'70 Riviera: The Continuing (Mis)Adventures

[Xevin]

Don’t forget the bikes
_________________
Keep on Busin'

[Tram]

[D/A/N]

Well, we didn’t forget the bikes, which is good.

As of now, we haven’t made it far…..only from NYC to Bay Head, NJ. We didn’t get a pic, but there’s a decent looking turquoise and white bay window down here kind of near where Point Pleasant becomes Bay Head. Drove past it twice but too quickly to tell what year it is or to get a pic. Sound like the bus of anyone on the forum?

A few things we’ve discovered driving around:

1. We’ve driven the bus through 5 states in its time with us and other than one carload of idiots in Springfield, OR, the drivers most hostile to the bus have been in NJ. We’ve been cursed at, honked at, flipped off, and passed on the right from the shoulder or turning lane more in the last 24 hrs than anywhere else ever.

2. There’s a bit of gentle burbling out the exhaust when braking in gear or coasting downhill. Seems okay/normal to me. Is it? No popping or backfiring.

3. Oil pressure….we switched from 10-30 to SAE 40. In town, oil pressure is slightly higher than 10 psi per 1k rpm and thus higher than when with the 10-30. At highway cruise, it drops over time to about the same as when we were running 10-30….it’s just above 20 psi. Unless there’s something I’m missing, I don’t see how a higher viscosity oil can behave exactly the same as a lower one under highway conditions.

I’m thinking that perhaps there’s a quirk in our sender such that when the sender gets to a certain temp it can only read out just over 20psi. Otherwise what? If there was an oil pump or other issue, wouldn’t it show up earlier? We can’t switch to 50 weight oil b/c then the in town readings would be too high and the oil would bypass the cooler.

What should we do/think here?

Absent the oil pressure gauge, we wouldn’t think twice about any of this…..

4. Shifting has gotten quirkier over the last few weeks. Once yesterday and today, it became hard to downshift from 3rd to 2nd. It was as though 2nd had moved. As documented earlier, we’ve had issues with the shifter popping out of the cup in the shift rod. We have over 100k miles on other VWs and periodic adjustment of the shifter was never a thing. It seems that with this bus, we have to adjust the shift plate periodically. WTF?
_________________
'69 Fuel Injected Squareback. "B" D-jet. 1600 with balanced rotating assembly and lightened flywheel. Full flow and external filter.

'70 Riviera. 1904cc w/ 40mm Dellortos, 019 distributor, Steve Tims “super stock” 37x32 heads, Web Cam 218, Vintage Speed SS143 Super Speed exhaust, 1 1/2” heater boxes

[Tcash]

Shifter popping out may be do to a worn or missing front shift fork bushing.
Take a look at the shift coupler while you are at it.
Shifter Parts ID T2

3-2 downshift problem. May be time for a clutch adjustment.
Clutch Free Play

Good luck
Tcash

Pic would be cool.

[Xevin]

[Tram]

[neena]

We’ve put just shy of 1,000 miles on the bus since leaving NYC, so here’s a long update:

First, this is our attempt at keeping cool-ish in bourbon country:

Next, Tcash was right: adjusting the clutch cable got the shifting back to normal. Does it mean anything that we’ve had to adjust it three times within 3,000 miles of driving? Are cables not what they used to be?

In the last 2 days, we’ve developed a loud squeak under the shift plate as if we never globbed grease in the shift rod cup during our shifting woes back in February. Re-greasing is on the to-do list.

Yesterday, D/A/N almost lost his fingertip to his bicycle and after a visit to the ER and some stitches, we discovered that our dipstick mysteriously disappeared from its perch behind the spare tire (we have a temp sensing dipstick and only use the stock one for checking oil levels). Luckily, we discovered we weren’t far from Keith’s Auto Parts in Clendenin, WV, where we got what we needed:

Other issues: we have an exhaust leak on the passenger side where the muffler meets the heat exchanger. In the past, Permatex copper has gone a long way and many miles towards eliminating such a leak. However, we’ve had to apply it every other day. Has there been a change in the formulation?

We just picked up some JB Weld exhaust epoxy, but haven’t applied it yet, but if it was under there before, it also burned off, so I’m not hopeful that I won’t be under there regularly to smear something around the donut gaskets...
_________________
'69 Fuel Injected Squareback. "B" D-jet. 1600 with balanced rotating assembly and lightened flywheel. Full flow and external filter.

'70 Riviera. 1600 SP with 30 PICT 3 carburetor, 205M distributor, stock muffler

@chaseyessi on Instagram

[Tcash]

Sorry to here about the finger.

Clutch adjustment 3 times in 3k miles. Something's not right. Hope you have a spare cable with you?
Riding the clutch at stop lights.
Cable stretching.
Clutch pedal lever may be becoming egged shaped.
Clutch pedal lever mounting becoming loose or rounded on the clutch pedal.
Transmission ground strap has a bad connection. Causing the clutch cable to become the ground. Stretching the cable.

Take a look at these
Clutch Failures

Good luck
Tcash

[Tram]

[sjbartnik]

Do new clutch cables stretch a bit as they break in and then settle down?
_________________
1965 Volkswagen 1500 Variant S
2000 Kawasaki W650

[D/A/N]

The finger is more than a scratch. I had my bike upside down and was re-seating the front tire. I gave the tire a spin and the next thing I knew I felt an awful tearing sensation in my right index finger. Turns out I got it caught in the disc brake rotor. Sliced right through the nail and everything. Even got stitches in the nail bed. At least I'm a lefty.

Clutch cable thing is weird. It tends to only require a quarter turn to get back right.
A half turn takes away all free play. We'll have to have a look and see if anything is weird. At least we have a spare cable if it comes to that.
_________________
'69 Fuel Injected Squareback. "B" D-jet. 1600 with balanced rotating assembly and lightened flywheel. Full flow and external filter.

'70 Riviera. 1904cc w/ 40mm Dellortos, 019 distributor, Steve Tims “super stock” 37x32 heads, Web Cam 218, Vintage Speed SS143 Super Speed exhaust, 1 1/2” heater boxes

[Tram]

[Tram]

[neena]

An update from the road:

Sliced finger is healing, though stitches won't come out until late next week. We're now in Kansas City recuperating in the rain which is a very very welcome respite from the crazy heatwave that's been following us across the country. Unbearable heat index in the upper 90's through Missouri!

On a better note, the last aggressive and dicky drivers we dealt with were in NJ. Everywhere else, people have been quite accommodating when we're on the interstates and clearly the slowest vehicle by far.

In mechanical news: we're chasing a small oil leak...it shows up on the "tray" under the oil pressure sender/distributor. It drips down the case and eventually pools up a little under the pulley where it gets slung around. The arrow here points to where it flows from (verified by UV light) but we never see it flow as the leak doesn't happen at idle or when revved. All we see is the trace of where it HAS flowed.

It's not so much oil though...here's what it was like at its worst....far far better than when we accidentally ran 50WT oil in our Beetle in winter some years ago

We first looked at the brass fitting for the stock pressure sender and sender for the VDO gauge. It was loose, so we took it out to check all connections, then realized we didn't have Permatex pipe thread sealant with us in rural Kentucky. This was of course long after we stopped by an O'Reillys and bought a UV dye kit with glasses and light to figure out the leak source. The UV kit seemed to point only to the sender area so we reinstalled the stock sender only, figuring we can re-do the VDO gauge when we track down more sealant.

However, replacing the whole brass fitting and assembly with the stock sender didn't do anything for the leak. We did some more sleuthing with the UV light and it seemed the plug in the case just above the sender was failing. This is the only spot above the sender where we found any significant amount of oil. Note how it's all pooled up

We covered this plug up with JB Weld, and it eliminated 95% of the leak, Now there's only a small trace of oil coming from....we don't know where. Any other ideas? The leak only seems to happen on the road under load. We've never been able to make it happen in a parking lot nor have we been able to see the flow. We check our oil level several times a day, and it's always fine, so it's not so bad, but we're only 1/3 of the way across the country, so it would be nice to find the source.


And now for the fun stuff:

Spread out at a campsite in Shelbyville, KY

Drove through St. Louis, so here's the obligatory picture of bus and arch:

Also pulled off I-70 to find gas and found "ruins":

_________________
'69 Fuel Injected Squareback. "B" D-jet. 1600 with balanced rotating assembly and lightened flywheel. Full flow and external filter.

'70 Riviera. 1600 SP with 30 PICT 3 carburetor, 205M distributor, stock muffler

@chaseyessi on Instagram

[D/A/N]

Yeah, Tram, your Schwinn is a relic. It'd command top dollar as a cruiser in hipster Brooklyn but bikes in general have moved on. Note the offending/cutting disc brake rotor in this pic of the bus and LC's BBQ in Kansas City, a place to which every omnivorous person must go. I was going to post a pic of the finger carnage but thought better of it

_________________
'69 Fuel Injected Squareback. "B" D-jet. 1600 with balanced rotating assembly and lightened flywheel. Full flow and external filter.

'70 Riviera. 1904cc w/ 40mm Dellortos, 019 distributor, Steve Tims “super stock” 37x32 heads, Web Cam 218, Vintage Speed SS143 Super Speed exhaust, 1 1/2” heater boxes

[Tcash]

What does your crankcase breather hose look like?

Nice campground pics.

Safe travels
Tcash

[Tram]

[Tram]

[D/A/N]

In one of my many trips to urgent care facilities (until I found one that said all I needed was a few stitches and not an amputation), I met a lady who almost lost two fingers when cleaning a deli slicer. She had the scars to prove it. Ugh....

Per the UV dye, light, and goggles, there's no leak at the distributor.

As for the breather......the road draft tube is clear and there's no aftermarket rubber boot on it. The hose is in the same position it has been in for a year. Our fan shroud has a (taped up) nipple for a hose and there's a charcoal/evaporative canister with a hose running from the gas tank area to one end. The other end has a hose that just drapes down into the engine bay. This has long been the case though.

Our air cleaner has only one nipple and it carries the hose from the oil filler stand. Is this okay? We can take pics of anything if need be. Heading deeper into Kansas late tomorrow.
_________________
'69 Fuel Injected Squareback. "B" D-jet. 1600 with balanced rotating assembly and lightened flywheel. Full flow and external filter.

'70 Riviera. 1904cc w/ 40mm Dellortos, 019 distributor, Steve Tims “super stock” 37x32 heads, Web Cam 218, Vintage Speed SS143 Super Speed exhaust, 1 1/2” heater boxes

[Tcash]

Try popping a new distributor seal on.
Do no loosen the clamp, just remove the 13mm clamp hold down nut and pop the dist out. That way you don't loose your timing.
111905261 dist seal
http://vwparts.aircooled.net/SearchResults.asp?Search=111905261

Good luck
Tcash