My soon to be new 1970 vw transporter (restoration)

[ateneo]

[Spike0180]

[Spike0180]

It has been a little while, I have been camping but not in the van. If so, I'd have some beautiful pictures of michigans upper peninsula for you, but I can't. Maybe soon. I received my carb back from Tim @VolkzBitz back. I got it on the bus yesterday but didn't have time to tune it at all. Hopefully this week I'll get it running alright so I can swing by to see David Satterly, so he can give it a good tune. A picture of the lovely carburator.

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Brutis Patches Izabich: 1970 VW Transporter - 1776cc DP
Current State: Projects never truly end...
Location: Grosse Pointe, Michigan
Other cars: 2003 F150, 2003 Jetta GLI vr6-6sp

Sambastic: adj; the quality of being nit picky, elitist, expecting everyone to do things the way they believe is best with no regard to situation, "sambastic"

[ccpalmer]

I was just up north in my Bus and meant to snap a photo for you as motivation...

Good luck with the new carb!
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'71 Westy

[Spike0180]

[ccpalmer]

[Spike0180]

[ccpalmer]

Next week could work
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'71 Westy

[Spike0180]

She is up and running. Though still hard to start. I'm going to try to set the tuning a bit better befor taking it to David for a good tune.
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Brutis Patches Izabich: 1970 VW Transporter - 1776cc DP
Current State: Projects never truly end...
Location: Grosse Pointe, Michigan
Other cars: 2003 F150, 2003 Jetta GLI vr6-6sp

Sambastic: adj; the quality of being nit picky, elitist, expecting everyone to do things the way they believe is best with no regard to situation, "sambastic"

[Spike0180]

Story Time! I got my Volkzbitz carb on my bus, I got it tuned (I think a bit rich, but still was seeming alright.) So I go out for a drive to warm up the engine so I can fine tune it a bit more. I left my house around 6:45, I drove around the neighborhood for a while getting up to 45 mph, a lot of 30-40 though. And then it happened. It just cut out on me, no sputtering just dead. I'm luckily still rolling and going down hill, so I pop my clutch and give it gas. I'm going again! alright, I have more tuning that I thought. I turn the corner at the bottom of the hill, it cuts out again. I pop the clutch and gas it. I get nothing... It acts like it wants to go, but my combustion is worthless and I'm down for the count. I jump out and push the bus into the entrance of a park that is wide enough for 2 cars to easily fit through.

I jump out and start looking around, I thought maybe my points had closed. I found they were a little tight, so I reset them and re-greased my post. While doing this, another VW Bus rolls up! This never happens in southeast Michigan. There just aren't many around due to the excess salt on the road and muscle car mentality. Anyways, the points didn't fix it. I touch my coil, it's HOT. So I swap in my better looking spare. This doesn't do it either. (I call AAA, 7:20pm.) So I put the key in the ignition and head around back to test some electrical, make sure I'm getting power where needed. I get back there and I'm about to start and through my conduit I had back there I see bright red burning wire and now smoke. So I run to the front and rip the key out. CRAP! well, the wire is melted pretty good, I trace it back to the firewall where it isn't burnt up anymore and replace it with wire I have in my electrical kit. I go back up front, and turn the key. No luck, didn't fix it. I call back AAA who tells me again (2nd time) that the tow truck is 45-60 min away. I try jump starting it at the starter with no avail (idk if I just didn't do it right, or if my actual issue was preventing it from working).

But there was now smoke coming from under my dash . I open that up and my ignition switch wires are a bit melted and the 1.5mm wire to the coil is real melted at the connector from the wire to the ignition and the wire to the fuse box. So I decide maybe the short is the ignition switch, I get to learning how to hotwire my car. I think I had it figured out, but it was just wanting to melt that 1.5mm wire to the coil. I call back AAA who tells me again (3nd time) that the tow truck is 45-60 min away. I talk with a relations specialist from AAA, and pretty much get told they don't have a way to get tow trucks to get the job done faster and likely if we moved the job from the current company it would take longer than waiting for them. She does her best and I hang up.

So I run a wire to the coil through the middle of the bus and tried again thinking there was a short somewhere else in that wire and the damage was worse than I thought (again). Well, that jumper wire also get really hot really quick and at this point I was hangry and gave up for a minute. This is where I give up for a minute, and go make plans with the security guard at the park to leave my bus in the parking lot until tomorrow when I can actually get a tow truck to come get me. I push the bus to the parking lot and lock her up. I call a fourth time, if they aren't on their way I'm ubering home and canceling. They are supposedly on their way to me with an ETA of 11pm... Alright, I'll wait just a little longer.

So I'm reading my Bentley manual wiring diagram and just going back over what I had done and for some reason go and quadruple check that my coil is hooked up right. This is when I see IT. The wire to the switch for my backup lights melted to my heat riser... As I see this I'm also answering my ringing phone. It's the tow company saying he is 2 minutes out. DAMN YOU MURPHY!

The culprit:

The tow home:

I did get to meet a new friend, who is on the site though I'm not sure of his username. He is new to Busses (3weeks, he was a bug guy and a drag racer). Maybe he will see this and chime in. His bus is cool, its a '79 transporter. Black and white with overhead factory AC. He has been doing some work getting it sorted out this past month and it seems to be running well.
_________________
Brutis Patches Izabich: 1970 VW Transporter - 1776cc DP
Current State: Projects never truly end...
Location: Grosse Pointe, Michigan
Other cars: 2003 F150, 2003 Jetta GLI vr6-6sp

Sambastic: adj; the quality of being nit picky, elitist, expecting everyone to do things the way they believe is best with no regard to situation, "sambastic"

[Alan Brase]

Well, the good thing is: "you learn from your mistakes". This is another good example of something I have learned the hard way: You don't need to know WHY the German engineers did it that way to benefit from their knowledge. Just copy them EXACTLY in the wire routing and connecting. You might eventually be able to make the wiring better in some places. (There is a test socket that could totally get cut out and probably should.) But running plastic insulated wire over your crossover pipe is not okay. At least you know the crossover is getting the manifold hot!
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Al Brase
Projects: 67 sunroof bug, 67 Porsche 912 Targa, 70 Westy
Dec 1955 Single Cab pickup WANT 15" BUS RIMS dated 8/55, thru 12/55
To New owners: 1969 doublecab, 1971 Dormobile
Vanagons:
80 P27 Westy JUL 1979, 3rd oldest known US
83 1.6TD Vanagon, 87 Wolfie Westy daily driver, swap meet home

[KentABQ]

[Spike0180]

Thanks guys, I knew not to put my wires next to hot manifolds. It was supposed to be temporary, then I forgot about it. It was just dumb to not see it. But I did learn a lot and I think my trouble shooting has improved too.

To report back on the damage: Good things! I inspected the ignition wiring and it appeared to be alright, and I had already replaced the ignition wiring near the coil that melted. I simply unplugged the reverse switch wire that had melted from the coil. Then I went ahead and jump started it using the ignition wire, and it turned right over and fired up on second crank! I had been having serious issues getting my engine to fire in the first few attempts let alone cranks! So I must have a short somewhere in that system. For now, it's just unplugged but I'll run back through it and find and fix the short.

If my hard start issue will get solved out of this sharad, it will be more than worth it. Plus, I met a friend.
_________________
Brutis Patches Izabich: 1970 VW Transporter - 1776cc DP
Current State: Projects never truly end...
Location: Grosse Pointe, Michigan
Other cars: 2003 F150, 2003 Jetta GLI vr6-6sp

Sambastic: adj; the quality of being nit picky, elitist, expecting everyone to do things the way they believe is best with no regard to situation, "sambastic"

[Spike0180]

[Alan Brase]

[Spike0180]

[Bagger04]

Spike0180 it was my pleasure meeting you the other nite, wish I could have been more help. Still plugging along on mine, thinking of going to dual carbs . Adjusted steering yesterday seem a little better. shooting for horn and back up lites by weekend. Hope to run across you soon

[ccpalmer]

Sorry to hear about the trouble! But sounds like you have it figured out now.

Time for some positive trip reports!
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'71 Westy

[Spike0180]

Bagger04! nice to see you. You were help, you kept me positive and from doing anything too stupid. I'll be rewiring part of my brake light system too, and probably isolating my horn wire from grounding out like it is now.

I'm hoping to get to finish that wiring tonight and get to go for a little drive before the storms roll in. If so, I'll have a report back tomorrow on if it is still starting right up and how it does on hot/warm starts as well.
_________________
Brutis Patches Izabich: 1970 VW Transporter - 1776cc DP
Current State: Projects never truly end...
Location: Grosse Pointe, Michigan
Other cars: 2003 F150, 2003 Jetta GLI vr6-6sp

Sambastic: adj; the quality of being nit picky, elitist, expecting everyone to do things the way they believe is best with no regard to situation, "sambastic"

[Alan Brase]