Dave's 1973 Wild Westerner Project

[vwwestyman]

The project was stalled, so to speak, due to 3 of the 4 injectors I had rebuilt a year ago seizing up and not squirting.

So I sent some more in and had them fixed up, and they arrived with the mail today.

The Bus runs like a top! The transmission change to 091 and adding fuel injection-WOW! What a great improvement!

Along the way I did add some Reckhorn mat in the fuel tank compartment, on the fire wall, and in the panels under the back windows.

I think it is a combination of the fuel injection, transmission, and the Reckhorn but man, it is soo much quieter than before. I started the motor as my kid got in for a ride, and he didn't even hear it, saying, "You need to start it!"

I've noticed it seems like there may be just a slight drop in torque with the switch from the 002 to 091 transmission. However, I think the added efficiency, etc, from the Fuel Injection makes up for that by adding power.

The overall effect is that the Bus travels at higher highway speeds with lower RPMs (and therefore less noise). I anticipate that the lowered RPMs and increased efficiency should result in much better fuel mileage.

The windows seem to be very nice too. I didn't open them all but did a couple and the air flow was nice. I did not notice any water leaking into the bus when I washed it.

I only have a minor quibble with the stereo. The display is a little hard to see during the day. But it looks good and connects to my phone via bluetooth and will control the music on the phone which is cool.

I still have a couple small things to do such as install the sliding door track covers and such but only minor stuff like that.

Overall, the project has been a success and I'm very happy!
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Dave Cook

President, Wild Westerner Club

1978 Champagne Edition Westy, repowered to '97 Jetta TDI
1973 Wild Westerner
My Thing

[vwwestyman]

:2gunfire:

Aaaugghhh!!!

Next to my house is an empty house. The guy is asking waaayy too much for it, so it never sells and just sits empty. A year or so ago, I made an agreement that I could park in his driveway in exchange for taking care of mowing the yard, raking leaves, etc.

Tonight I get home and nearly parked the Westerner on the street in front of my house, but decided it would be safer in the next door driveway rather than in the street. (A wacko hit a friend's car in the street years ago by turning the corner too fast and not paying attention so that has always been in the back of my mind.)

So I'm sitting on the couch reading The Samba and I hear a crash. My first thought is maybe there was an accident or the Bus rolled in to the street or something crazy like that.

I went and checked, and could see that the Bus was still there, and that at the next house down a trashcan had tipped over. So I figured that was the noise.

Until a few minutes later when a guy knocked on the door to tell me, "a tree fell on your van!"

Luckily none of the new windows were broken. Unfortunately there are a lot of dents on the roof, including a couple places where paint has come off.

Effing tree.
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Dave Cook

President, Wild Westerner Club

1978 Champagne Edition Westy, repowered to '97 Jetta TDI
1973 Wild Westerner
My Thing

[Stuartzickefoose]

At least you weren't driving it at the time...you know how much crap I get when trees hit my bus? A lot...as I'm usually in the drivers seat when it happens. Bummed about the tree damage man... Post some daytime pics when you get it all cleared up
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Stuart Zickefoose

2011 Jetta Sportwagen TDi 6 speed manual

206-841-7324
[email protected]

[vwwestyman]

Daytime pics after the damn tree.

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Dave Cook

President, Wild Westerner Club

1978 Champagne Edition Westy, repowered to '97 Jetta TDI
1973 Wild Westerner
My Thing

[88metalgirl]

I found a Wild Westerner for sale but don't know what would be a good price because it's so rare. The body is in good condition but I would need to repaint it. The owner now has painted over the original paint job. Any help is appreciated!

[vwwestyman]

Somewhere in the Wild Westerner Club Thread it is speculated that a Wild Westerner with its original paint job (or a good repaint in OG colors) probably adds a couple thousand to the price of a comparable 1973 Bus. I'd say that is true, at a minimum. I think the thread has served to increase the awareness of the Wild Westerner, and therefore increase their desirability and value. I know that it did for me.

But if that awesome paint has been covered with less awesome paint, then I would not offer much, if any, premium over a similar Bus. But then I'd do whatever I could to restore the awesomeness. There are a few threads around on The Samba about removing non-OG paint from the top of OG paint.

Post some pics over there and see what folks think. If you're worried about someone sniping it, you could save the pics on your computer, then reupload them to the Samba gallery so folks can't figure out where it is.
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Dave Cook

President, Wild Westerner Club

1978 Champagne Edition Westy, repowered to '97 Jetta TDI
1973 Wild Westerner
My Thing

[vwwestyman]

Had a minor blip with the FI last night. After watching fireworks and on the way back home, in a gigantic traffic jam the engine just quit.

It restarted a couple times but would die very quickly.

I couldn't find anything immediately apparently wrong, but after crawling under it noticed that the fuel pump felt sort of hot. Not "Oh I just burned my hand!" hot but hot enough that I wondered if there was a problem.

I then decided to do a quick check with a pencil in the air flap. It did not run immediately, but after a moment or two I heard it run though it seemed louder than when I did this same trick on Saturday to demonstrate to someone else how to check if the pump will run. After another moment or two, it quieted down a little.

I put it back together and it fired up and drove the rest of the way home.

I guess it is time to put the new pump I've had sitting in the garage in.

I'll also check the wiring to the AFM to make sure it hasn't rubbed on something.

Other thoughts?
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Dave Cook

President, Wild Westerner Club

1978 Champagne Edition Westy, repowered to '97 Jetta TDI
1973 Wild Westerner
My Thing

[vwwestyman]

On a more personal note with that whole story... I currently have two foster sons (thinking about adding a third soon) and just started dating a girl who has one foster daughter.

They were all with me in the Bus when that happened.

When the engine stopped and it was clear it wasn't going to easily restart, I just hopped out and pushed the Bus into the median with everyone still sitting in their seats. (The engine died while we were sitting there in the crawling traffic.)

Because nearly all of the traffic was people returning from watching the fire works show in nearby Wamego KS, I had seen and passed several people I knew coming back.

Not wanting to leave all of them stranded, when these friends came upon us and stopped, I sent my boys the rest of the way back with one friend, and the girls back with another friend and his family.

So after I made it home and was texting everyone to let 'em know I had, she told me first that she had fun even with the break down, and that she would dare to ride in the ancient VWs again. So I let her know that if she could think breaking down could be a part of a fun evening, then she must be a keeper. Then she told me it was pretty hot when I jumped out and pushed the Bus off the road by myself.



So was really not the worst thing ever.
_________________
Dave Cook

President, Wild Westerner Club

1978 Champagne Edition Westy, repowered to '97 Jetta TDI
1973 Wild Westerner
My Thing

[Stuartzickefoose]

So really it was a quick easy momentary pause in the gnomes running so you could look like a total awesome dude in front of a girl. Not the worst thing ever if say


Wondering if you ran out of gas, via either actually being out (unlikely if you drove home), or if the tank plugged and unplugged in the time it took to push it across the road, or if it had a loose wire on the FP or AFM, or bad ground, that cause it to briefly shut off.
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Stuart Zickefoose

2011 Jetta Sportwagen TDi 6 speed manual

206-841-7324
[email protected]

[busdaddy]

Sometimes little breakdowns result in the most memorable adventures, good to hear you made it home.

Pumps don't get hot, all that fuel constantly running through them prevents that. Sounds to me like something plugged the inlet or it was cavitating somehow. Maybe try a clamp ammeter on the power wire and see what it's drawing (not sure what normal should be though, hmmm..) just to see if it's an internal flaw.
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[jtauxe]

My thought on the fuel pump is that if the upstream fuel filter (correct location) were clogged, this could starve the fuel pump, causing it to cavitate and generally work too hard, heating up. But that one is pretty obvious.

[vwwestyman]

[vwwestyman]

Today is my birthday. Check out my shirt and cake! My girl had the shirt made (I'm told it was a combination of 3 different shirts!), her daughter made the bracelet, and Mom made the cake.

_________________
Dave Cook

President, Wild Westerner Club

1978 Champagne Edition Westy, repowered to '97 Jetta TDI
1973 Wild Westerner
My Thing

[cbaucom1]

[vwwestyman]

I've started filling up the old Westerner frequently with having my own 3 foster kids, and dating a girl with a foster daugher and her own daughter. If someone's friend is added in or something, it is teetering on the brink of being over full!

So I've found a 3-person middle seat I'm planning to buy. But I'm wondering about how hard it would be to add a front bench and make it into a faux 9-seater?

I know I've seen pics of brackets that VW sold for the conversion but they seem to be very likely hard to find. Is that all that would really be necessary--fabbing a bracket to support the middle of the 2/3 seat? Is the driver's seat any different with a "bench" setup?
_________________
Dave Cook

President, Wild Westerner Club

1978 Champagne Edition Westy, repowered to '97 Jetta TDI
1973 Wild Westerner
My Thing

[vwwestyman]

Picked up a "new" middle seat today.

Went on a road trip to pick up the seat from John, AKA ratherb-buggin. I think it was a pretty fair deal all around, since he's only a couple hours away from me and I was able to go pick it up.

I decided going from 2-3 seats in the middle was quickly becoming a necessity. I've got 3 foster sons, and my girlfriend has a foster daughter and her own daughter. So right there it was a full Bus. With one of the kids' friends riding along last night, we were over seatbelt capacity by one!

It was a bonus that the seat for sale happens to be in nicer shape overall than the one that was in there.

The old seat. The towel was there to cover the bottom springs.

New seat! Much better all around!

Shely rode along to get the seat. Since we both have kids to worry about, it was a nice excuse to get away. I told her that I was happy to have a pretty girl to ride along in the Bus with me, so she insisted on taking a selfie to post here.

She survived a breakdown on the 4th of July on the way back from fireworks and still was willing to go on a 260 mile round trip today (along with lots of shorter trips in between). Combine being adventurous enough to go on crazy Bus trips with the cool b-day gifts, I'd say she's a keeper.
_________________
Dave Cook

President, Wild Westerner Club

1978 Champagne Edition Westy, repowered to '97 Jetta TDI
1973 Wild Westerner
My Thing

[vwwestyman]

The Lime (as one of my boys dubbed the bus when I first got it) did great on a long, crazy trip yesterday!

One of my boys had his birthday the other day, and his wish was to go on a trip to Worlds of Fun (amusement park) in eastern Kansas City.

So Shely and I loaded up my boys, her girls, and the boys' cousin (making good use of that new middle seat!!) and headed East.

I just checked the odometer and we traveled exactly 300 miles round-trip, including a small side trip for Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers on the way home (made it there about 4 minutes before they closed).

I filled up with about an hour to go to get home, but probably didn't actually need to. By my calculations, we would have arrived in Manhattan with 7 miles worth of gas to go!

Traveling on the 2-lane (so about 65 MPH) highways for the majority of the trip, my Fuel Buddy app said we got 19.95 MPG. Not bad, I think.

Here's a couple pics of the crew. The cousin didn't want to be seen, so she was ducking below the seat. In the other pic, she stood behind everyone. One of the others just hid his face.

Teenagers.

_________________
Dave Cook

President, Wild Westerner Club

1978 Champagne Edition Westy, repowered to '97 Jetta TDI
1973 Wild Westerner
My Thing

[vwwestyman]

Wow, it has been a looooong time since I've updated this thread!

I broke up with that girl over a year ago, and all those kids have moved on.

Anyway, as far as the Westerner, I started installing the BA6 heater I've had stashed away for a couple years now.

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=690730

Here's a couple recent pics.

First of a cool cooler I was given to match the Bus.

Second, parking where maybe I shouldn't?

_________________
Dave Cook

President, Wild Westerner Club

1978 Champagne Edition Westy, repowered to '97 Jetta TDI
1973 Wild Westerner
My Thing

[vwwestyman]

The heater install is finished.

While I had it apart, I decided to do some work to slow down the progression of rust, as the floor has some rust issues in the floor, from having sat in the wet part of the PNW for 10-12 years with old leaky window seals.

Wire-wheeled a lot of the rusty spots in the floor, treated it with acid, and painted two coats of Master Series paint last night. I'll be hosing down the underside of the chassis with Fluid Film before driving it this winter.

_________________
Dave Cook

President, Wild Westerner Club

1978 Champagne Edition Westy, repowered to '97 Jetta TDI
1973 Wild Westerner
My Thing

[Vee Dub Nut]

Nice work.. Always like seeing cleaned and sealed up the floors like that.
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Fightin' Texas Aggie Class of 2006

67 Beetle (TBD)

74 Transporter (EJ25 Swapped) - Build Thread: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=...mp;start=0

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