My soon to be new 1970 vw transporter (restoration)

[Spike0180]

[KentABQ]

It appears happy hour begins early in that part of Michigan.

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-Kent-
1976 Riviera, 1.8l FI chrome yellow VAN - "Chloe"

"I must say, how can you be in a bad mood driving this vehicle full of vibrant color.
Cars of today are so bland in comparison. It's like driving a celebration!" ---WildIdea

Bus ownership via emoticons:
---williamM

[Spike0180]

[airschooled]

[Spike0180]

Robbie, we call it "java" for short.

As I promised, here are some pictures. Nothing crazy, I took her to work and kroger a couple times. I've been trying to tune in the carb. Since I have a poor idle I've been driving and then adjusting and mainly being focused on how it drives and sounds than what it is at idle. So far so good. It starts up every time, and once I get it around the block if the engine is cold it is responsive and drives well. So far my only thoughts are "dang, I forgot how short these gears are." And "what was that noise?" lol I'll track down my clunks though and get my squeaks taken care of.

I do have suspicious things with my speedometer. I have a new cable and it is still slow by about 20% and it gets worse the faster I'm going. So is there something I might be missing about the speedometer, or is the only way to fix this to correct one of the two: 1) the oring transferring the motion to needle 2) the spring constant for the needle resistance. I'm getting the feeling I might have to be getting a new speedometer...

And pictures:

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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]

Ive been driving the bus to work. It's not bad, it idles and once I've gone around the block a time or two it is good to go. I have a few problems going on though.

1) a squeak when I first start the engine and when I rev the engine until a minute or so after it is driving right (after that first couple blocks).
2) My distributor has a lot of play in the bottom of it and is missing the washers. (it had the felt washer but it crumbled when cleaning) I am thinking this may be the cause of my squeak. Is that a reasonable first step to troubleshooting my squeak?
3) my idle is still somewhat high, and sometime it will drop down further. Like the throttle is closing more. My approach to figuring this out is going to be make sure my return spring is strong enough (I might just add a second spring temporarily to verify), then I'll check my timing at the times when it does that to make sure I didn't mess up my distributor. If those aren't it, I'll be asking for suggestions. Suggestions now are welcome too.


In other news about the van, I replaced my tie rods tonight! I've only had them since april . It went pretty smoothly, I wasn't able to get the coder pins out then I broke one of them nearly completely off and in my anger took a wrench to it. It spun right off after pushing through that first bit. So I did the rest the same way. I still need to check my wheel alignment though (its only eyeball close).

I rented a tool from orielly's to get the ball joints loose btw. It was a GM Non-damaging tie rod puller. It worked flawlessly. here's a link:
https://www.oreillyauto.com/detail/rental-tools-ev...08/4700234

I got my tie rods from Jbugs, and I suggest you have an impact wrench if you plan on getting these tightened down. Because when I used a wrench, the ball joints just spun (no allen key in the bottom to prevent this). Luckily, I have tools now.

This weekend I plan on going to the woodward dream cruise. Which I've had described to me as a giant traffic jam with cars and bikes of every era. I'll make sure to take some pictures and post them up. If anyone else is going, send me shoutout, maybe we can sit and watch together. I plan on bringing some beer and a small grill.

_________________
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]

[Spike0180]

[ccpalmer]

How was the cruise? I was up north..
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'71 Westy

[Spike0180]

[Spike0180]

The shims worked great! my idle is consistent now! It is slow and muscle car sounding (probably running on two cylinders), but it is consistent now and doesn't die even when really slow.

PS. I'll be in grand rapids this thursday, if anyone needs type 4 parts let me know. I have some good parts (including a short block).
_________________
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]

Sounds like a good time! I've never made it to the cruise. Seems it's always a camping weekend.

Good news on the idle and overall performance of the Bus!
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'71 Westy

[Spike0180]

_________________
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]

Today when I got home, I decided to give another shot to fixing my oil leak by my oil pressure sensor. I found that the leak was coming from the sensor itself! Right where the electrical spade comes out. Which is good. I took a quick attempt at fixing the issue, but I suspect I'll need a new sensor in the near future. It leaks a lot.

A picture of the attempted fix:

_________________
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"

[Abscate]

[Spike0180]

I guess I'll post an update here. I drove about 100 miles yesterday. I went out to Ypsilanti, MI and back and to church and back. It drove well, I had it up to 52mph on my speedo (which is around 60-65 And she was handling well, still had power). But sounded like she was screaming a bit, I'm not sure of the RPM's and speed because I didn't get out my phone for a speedo.

I removed my vacuum hose for vac advance on my engine because I thought my static timing was too much and I wasn't happy with it. But this resulted in having issues staying idling again. I'll keep tweaking it until it will stay running at idle.

I found that my fix for the oil pressure sensor didn't work. So I ordered one sunday morning, and yes it has the pitch to the threads as it should. I ordered it from airhead parts, based on a reference here on TheSamba.

I also found oil splattered all over the top part of my rear valance when I got home yesterday though. I'm really hoping this is just from having higher speeds (more air and turbulence in the engine bay) in conjunction with my oil pressure sensor leak.

I did get to talk with a nice guy that owned a Harley while stopped for some McDonalds iced coffee. My engine was bigger. (though it was embarrassingly close)

_________________
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]

If anyone is in the Detroit area this Wednesday: Ccpalmer and myself are meeting up for brews at Dearborn brewing on Wednesday @ 6:30. Any and all aircooled enthusiast welcome!
_________________
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]

A few things happened. I got a accurate speedometer, a non-leaking pressure sender, and a working drivers side emergency brake.

The speedometer went in easy and looks great. The only downside is that I spent a week putting my last speedometer back to zero, now it was for waste.

The pressure sender went in good, but it took a minute for my oil pressure light go out and then after about an hour of driving later, it came on. I stopped, checked my oil, it was good. I idled it for a second, all sounded perfectly fine. And I thought it was the sender after it was faulty at first. So I continued down the road and watched my oil temps, which acted exactly like it had been. The light went out after a few miles of driving.

The E-Brake cable took time. The ends of the old cable had rusted into the tube and the backing plate. I had to drill the old cable out of the backing plate. But the new cable is in, cable and brakes adjusted.

I dropped the bus off with David Satterly to work his carb tuning majic. I should have it back early next week sometime.

_________________
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]

Good things!!

So after getting the van back from David, it wasn't perfect. He did alter the carb slightly (I am unsure of all the details, but I'm sure at some point I will delve into that.) which after adjusting my timing back it was running quite nice. I then leaned out the mixture about 1/2 a turn. I then switched to 93 octane, and I think I need to lean it out even a little more perhaps (im going to re-torque my heads and exhaust first though)

Even though I did have the adjust my carb once getting it back, I DON"T CARE!!!! it works great now! First try! it is accepting of tunes that aren't exactly perfect and it idles, starts, and runs cool (ish. but I think that is due to other variables).

I drove to Frankenmuth today which was a 2.5hr 100 mile drive each way. On the way there I took her on the highway and cruised at 65 for about 12-15 Miles. The highest the temp got was ~225. This was consistant later on when I spent about 10-15 minutes driving 65 on a country road. When cruising at 60, the needle never hit 220, and when it was light to light with stints of 50mph the needle sat at 190-200. PERFECTLY ACCEPTABLE TEMPS! WOOHOO! (Yes, I understand these aren't great tempetures like seeing 200 @ highways speeds for 20+ min, but these temps show that my tune is in the ballpark, and that is what I care about.)

I also got the chance to calculate for the first time my MPG's. Which on the way up I filled the tank when leaving and then again when I was .4 miles form my destination. And I had to put in 5.8 Gallons. Which is: 17MPG. also very acceptable for mixed driving with a larger main and idle jets.

TIME TO MOVE ON FROM TUNING!

I did stop at Barnums Bug Barn while I was up there and picked up a front tin with the cover for the heater risers still attached, and a distributor clamp for my spare 009.

The bad: My generator light was on the whole way. And when I got home 200 miles later I tried to start the van back up for a video, all I got was a click from my solenoid. So I can go 200+ miles with lights on for half the time without a charging battery. And before you guys go yelling at me for driving with the gen light on, ... well it has been starting out being on then going on after a few miles. It just didn't this time. Anyways, I'll be fixing that problem asap.

sorry for the lack of pictures, It was dark while driving there and a dead phone on the way home. I can say that Pontiac MI is looking significantly better than it did a year and a half ago. Some pretty cool things are going on there I think.
_________________
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"

[Gonzo1970]

I don't run a Harley.. I run a Honda, which is liquid cooled... hence the sticker on the back of my bus:

-Gonz
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Sometimes the lights all shining on me
Other times I can barely see
Lately it occurs to me
What a long, strange trip it's been