The farther adventures of Vinnie.

[rowan]

Yesterday was my 28th wedding anniversary so I took a few days off work and Gail and I set off in Vinnie (Vincent VanGo - our '87 Syncro) on a four day camping trip from Knoxville, TN to the hills of North Carolina. Things went fine on the way there. Vinnie has an ABA engine and managed the long steep hills (11 miles of 7-9% grade at one point) at around 45 in third. He averaged a bit over 25 MPG for the only fill up - lots better than the 17 MPG I usually get around town. I got to use my newly installed cruise control on the flatter terrain and it worked great.

We found a nice camping site on an unmaintained road in the Pisgah National Forest and sep up camp. Things were going fine until I shut the rear door and it just bounced. Wouldn't lock, unlock or latch. After spending a bit of time getting the cover off - why do you suppose VW decided to put about 8.000 plastic attachments on that little piece of fiberboard? - I found that the problem was just that the latch was REALLY tight. If I push really hard I can open it. Then I have to push really hard from the inside to get it out of the way so the door can latch. Another small entry on the "Vinnie todo list".

Anyway we spend a pleasant couple of days in the woods and decided to spend Friday night at a "real" campground with showers and such. The drive there was uneventful. We stopped and got a form to fill out once we had selected out site. We picked out a site, filled out the form, drove back to the office, turned in the form and paid the nice folks and drove back to about six feet from our camp site. At that point the gas pedal stopped doing anything. If fell flat to the floor and that was that. I pushed Vinnie the last few feet off the road and decided I'd check him out in the morning - this morning.

Of course I didn't bring my Bently but I'm guessing I have a broken gas cable. Not having a spare with me I did a bit of "Red Neck Engineering" with some tent rope and made the trip home - around 200 miles - pulling on a rope with the engine cover off! We arrived safely with a new appreciation for gas cables and a sore left hand.

r

[r39o]

That cable only costs like $10 and they all looked at me strange when I got it. I have proof now that it is a prudent part to replace!
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