still sticking through, it's impossible. You have to move it out of the way.
3. Put the new donut in the hole. And put it back together.
You may get lucky and that's it. But because I was fiddling with the shifter too much, the shift-lever ball popped out of the socket, so I also had to wrestle my rubber mat out, remove the shift lever and get that all back in place, which probably took 40 of the 60 minutes. The bushing part was easy. Getting that damn rubber mat over the gas pedal and the shift lever ball-and-pin back in their socket is the hard part.
Here's what it looks like with the old donut/busing missing:
And here's the new one in place! Photo taken from the other side. It already looks old a rusty like everything else 
I took it on a test drive and it's fixed. The rattle is gone. Great! This is huge. Also, as a bonus, my shifting feels a little tighter. Just a bit less sloppy. That's cool.
On my test drive I found a big puddle and took a celebratory photo:
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Daverham
Samba Member
Joined: August 27, 2009
Posts: 1397
Location: USA
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| Posted: Thu Oct 24, 2019 11:11 am Post subject: Re: Fixing Up My Bus - 1978 Kombi! |
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In honor of our continuing 10-year-anniversary celebration upgrades, I'm happy to announce that a long-awaited house/aux battery is now fitted into the bus with a Bus Depot Hella isolator relay.
It's mounted to the firewall with a rubber washer to minimize harsh vibration. The blue charging wire is not only grommeted on both ends (holes fully de-burred too), but it also goes through a 1/4 O.D. poly tube as extra extra extra insulation/protection on it's path through the fuel tank bay. And it's fused on both ends.
There's a 4-circuit blade fuse box next to the battery and a digital volt meter installed into the side of my home-made cabinet.
I disconnected both of my "cigarette lighter" accessory outlets and the factory interior (LED) dome lights from the vehicle battery and added them each, on their own fused circuits, to the new aux battery. No more worrying about charging phones or using inside lights while camping!
Don't worry, I'll cover those battery terminals before someone stuffs a six-pack in there and shorts the whole thing.
Next up will be to install a diesel heater onto that last fuse on the new fuse box.
It's all tested and it works.
In celebration of these upgrades, I went mountain biking and took another vanity photo in the autumn leaves.
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Daverham
Samba Member
Joined: August 27, 2009
Posts: 1397
Location: USA
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| Posted: Thu Jun 17, 2021 2:51 pm Post subject: Re: Fixing Up My Bus - 1978 Kombi! |
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Status report: After a couple months sitting idle due to a mystery problem (now solved), she's back on the road and I couldn't be happier. Had waffles in the bus with my kid for breakfast this morning. Went out to hit some dirt jumps on my bike after lunch. Cruising with the windows down and Sublime turned up. It's great to be back in the bus. I suppose I'll probably drag my wife out for a waterfront taco dinner in the bus this evening too.
Here's the thread about that mystery problem:
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=755682
Lunch break today:
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Daverham
Samba Member
Joined: August 27, 2009
Posts: 1397
Location: USA
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| Posted: Mon Jul 26, 2021 10:17 am Post subject: Re: Fixing Up My Bus - 1978 Kombi! |
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Some mountain biking and lunch in the Chuckanuts. That is all. Happy bussing, everybody.
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