1974 Safare Custom Camper Build

[Cvannoy]

Today I was able to cut out an access hole for the fuel sending unit. Now I just need to fabricate a cover plate by either cutting up a junk bus or use the piece I cut out (which was cut neatly and could be modified to look nice). It is very nice to be able to access the sending unit and this will help with troubleshooting my issue with the fuel gauge not working (yea, I still have to deal with this issue...)

As for the A/C build, I was able to find a forum chatting about an alternator that has the potential to fit on the type 4 engine with minor shimming. A CS130 style alternator which can produce up to 160 amps. This may be the solution I am looking for. The link is below, page 4 of the conversation has more links on this alternator.

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=503863

Now I just need Sanden to get back to me so I can figure out how many BTU's the HBC198 produces on belt power and electric power since there are 2 separate compressors attached to the unit.
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1974 Safare Custom Camper
1978 Datsun 280z

[Cvannoy]

Big realizations were made today on the fuel gauge front. After reading, re-reading, and re-reading all the forums on fuel gauge vibrators, how to troubleshoot the gauge, how to troubleshoot the sending unit I finally figured it out.

On the forums everyone keeps talking about the vibrator and then talking about how the voltage regulator needs to give ~5V to the gauge. Since there is a voltage regulator on the bus I was constantly trying to figure out why my regulator was not regulating the voltage down to 5V for my gauge. Then after months I finally put 2+2 together and instead of the result being 22, I got 4. The "fuel gauge vibrator" as it is labelled on the Bentley manual is a voltage regulator. That is what regulates the voltage down to ~5V for the gauge. This is what ultimate caused the issue. The original vibrator was producing 12v on both the input and output so I believe this fried my gauge.

I went to my local VW store (Oval's Motorsports, it's a fantastic place and I'm glad to support them whenever I can) and they had a vibrator on hand. Sadly, they did not have a fuel gauge handy and it seems I am going to have somewhat of a hard time finding one. I might have to do some junkyard digging soon unless there's one on the classifieds.

The new vibrator now provides the gauge with 5.1V which is what it was wanting this whole time but the gauge still does not work. Now I understand this forum and in the future if my new vibrator breaks then I'll construct one using the schematic provided.

I think this is going to be the end of this issue and that makes me very happy.
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1974 Safare Custom Camper
1978 Datsun 280z

[busdaddy]

Are you aware that you happen live between two of the better VW wreckers in the country, www.thebusco.com to the North, and https://averysaircooled.com/ to the South.
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[wagohn]

Now you have access to the fuel sender, have you have tested by "earthing" the fuel sender connector/wire to ground? This would ping the gauge all the way over to full (ignition on) if the sender is kaput but the gauge good.
At least you would then know its the gauge for sure, if nothing moves (assuming correct wiring).
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1976 VW Transporter, 2.0 FI Engine

[Cvannoy]

[Cvannoy]

So I contacted Avery's and got a new fuel gauge. I installed and and WAHLAH! Nothing happened... Frustration is starting to set in on this fuel gauge. I have tested the fuel sender and it seems to be in working order, I have replaced the vibrator and it is emitting 5v to the gauge now, the gauge was supposedly tested by Avery's and in working order. I feel like I'm running out of options. Maybe the new gauge wasn't tested and is actually bad? Maybe my other gauge worked just fine and there's something else going on? Probably in my next post I'll report all the voltage readings I am getting in and out of each component and someone can tell me where things aren't right. I'll post the Ohm range of the fuel sender too. Maybe I'm doomed to never knowing my fuel level...

On another note, last year I made a "prototype" seat for the bus. The goal was to have seats that faced opposite each other so my wife and I could play games and then have them fold up like a westy seat to meet in the middle so we could sleep on them. The first seat was made completely out of wood. All the supports and everything was wood which I quickly found to be a mistake. It's not structurally stable, the seat probably wouldn't survive an impact, and as I found out, it is prone to rot...

The general idea is there though. I only made 1 and glad I did because it looks disgusting now. Next time I'll make sure to paint any wood I use with KILZ to prevent it from getting moldy and I need to fix water leaks that go into the bus. The new plan of attack is to make the frame out of aluminum and then use Garnica Ultralight Poplar Plywood to make it look nice (and paint it so it doesn't rot). I made it in CAD so I could have all the dimensions of the aluminum.

I finished cutting up enough aluminum yesterday to make 1 seat. I'll go to home depot today to pick up a couple more square tubes to cut up and then I'll have enough to make the second seat. The plan is to braze the seats together which should be fairly straight forward (way easier than welding) and it should be a really strong bond and less prone to cracking. This will certainly be structurally sound and make me feel better about having people buckled in the back of the bus while I'm driving.

I bought a 5" memory foam mattress to use as the seat cushions. It was the thinnest bed I could find on amazon without being a mattress topper and is extra firm so I think it'll make for a really comfortable bed. I am worried about how it will crunch up against itself when folded into seat form. I may need to cut bevels in the foam so that it isn't too difficult to make it into a seat.
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1974 Safare Custom Camper
1978 Datsun 280z

[wagohn]

[Cvannoy]

[wagohn]

[Cvannoy]

[Cvannoy]

So, I couldn't find the wire that goes to the fuel gauge. Before routing a wire from the sender to the gauge I figured I would test it first. I cut a very long piece of wire and attached it from the fuel gauge to the sender. I know I'm getting voltage to the gauge, I know the sender works, the gauge theoretically should work, and there's definitely not a break in the wiring now. I turn the key and still nothing happens... I'm about to pull my hair out so I pull the gauge out and try to test it again for some reason while not attached to the dash panel. This time the gauge slowly starts to come to life! YES! VICTORY! Or so I thought... I plug it back in to the panel and it's still not working. Now I'm seeing if it's somehow grounding on the aluminum panel it's attached to but there's plastic and cork material preventing the terminals from touching and I verified that they were not. I pull the gauge back off the panel and now it's not working again...

The wire that I am using I believe is thicker than the original wire so this may be my newest issue. I'll search through the manual to make sure I get the correct gauge wire and try again soon. Very frustrating.

On another note, I got to work on the seat frame. You know what they say about having the right tools. I cut up the frame and everything was definitely within my garage shop tolerance. I went to braze the aluminum and was having the hardest time getting the braze rod to melt to it. I kept thinking maybe I wasn't getting the aluminum hot enough but then I finally got the rod to melt and it was blowing holes in the aluminum. Hmmm... that shouldn't happen... The braze rod I was using was a no name brand from China made for aluminum. Surely that was quality stuff. After watching a video on braze rods it seems that a common issue with chinese braze rods are that they suck. So I went to the store and picked up Bernzomatic braze rod and it was a night and day difference. I was actually making strong connections in the metal. I finally finished my first seat frame today.

It ended up exactly how I wanted it to be. At least until I install the bracket and see where the seat lands. But everything is looking like it's going to plan on that end!

I also made some brackets to attach the Eurovan awning to the bus. I just need to drill holes in it and see how well it fits. I used to 11 gauge steel and hammered it into shape (not the prettiest but my work got rid of their brake and I couldn't find someone with a good enough brake to bend the thick metal) but I think it'll work. The awning is fairly heavy and I didn't really feel like doing the calculations to figure out what thickness steel I needed so I'm doing the dumb thing and living on hopes and dreams that my brackets will work otherwise I'll probably have to design a machined bracket and send it out.

Also, most of my solar panel equipment has come in so someday I'll get to that... I need to figure out all my wiring first which I have been putting off. Maybe I'll get one of my electrical engineer or electrician friends to create a wiring plan for me so I don't have to do it.

Finally, after weeks of back and forth with shippers my AC unit finally got picked up from SC yesterday and will make it's way to WA. More to come on how I will struggle to make the inside temp of my bus cool.
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1974 Safare Custom Camper
1978 Datsun 280z

[wagohn]

Did you try earthing the "very long wire" to the body to see if the gauge needle pings to Full? It'd be progress if you could localize the issue to either sender, gauge, or wiring. I feel for you though, wiring is a mystery to me, for the most part. I can do a few tricks but get lost pretty quickly.
What kind of solar setup did you get? We have a Renogy 100w on the roof and it powers our BougeRV fridge and charges all our devices on a day trip/camp in the PNW - with power to spare.
Also, you don't have to drill to mount the panel. Hobotech on YouTube has a procedure that uses a super HD tape to mount the panel. Using his system, our panel has been on the roof of the bus in wind/rain/sun and it's still rock solid after 6 months. Fewer holes drilled in these buses the better.
Details here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qghxSwUgxEc
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1976 VW Transporter, 2.0 FI Engine

[Cvannoy]

[wagohn]

[Cvannoy]

So I ran outside and held the long wire against ground and the needle (slowly) rose up to 1/1!!!

I didn't change anything, so I tried plugging it into my fuel sender again to see what happens and sure enough.

Fuel gauge is reading now! Maybe I had bad connections before? I'm not sure. But I'm happy now! Maybe I'll get under the bus today and actually route the wire.

Looks like empty is at just under 1/4 tank. Which, hey, I'm glad I have some sort of reference. And that should be an easy fix? I think? I'll look into it.

Is the gauge supposed to rise and fall VERY slowly? Even after I turned the bus off it slowly fell back into place so I don't think it has to do with the power supplied to the gauge but more something in the gauge making it slow. It took about 20-30 seconds for the needle to go to 1/1.
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1974 Safare Custom Camper
1978 Datsun 280z

[wagohn]

[Cvannoy]

Got it all adjusted. It would probably drive me insane if I didn't. I ended up bending the tab on the fuel sender until the arm hit its own internal stop. Then I had to adjust the fuel gauge (which I probably should've started with the fuel gauge but I didn't know it had it's own adjustment).

On the back of the gauge there are 2 fine adjustments and they worked great! Now full is full and empty is empty! Or so I'm led to believe. We'll find out when I fill the tank and hopefully I won't find out empty before it is empty.

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1974 Safare Custom Camper
1978 Datsun 280z

[Cvannoy]

So we do an annual trip with my wife's family and last year we brought the bus. I posted about it on this forum and it was a success other than breaking down once due to a wire coming loose from the fuel pump relay, having to sleep on the floor or cram on top of the engine bay, not knowing what my fuel level was, and having a strange fuel smell all night.

This year though, went even better

No break downs, full bed to sleep on, fuel gauge working (the needle is off but I was able to accurately determine how much fuel we had left. I just need to adjust the sender or gauge), and the fuel smell was due to the sending unit not being fully on the tank so that was tightened on and no smell!

I also got the awning up and working which was great! I absolutely love how it turned out. Now I'm just waiting for brackets to come from CareFree of Colorado so I can attach the legs to the bus. They said they have them in stock but it'll take a month to get here because they are so short staffed...

I also mostly finished the bed! It just needs to get upholstered but we set the foam on top of the seats and a sheet over it which worked out great.

There was one issue that we ran into though... 15 minutes away from arriving at the campsite it got dark enough to need headlights. They have worked in the past but decided they didn't want to work anymore when I tried to turn them on... So that definitely needs to be fixed. I believe the issue is the ignition because the wire coming from the ignition to feed power to the headlights was not reading any voltage.

Overall though, we had a great time and avoided driving at night!
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1974 Safare Custom Camper
1978 Datsun 280z

[Cvannoy]

Another update is that my DPD Overhead AC came in! The problem is that it got very beat up in shipping...

So... yea. I'll be fighting with FedEx to get a good chunk of money for this since they are pretty hard to come by. I wasn't planning on finishing it this year but would have liked to get a good start on it. I guess I can get the compressor and routing figured out and then put the unit up later. I have a feeling this is going to end with me getting some money from them and then I'll just have to restore the one I have. It'll take a lot of plastic putty, probably fiberglass, and then paint. But I can probably get it looking like new with enough elbow grease and compensation from FedEx.
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1974 Safare Custom Camper
1978 Datsun 280z

[Cvannoy]