Refurbishing my '77 Westy Campmobile

[Cap10323]

[Cap10323]

Yep. Wheel cylinder failed. Also shoes are fairly low, so it's all getting replaced.

Hardware is in fantastic shape though. Zero rust on anything.

Jetfxr69, Checked the bearings. They roll smooth as silk, and the seals are very supple. I think I'm going to leave them alone for the time being?
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-Ian

'77 Westfalia - 2.0 F.I

[Jetfxr69]

if aint broke, dont fix it.
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You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline. It helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer. Zappa

‘77 westy Seamus
‘76 tintop Crusher
‘77 westy The Judge
‘72 tintop bastard westy Hudson

[Cap10323]

Dug into the rear brakes today, discovered that not only was the passenger side cylinder leaking, the drivers side was totally seized. Huh, interesting.

So I rebuilt it all with new cylinders, shoes and hardware in the rear, and new pads in the front. Along with a full fluid purge since the fluid was brown and gross.

The brakes are absolutely phenomenal now, I had honestly never messed with the brakes because I thought they were more than sufficient, but holy crap. The Bus really stops nicely now. Breathe on the pedal and it comes smoothly to a predictable stop. Very nice.


Discovered along the way that I need new e-brake cables (tubes are imploding), and my CV boots are cracked. Guess I need to order some more stuff for next week.

I also was able to source the correct emblem from the classifieds, thanks Karl (I forgot your username).

Also, I am breaking down and taking the bus to a friend of mine's shop next week to have some exhaust work done, which includes drilling out two snapped off studs, and installing all new OEM studs and nuts.

I could have probably done this myself, but I know how good he is with bolt removal. And I honestly would rather pay an 'expert' than risk drilling off center and damaging the head.

This will be the first time I've taken the Bus anywhere for any sort of repair since my ownership. Unless you count an alignment.
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-Ian

'77 Westfalia - 2.0 F.I

[Cap10323]

Got the Bus back from my friend's ACVW shop, all new studs, nuts, gaskets etc. And the exhaust is absolutely quiet as a mouse. Really pleased with that.

However, now I am able to hear all sorts of other strange noises coming from the engine. It's always sounded a bit rattly/clacky, but I assumed that was because of the manifold leaks.

I think I'm getting close to needing a valve adjustment (2500ish miles since the last one) so I'll get that done tomorrow and see if that quiets it down. If not, I guess next step is to re-torque the heads. (something I've never done, but probably should have already)

Hey, at least the neighbors stopped giving me the hairy eyeball when I drive by.
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-Ian

'77 Westfalia - 2.0 F.I

[Cap10323]

Valves were about .002 loose all the way around. Dialing those back in quieted the engine down considerably. Which probably shouldn't have surprised me, but it did.

I think the next issue is some of my tinwork is vibrating. I need to track down my mechanics stethoscope to figure out where, but I'm probably splitting hairs at this point.


Question about CV axles. Should I just buy the run of the mill $40-60 axles from the typical parts supplier, or shell out for the much more expensive ones from BusDepot? I generally buy the cheapest CV shafts for my regular vehicles, and have gotten over 100K miles out of them.
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-Ian

'77 Westfalia - 2.0 F.I

[ivwshane]

[Cap10323]

[ivwshane]

[Cap10323]

_________________
-Ian

'77 Westfalia - 2.0 F.I

[Cap10323]

It's halloween today, and everything is canceled because here in Ohio, COVID is going bananas.

But I had a funny idea anyway, and with the help of some cardboard and spray-paint. I present:

The pumpkin bus!

This is incredibly silly, I keep laughing every time I look at it.
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-Ian

'77 Westfalia - 2.0 F.I

[KentABQ]

That's not silly, Cap... That's brilliant!

We found out Albuquerque has a Halloween tradition called "Trunk-or-Treat", where people give out candy from their cars while parked in a big field. It's the same field, I believe, where the local Bus club hosts a campout during the annual hot air Balloon festival, which was cancelled this year.

It gives kids the opportunity to have a safe candy collecting night.
Since where we live, we get no T-or-T'ers, we had wanted to do it, with orange LED lights inside Chloe, spooky music, a skeleton driver and whatever other hokey Halloween decorations we could come up with.

... until we found out that too had been cancelled.

So you managed to make people smile, Cap.
That's a good thing these days.
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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

[orwell84]

Sometimes less is more on buses. Sometimes pulling stuff all apart opens a can of worms and you end up with a much bigger and longer job when you “do it right”...hunting for parts as good as the worn ones you could break removing them.

Doing my back brakes since they haven’t been done since the mid 90’s. If I had somewhere to go soon, I would have cleaned them up, cleaned and greased the adjusters and been on my way and I wouldn’t have worried a bit about the brakes. But once you take it all to bits...

Going to weld these up and hit them with Master Series and make it all like new. This would be a dumb idea in June. I have made that mistake before...

[busdaddy]

[Cap10323]

[orwell84]

[Cap10323]

[ivwshane]

Just get some used ones. Most of my used parts come from bustedbus.com. They only sell original parts and they can send you pics of the part first (I usually do business with them via text).

I've heard good things about thebusco.com as well but I haven't used them personally yet.
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77 westy 2.0 FI
69 ghia coup 1600dp
70 single cab

[Cap10323]

[jlrftype7]