Here's Sonya, a Mexican 1974 beauty

[busdaddy]

[tonysantacruz]

He sent me a message yesterday, saying it's fixed. I'm very curious. I'll post photos.

[tonysantacruz]

The bus was ready yesterday. Turns out the box he showed me wasn't mine (it was still attached to the bridge). He replaced this (and by replaced I mean he put in, because it had none).

and I went on my VW to pick it up (the V-dubs also has a wonky rear suspension, it needed some TLC)

Shocks were worn down, too. Rear sway bar was also rickety. He should fix it and have it ready today.

I boarded my bus and headed back to work, had to pick up a few things before returning to the office. I turned right on an intersection...and the bus dies.
Switch works (chugga-chugga-chugga) but no bang-bang.
I had some help pushing her to the curb, they even offered to help me give it a run-start, but I told them that was not going to help.

Last time I broke down, it was a vacuum leak, so I checked the hoses. Nothing wrong there. I removed the rotor cap wire thing and tried to find spark. Nope.

I had to call the mechanic. He connected a wire from the positive of the battery to somewhere coil-adjacent and that fixed it. "Could be the ignition switch, could be the fuse box. You better take it to the electric guy."

I was planning on doing that after I painted her, but since we've been having an extremely long rainy season, I had been putting it off. The electric work was stopped when the pandemic hit.

So, I limped to the shop (24 minute ride) the bus behaving nicely. The noise from the back is gone and the wheel turned much more smoothly. When I reached the shop, I shut donw the ignition switch, but the bus kept working. he told me to unhook the wire from the battery to shut it off. I did.

I left it with the electric guys so they can fix every electric issue (the wipers, cabin lights, high beams, stereo, antenn, lighter and a few of the dash warning lights were never connected,

Later today I'll bring them all the electrical parts I have lying around my garage so they can get to work.

Maybe painting will be done on December.

[tonysantacruz]

Today I spoke with the electrician and he’ll be done tomorrow. Good news/bad news thing: he could hook up the dashboard lights (but not the alternator light, cause the alternator has an external thing so it wont hook up), the lighter, windshield wipers, horn, stereo (but since it has no speakers hooked in atm, he’s not sure it works).
Bad news: the high beams lever does not work. It could be broken or the lights are bad. He’ll check. He’ll also do the cabin lights, but he needed to remove the headliner (which was already going down because it was badly installed and is torn in a few places).

But here’s my question: what’s wrong with the steeering column? The wheel is much too high and it won’t engage the cancel lever on the turn signals. It wasn’t like this when I bought it, but you know...crappy mexhanics.

Before:

After:

I told the guy to move up the levers, but he says they won’t be secured enough?

No clue.

[busdaddy]

I see a slightly smaller gap between the ignition switch housing and the dash in the before pics, I wonder if it's attached to the dash properly? If the column was raised a little and the switches slid up a little too it should close the steering wheel gap. A look at the bottom of the column at the floor might help too, maybe a missing plastic collar?
_________________
Rust NEVER sleeps and stock never goes out of style.

Please don't PM technical questions, ask your problem in public so everyone can play along. If you think it's too stupid post it here
Stop dead photo links! Post your photos to The Samba Gallery!

Слава Україні!

[tonysantacruz]

Could be. Lord knows stuff has gone missing from mechanic to mechanic.

For instance, last week I noticed my sled tins were missing. I think it was Don Jose Luis, he's the last one to remove the engine to change the fuel tank. I'll ask him if he has them. If not, I'll talk to Javier, the new one, so he can put them up, with the Hoover bit and the Z things to seal the tins with my J-tubes. And make sure the tins that go under the cylinders are adequately secured, because they are quite lose.

I really hate when mechanics don't installl what I ask them to.

[tonysantacruz]

Hell, I'm going to buy a second hand engine, an engine stand and I'm going to work on it, trying to learn the ins and outs of it. 'Cause I can't be this reliant on mechanics and I'd like to know more than the basics to keep them running.

[busdaddy]

Good idea, the best mechanic for your bus is looking back at you in the mirror every morning.
No better way to learn than by diving in and breaking a few things, that's the stuff no book or video can teach you.
_________________
Rust NEVER sleeps and stock never goes out of style.

Please don't PM technical questions, ask your problem in public so everyone can play along. If you think it's too stupid post it here
Stop dead photo links! Post your photos to The Samba Gallery!

Слава Україні!

[tonysantacruz]

She’s back from the electric guy. Almost everything is working fine: horn, wipers, lighter, cabin and dash lights.. the high beam lever isn’t quite working well, might need to replace it. She’s getting painted on Monday. Finally. He’ll also do the headliner and maybe touch up the sliding windows. Geez, those can be opened with a toothpick.


Still have a few issues. During sustained travel (the beltway) at speeds of 40 (going up and down a few overpasses), the cylinder head temp goes to 338-350, going down when I ease up on the throttle, to 293. 293 is the usual temp I have while in the city streets.

Engine is missing the sled tins, the Hoover bit and the Z things to lock out the heat. And this is the undercarriage:

Oil leaks, especially here:

I’ll take her to Javier, the new mechanic, so he can change the rusty pipes, check for major leaks and install tins, bit and whatever else is missing.

[tonysantacruz]

Oh, and the reason why it failed and left me stranded? Green wire from the coil got unplugged. I missed it, but shan’t ever again.

[orwell84]

[cmonSTART]

And new or not, no one is going to use as much care as YOU will working on this engine.
_________________
'78 Bus 2.0FI
de K1IGS

[nemobuscaptain]

I was kind of under the impression that every mecanico Mexicano knew how to work on vochos.
_________________
Ohio Valley Tribe, Full Moon Bus Club https://www.facebook.com/groups/294422277314227/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/FullMoonBusClub

RIP Bob Hoover https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=427791
Hoover Sermons: https://www.vwsage.com/images/vwsage/Bob%20Hoovers%20Sermons.pdf

[nemobuscaptain]

[tonysantacruz]

[tonysantacruz]

Paint guy came back with a 600 bucks estimate. Headliner guy 125, after he's done.

I'll bring the money later today.

[tonysantacruz]

Here's the "new" engine I bought to tool around and get my VW bus engine knowledge on.

It was working on a bus, -the dude said quite well- so I'll see about cleaning it up, checking the plugs, learning how to install a carb, whatevs.

I assembled the engine stand yesterday, but the yoke (and the half-ring to connect the start to the flywheel will arrive later this week).

I'm excited.

[tonysantacruz]

[tonysantacruz]

Made some tests today. Removed my first pair of spark plugs without Dad (been a while since that, it was a 198something LTD).

Not too shabby. Needs a few bolts and maybe I could get the exhaust fixed (came with the bus)

I sniffed the oil and it doesn’t smell like gas. But I did that to my VW FI and it does. Hoboy.

Removed the plugs:

Looks ok?

[nemobuscaptain]

#3 dafuq? Numero tres esta chingado. Que paso'? Is the thread buggered? Blew out the threads and the drilled it over and put in a helicoil or something? Or just chased new larger threads?

Can you take a pic of those thread holes on #3 and #4?
_________________
Ohio Valley Tribe, Full Moon Bus Club https://www.facebook.com/groups/294422277314227/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/FullMoonBusClub

RIP Bob Hoover https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=427791
Hoover Sermons: https://www.vwsage.com/images/vwsage/Bob%20Hoovers%20Sermons.pdf