Sanchius and Tuna ride again...

[Abscate]

The wingspan looks short in that picture….???
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.ssS!

[DuncanS]

Ahhhhhhh, yes. Francis Gary Powers. I'll bet most are too young to know about him.

[dobryan]

[DuncanS]

I agree about the wing length. THIS is a glider. The other is not.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Gary_Powers

[Abscate]

[coqcitywesty]

FYI - another Half-Track posted to BaT in the event you are contemplating any new additions to the fleet, lol:

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1943-white-m2a1/
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1991 Westfalia EJ251, 1972 Volvo 1800 ES

[sanchius]

[Jake de Villiers]

[Abscate]

Needs a paint job

I’m not a fan of Pattona in a tank
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.ssS!

[Red Ryder]

Is there such a thing as “Tank Syndrome”? Definitely need a flatbed tow for that baby. And does AAA cover it with a Premier membership?
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“Most everyone’s mad here. You may have noticed I am not quite all there myself.” — Cheshire Cat, Adventures of Alice in Wonderland

“Scarlett” — 1990 Vanagon Carat Wolfsburg Edition
Tornado Red

[sanchius]

For the aviation fans, I just added many new aircraft and ship pictures to my recent Fleet Week post now that my brother has put his excellent photos from that weekend online.

And if my bro doesn't get his poor saggy baggy Eurovan pop-top in shipshape soon, I predict that Santa will deliver him a set of new pop-top lift hydraulics in his Christmas stocking this year...

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The Syncro years (2005-16) - The 2WD years (2017-23) - Westy & WBX rebuild spreadsheet - Sanchius & Tuna: The Video
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[Saturn]

[sanchius]

[sanchius]

Tunes and I took advantage of a warm sunny weekend to get out and about along the Truckee River west of town before the snow and cold arrived.

We stopped in one of the Reno's nice civic parks for a walk and some reading time, but were soon surrounded by so many chevydodgeford van-life vans that we pulled up anchor and headed for somewhere a bit more remote.

A few miles out of town, I took a hidden side-track off a dirt road I'd noticed a few weeks earlier and found a beautiful secluded parking spot right on the river.

Sunday, I wanted to get deeper into the semi-remote Dog Valley, just over the CA border, which required going through Verdi's one-lane truss bridge. One of my old Nevada rock art reference books mentions a riverside boulder in the area covered in petroglyphs, but I haven't come across anything more specific than that to try to locate it.

We bumped up the very rough Dog Valley Road, waiting at the wide points to let the downward traffic pass and to give some more space to the slow 4x4 picking its way up the road in front of me. At the top of the ridge, I did what I always do after a hard off-road climb: stop while facing downhill, turn off the engine, set the brake, then get out and walk around a bit to take in the view and let the shakes from the beating we'd just taken pass.

I got back in to go onward down into the next valley. I turned the key and... nothing.

The dash lights came on fine, but no solenoid click or crank.
Humm, given what we'd just driven through, it's probably either something the ignition switch or the starter wiring.

I crawled under the back of the van to look at the starter and the problem was immediately obvious, the wiring connector coming out of the starter solenoid had fatigued/broken from all the shaking coming up the road. Game over, we're not proceeding down into the next remote valley without any way to restart the vehicle.

The sun was dropping behind the trees, the wind was coming up, and it was getting cold, so I zip-tied the lead to one of the plastic coolant pipes, roll-started the van, and we headed back down the road we'd just climbed up and drove back home to fix it.

I had installed this upgraded starter using Karl's TDI adapter six years ago. It has always worked great and I've been extremely happy with what I consider to be one of the best/easiest WBX engine upgrades out there (https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=7844086#7844086).

This was user-installer error. While I had simply plugged in the stock WBX female wiring connector, the TDI has a stout black plug fitting around the male connector. I should have harvested and installed the other end of this plug from a donor VW to keep this fatigue failure from happening and also secured the wire better. This would have eventually failed, even without the rough road, so I'm glad this happened close to home.

Back home, I pulled the starter and started looking how to fix this. There doesn't appear any way to easily remove the black plug surround, so I am in the process of slowly cutting the plug fitting away to expose the remaining connector to remake a more secure wiring connection.

We'll see how it goes. I can afford to be adventurous here since replacement Bosch TDI starters are relatively cheap and currently in stock as a backup: https://www.rockauto.com/en/partsearch/?partnum=SR0408X

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[bobbyblack]

Huh, the picture of your connector on the starter now "clicks" with me... I ordered a few parts with my new starter from Vancafe, and got a pigtail that definitely is a match for that plug right there... And, it definitely does not match MY starter... So, maybe don't chip away that thing, but get the right plug?

Edit: I should go out to my bus and look... maybe there is a broken off bit I don't understand.. I see in the zip tied picture, perhaps indeed it would take chipping away..

Anyway, I don't actually know why I carry it in my parts.. But, now I have a "use" for it, but just as information!

News after my lunch hour nap!

Edit2:

So.. Here is what that starter wire kit for the upgrade starter looks like from VC.. I think you'll need one of these when you get the next starter, sorry to agree with you that you'll be removing material to get access to the broken connector on yours.

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'87 Westy 'Flossie','86 Westy 'R1','86 tintop GL - Subi2.2 'J2','83.5 stock tintop L 'ZoomBus','74 Karmann Ghia, '63 Notch

[sanchius]

With the starter repaired and reinstalled, Tunes and I took another run at the quartz mine we've been trying to reach in a couple of earlier trips up Dog Valley road from the south. This time we came in from the north and this road wasn't quite so rough. It climbed up into the pines where there was still a lot of snow. It was a beautifully warm fall day and the van is running awesome today, powerful on the highway and surging up the mountain road that alternated between being rough & rocky and then muddy & squishy wet from snowmelt.

We finally made it to the crystal mine, but it was completely snowed in from our recent storm, so we turned it around and headed back down the hill, stopping often to enjoy all the changing aspens. At times, the road was as much a streambed as a road with all the new snow melting off.

We went down a little side trail until it was blocked by a fallen aspen. We hooked up to it and pulled it aside mostly, but couldn't clear the road enough to safely continue. I think I need to add a bow saw to my kit. So we just stopped for awhile to enjoy the sound of the quiet little stream next to the trail. It's so nice when everything is working right!

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[Abscate]

Woof, said the Husky

My Husky has recovered from the loss of her companion and travels with me each weekend on the Port Jeff Ferry
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.ssS!

[djkeev]

Nice Fall trip journey!
Thanks for posting it.

Dave
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Stop Dead Photo Links how to post photos

Ghia
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=392473

Vanagon
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=6315537#6315537

Beetle
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=482968&highlight=74+super+vert

[DuncanS]

Port Jeff ferry. Let's see some of your adventures. T3s at sea perhaps.

Duncan

[DuncanS]

Sanchius--I know this brand is almost worse than junk, but you would only need it a couple of times so perhaps it would get you through some of you wonderful adventures otherwise blocked.

https://www.worx.com/20v-10-inch-cordless-chainsaw...ZrEALw_wcB

Duncan---A little nervous about my name since the discussion about the "lost" syncro tranny. Just for the record, I do not live in CA, nor have anything to do with trannys except through Matt Steedle who has received my International Medal of Honor for saving my T3s life.