Reviving a Syncro

[ranchero]

[markswagen]

knowing that you won't be, write ''LOOK IN HERE'' around the edge of tire.
or ''FREE CANDY''

[Steve Arndt]

Mine did that on a couple of zero degree weather camping trips. Major panic when ya get in and see that. Once warmed up they re-seal. Mine hasn't leaked anymore since then.

My Hexomat floor mat is great at catching the spill and nothing gets on the carpet or the vehicle.

s

[joetiger]

[joetiger]

After a great few days in the desert last week, I did a few little things to the van this weekend.

Saturday morning, I got a surprise visit from a great buddy, Miguel, who was doing some work on the obnoxious but well-equipped "AlohaWasabi" Syncro. The nuts on the front CV's were unloosening themselves (much deeper issue there--somebody has done some poor machine work on the uprights) and he needed a jack and a lug wrench, and some loctite. Not a permanent solution as the hunt for new uprights continues.

What an interesting van. It has a Subie 2.5 and custom vinyl interior, LED lights everywhere, gigantic subwoofer and "house" system, tiki torches on the corners of the massive rack, and two Nissan Leaf house batteries.

Miguel had never driven a 928 so with it being a perfectly beautiful day, I pulled it out for a drive. I sure will miss it when I sell it, but I've come to realize that having a work of art in the garage is not what I need right now.

After getting Wasabi Syncro buttoned up, I cleaned the red dust out of my van and decided to do something cosmetic that's been bugging the hell out of me.

When I did my ABS panels, I painted them all beige except the slider, which I left black. I think I was out of paint or lazy or something:

(old pic for reference.)

I pulled it off and hit it with white primer then a few coats of Rustoleum Vinyl paint:

While the panel was off, I followed the lead of Sanchius and 4Gears4Tires and repaired my rear latch.

The chunk of paper in the latch couldn't be helping the situation...

Not too dirty, but the pieces look pretty worn.

The GW kit fits together nicely.

Lubed it up and reinstalled. No pics but getting the bolts aligned and started in the door was a pain. I was concerned about cross-threading and it took a bit of patience to get everything aligned properly. I'm happy to report that the slider door shuts very crisply now.

Panel reinstalled with a fresh racing stripe.

I hand-washed the van, sprayed all the red mud off of the bottom, and wrapped up work for the weekend.

I spent Sunday evening reading this book, recently translated from German:

The translation is a bit clunky but it's very entertaining. I'm consistently amazed by how downright ballsy people can be in taking severely compromised vehicles into the wildest places on earth.

Oh--the master cylinder stopped leaking once we got out of the single-digit temps. Seems that the rubber swelled a little with the warmth. The trickle of brake fluid prior to that disintegrated by lower column cover, though. I found one in Colorado that will require a really nice drive to the mountains to pick up. I hope to do that after next weekend's "potential Snowmageddon" forecast.
_________________
Joe T.

'86 NAHT Vanagon GL Syncro/ supercharged ABA 2.0 "Pigpen"
'04 GTI 1.8T
'04 Golf R32

"get metaphysical with it. if it's simply a means to get to and from places, it will let you down. if it becomes your zen, it can't fail you." -dabaron

"Still, it's good to be afield."--VWagabond

Available Now! Vanagon to Louisiana--A Two-Lane Reckoning Through Past and Present

www.josephtrussell.com

[joetiger]

Quick update on progress and/or lack of progress.

I have a good storage spot for my table. With a couple of little L brackets to keep it up and not moving side-to-side, it sits above my batteries perfectly.

I wanted a handy place to store the leg; the space around the subwoofer looked like it would work. So I ordered a couple of these acrylic pole holder things.

I also needed to do something about that awful unpainted C-pillar. Normally I wouldn't really care but it's the first thing you see when you look in the van.

I ordered a Bronze Beige Metallic rattle can from Paintscratch and fixed it up. Unfortunately that pillar now looks better than any other painted spot on the entire van, inside or out.

The bearings in my alternator were going out, so I replaced it last weekend. Much quieter with this one.

After my serp belt tensioner pulley failure last month, I decided to take a closer look at that top pulley.

Unfortunately it feels and sounds like its bearings are on borrowed time. More unfortunately, this pulley was part of the supercharger kit. Neuspeed is of no help in providing a replacement or even determining part numbers, so I got the measurements from this one and ordered a replacement that I *think* will work. We'll see when it arrives.

Completely unrelated to vehicle function, I lost one of my Ronal center caps on that trip last month. Turns out, a used replacement is $100. I found some more economical $8/per replacements for all four online. They're just a smidge too small, but I was able to add some high-heat weatherstripping around the internal flange and they're on there snug. We'll see if they last.

Also, I've found that the diesel dasher motor mounts are not up to the task; they collapse after not much use. It's hard to tell in the photo below, but these '87-'96 Ford Ranger V6 hydraulic mounts are about 1/2 inch taller. I'm going to wrestle them in and see if they'll work. They sit at a 45 degree angle in the Ranger, so if I can fit them, they might be the ticket. Emphasis on "might." I know that with the added height, the angles might be wonky. This is a bit of a hail mary.

How did I find Ford Ranger mounts, you may be asking? On a 4Runner engine conversion thread. I have no idea how I ended up there...

In other news, I'm losing power at around 3800 RPM and it's running very rich and getting much hotter than normal. Plugs, cap, and wires are new. Timing is dead on. Intake is clean. Throttle body is clean. IAC is clean. It's not the OXS. It's not the fuel pump or relay. The fuel rail, pressure regulator, and charcoal canister are all pretty much new, so I don't think it's a fuel issue.

When it's idling and I disconnect the MAF, it actually runs better. So, I'm going to concentrate there for now--I'm wondering if I've got another harness break, or if the MAF is bad. It's a cheap aftermarket one that I bought when I got the van, so if I'm lucky...

I've no trips planned at the moment, so no real urgency, but MAN can this thing be frustrating sometimes.
_________________
Joe T.

'86 NAHT Vanagon GL Syncro/ supercharged ABA 2.0 "Pigpen"
'04 GTI 1.8T
'04 Golf R32

"get metaphysical with it. if it's simply a means to get to and from places, it will let you down. if it becomes your zen, it can't fail you." -dabaron

"Still, it's good to be afield."--VWagabond

Available Now! Vanagon to Louisiana--A Two-Lane Reckoning Through Past and Present

www.josephtrussell.com

[tjet]

Try an OEM MAF sensor

They start to degrade around 75k miles

[joetiger]

[4Gears4Tires]

Isn't it crazy how much nicer the sliding door shuts with replaced springs? And it's such an easy and cheap fix. I think everyone who hasn't done it should do it.
_________________
'87 Syncro
Ferric Oxyhydroxide Superleggera Edition

[joetiger]

[joetiger]

The new Bosch MAF didn't totally fix it, but made it run slightly better. I spent more time unwrapping and chasing wiring, all was good and connected.

Then yesterday, a miracle of sorts. I've narrowed it down to two theories:

1. A large section of the wiring harness got jumbled up on top of the distributor cap during a roadside repair. I removed the cap (checked everything again) and moved the big harness section back to where it belongs, a few inches from the distributor. Unlikely I know, but is it possible that the electricity from the distributor could interfere with signals in the harness? It's a stretch...

2. I filled up with a fresh tank of gas.

I'm not sure which action did the job, but after the fillup, it's purring and revving like new. No hesitation, running cool.

The gas station is only a couple of blocks from the house so I didn't really get up in the revs/load to see if the rearrangement of harness did anything before I got gas, so who knows?

Other stuff:

My front stripe started cracking and disintegrating recently. I love my heat gun.

I had some leftover fresh striping that I added (no photo yet.)

Also, I installed a handle to the rear of the sliding door for easier closing. Thanks to crazyvwvanman for the inspiration.

_________________
Joe T.

'86 NAHT Vanagon GL Syncro/ supercharged ABA 2.0 "Pigpen"
'04 GTI 1.8T
'04 Golf R32

"get metaphysical with it. if it's simply a means to get to and from places, it will let you down. if it becomes your zen, it can't fail you." -dabaron

"Still, it's good to be afield."--VWagabond

Available Now! Vanagon to Louisiana--A Two-Lane Reckoning Through Past and Present

www.josephtrussell.com

[dobryan]

Looking good. I'll see you later this summer I'm sure...
_________________
Dave O
'87 Westy w/ 2002 Subaru EJ25 and Peloquin TBD

"To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive." Robert Louis Stevenson

MD>Canada>AK>WA>OR>CA>AZ>UT>WY>SD
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=620646

Building a bus for travel in Europe (euroBus)
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=695371

The Western Syncro build
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=746794

[erste]

[Schnippzle]

[joetiger]

[joetiger]

If there are any professionals, perfectionists, and/or high-level hobbyists still following this thread, please look away. We're about to go on a little journey of ineptitude.

Let's start with my decision to move the CDH fuel tank from this perfect spot:

to the cubby next to the engine. It was a good spot, easy to fill, but after a while it really started stinking like kerosene in the van. Like overpowering. It didn't make sense. The cap was nice and tight.

...but it was leaking from the line out of the bottom. I took the tank out and found the subwoofer carpet/liner completely soaked with kerosene. I pulled it up and found the VW butyl sound deadening had liquified. What a mess.

After a lot of scrubbing, it came up clean. I put down some shelf liner, tightened the line on the tank well, made absolutely sure it didn't leak, and moved it back to the engine bay. The kerosene smell is slowly diffusing.

Next up, The Hesitation.

It's been keeping me up at night. Pigpen runs like a wild banshee out of the neighborhood. I get on the highway, go about five miles, and it stutters. Then it lacks power and hesitates all the way back to the house. Each time I have an idea and make a change, I take the same route.

I can replicate this hesitation with ease, it's like clockwork. no matter what I do to the van. I make a change, take the drive, sputter home with tail between legs. Lather, rinse, repeat.

I checked the Cap & rotor, (new,) wires (good, no arching,) removed plugs twice and checked gaps.

Disassembled intake. New air filter, new pre-filter. Cleaned throttle body. Cleaned IAC (twice.) Checked all connections, clamps, everything.

New MAF. Repaired harness plug (twice.) Unwrapped wiring back to main harness and checked for breaks. Re-wrapped.

New (spare) coil.

Checked OXS wiring. All good.

Replaced relays for fuel pump and OXS with new (I have PLENTY of "53" relays because the 928 takes about twenty of them. )

Intake air sensor is new. Coolant temp sensor is new. Connectors and wiring are good. (I unwrapped and checked.)

Replaced fuel filter and pump with my spares.

Nope.

Could the serp belt be getting hot and slipping, causing the charger to lag and cause a hesitation? Most likely not, but I suppose it could have been damaged in the pulley fiasco in February. Let's replace that too!

Took the Drive of Shame, no change.

I've been noticing a faint fuel smell from the six month-old OEM 4-bar pressure regulator. But everything looks good; no leaks, nothing.

The other end of the vacuum hose, the part that connects to the supercharger...

It's a kludged t-connector that has been there since I've had the van. It was pushed nice and snug onto this nipple:

Nice and snug.

NICE AND SNUG. A T-LINE. IT'S PRESSED UP AGAINST THE END OF THE NIPPLE.

I knew this. I KNEW this. Any time I'm nosing around in there, I make sure that little T fitting is backed off a bit. But for some reason, during some brain fart, I pressed it all the way up on there.

I went ahead and replaced it with a straight vacuum hose and looped it around the PCV valve.

And connected to the FPR.

Surely this won't make a difference, I'm thinking. This can't be "it." But let's take a drive and see.

I did the Drive of Shame down I=70 east with nothing but pure, clean, buzzy, loud ABA power. I drove around town. I drove on the highway again. I spent two hours behind the wheel trying to make it hesitate, and it wouldn't.

Back at the house, no more faint fuel smell from the FPR.

All I can figure is the FPR was getting no vacuum; the hose was basically clogged.

I'm still suffering from a bit of trauma and am not completely convinced that it's fixed. Time will tell. But that was a long test drive and nothing I did would make it stumble.

On the plus side, all of my primary and secondary ignition components are either perfectly clean or brand-new. Intake is nice and clean. Lots of harness repairs are complete as well. I needed to replace the fuel pump and filter anyway.

And yes, I committed the mortal sin of throwing parts at it, but I had all of the parts on hand (except the MAF.) And I still have all of those replaced parts to use as spares.

I'll guess I'll take that subie 2.5 conversion kit off of my Van Cafe Wish List for now.

"I don't mind throwing parts at my Vanagon. It's bodywork afterwards that I don't like."
_________________
Joe T.

'86 NAHT Vanagon GL Syncro/ supercharged ABA 2.0 "Pigpen"
'04 GTI 1.8T
'04 Golf R32

"get metaphysical with it. if it's simply a means to get to and from places, it will let you down. if it becomes your zen, it can't fail you." -dabaron

"Still, it's good to be afield."--VWagabond

Available Now! Vanagon to Louisiana--A Two-Lane Reckoning Through Past and Present

www.josephtrussell.com

[dobryan]

Ah. Feel the anxiety slip away.
_________________
Dave O
'87 Westy w/ 2002 Subaru EJ25 and Peloquin TBD

"To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive." Robert Louis Stevenson

MD>Canada>AK>WA>OR>CA>AZ>UT>WY>SD
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=620646

Building a bus for travel in Europe (euroBus)
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=695371

The Western Syncro build
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=746794

[erste]

Hope that fixed it!

I had a jug of kerosene split and slowly leak and soak into the seat board and into the wood floor. Never again.

[joetiger]

Long time, no update. I've been working to get the one on the left ready for sale, and sell it did. I somewhat irrationally put up an ad on CL to motivate myself and priced it about $2k higher than the self-proclaimed experts on Rennlist told me it was worth.

Less than 24 hours later, a guy walked up, drove it around the block, and offered me full price in cash. Done. I didn't even have time to wash it. The buyer was an acute Covid survivor who swore that if he lived through it, he was buying another 928 (his fifth.) In a weird way I feel like I've been updating and caretaking this car for that very fella to take it and enjoy it.

What a cool car, though. In some ways, I'll miss it. In some other ways, I will not.

In Pigpen news, it was the plug wires all along. All that cleaning, replacing, diagnosing, sweating, breaking down in picturesque locales...The culprit was a whole set of brand-new Beru wires that caused me a year of grief. I installed a fresh set and, when coupled with throwing parts at it for a year and re-doing a good bit of the engine harness, the motor runs better than it ever has.

My lower steering column cover, a brown one I'd painted with black vinyl paint, got soaked with brake fluid from the leaking MC grommets over the winter and disintegrated. Not willing to spend $80 on a used one, I got out the super glue and Shoe Goo and threw caution to the wind. It looks like an autopsy incision.

The middle section where the spring clamp resides had disintegrated. So, I found a little metal bracket, some nuts and bolts, a nylon spacer, and a rusty-ass allen head bolt (my hardware collection is running low) and cobbled together a solution.

It's ugly but functional, much like its owner. I'll repaint it and it'll be fine until January when the MC leaks and brake fluid destroys it again. The cycle continues.

I put in another Van Cafe LED light bar, this one over the motor. I love these lights. They're more expensive than the Amazon cheap ones but they're much higher quality.

I took my camp kitchen out and put a jump seat in to cart people around now that we're vaxxed. I'll probably take the cabinet out and put the other jump seat in for upcoming concerts; I'm not camping until July.

Before I sold the 928, I pilfered a little sub I'd never fully installed and just had bouncing around in the hatch. Then it was in my garage, staring at me. Nobody needs two subwoofers, but it fits so nicely there. It only took a few minutes to patch into the existing stereo, so why not.

Now I have plenty of bass.

I drove up to Evergreen on Saturday in 100 degree heat and some high speed/some stop-and-go traffic. Overheated cars of all kinds were off on the shoulders of the big hill. Pigpen did great, AC blasting and engine working hard. I was a bit nervous when the temp got up around the 3/4 mark on the gauge, but it cooled down nicely once we were off the highway. I had no fuel pump cavitation either, which I think is a result of the new charcoal canister. Good to go!
_________________
Joe T.

'86 NAHT Vanagon GL Syncro/ supercharged ABA 2.0 "Pigpen"
'04 GTI 1.8T
'04 Golf R32

"get metaphysical with it. if it's simply a means to get to and from places, it will let you down. if it becomes your zen, it can't fail you." -dabaron

"Still, it's good to be afield."--VWagabond

Available Now! Vanagon to Louisiana--A Two-Lane Reckoning Through Past and Present

www.josephtrussell.com

[Vanagon Nut]

Great read, good info thanks.

re: MAF. This page might help with future MAF testing. It's for OBD1 and 2:

http://faculty.ccp.edu/faculty/dreed/Campingart/jettatech/maftesting.htm

Thanks for info on Beru plug wires. Without denigrating into detail, in my NA ABA, slight misuse of a plug wire removing tool, poor quality plug wires, heat soak, may be factors in two minor intermittent issues I'm chasing.

Neil.
_________________
1981 Westy DIY 15º ABA

1988 West DIY 50º ABA

VE7TBN