My Aircooled Vanagon: Hated by All, Loved by Buggeee

[Buggeee]

My helper returned in time for a test drive. As a surprise I opened the front passenger seat for business!

I think the prior owner had a problem with the latch and tried replacing it with a common Vanagon seat belt latch, but is different than some of the early ones. I thought this one was broken but noticed the pictures of different seat belts, eventually learning there is an early version and that is why it wouldn't clip in and my passengers had been chauffeured around in the back seat until now.

Having finally resigned myself to ordering a complete set of front seat belts because the early version was a.w.o.l., I stumbled on a picture of this one in the Bay Window classifieds. There must have been some overlap in the years there and saved me a bunch!
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1966 Sportsmobile Camper https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=...mp;start=0
72 Super Duper http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=672387
(adopted out) 61 Turkis Pile https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=728764

[Buggeee]

I'm just going to skip a head for a moment and show you this because it is the greatest thing since sliced bread, and fits in with the seat belt pictures perfectly. (Apologies to those who have been following the cup holder thread for some redundancy as I gather my build thread here)

[Buggeee]

One scrap remaining in the fuel system rehab was the pressure regulator. In chasing down the gremlins I was going to buy a pressure tester kit, but the pressure regulator itself was less expensive

Plus, I need to give myself something to look forward to in the tool department so I just replaced the regulator and called it good.

The hunt for the gremlin continues, this made the van idle better for some reason, when it was smooth (or so my mind imagines).

But there was still an intermittent issue going on somewhere that remained just out of reach. A lurching or cutting out that is narrowed at this point in the story to partial throttle acceleration.

Any takers? Don't work too hard, I do make the kill at some point here, but guesses are entertained.
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1966 Sportsmobile Camper https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=...mp;start=0
72 Super Duper http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=672387
(adopted out) 61 Turkis Pile https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=728764

[Wasted youth]

Where do I begin?

First, I love your writing style! Humorous, lightly sarcastic (BrickBrake, Inc.) yet to the point with great, useful pics!

I have only bounced around this thread a little bit, but it looks like a great read from start to finish. But, some questions and comments:

1) Tell me a little more about your HF brake kit. I struggled with a home-made pressurizing set-up that finally did what I wanted it to do when I installed a new clutch master cylinder, but my set-up is so damned ghetto. I was not planning on using it for the brakes, but this Vanagon brake and clutch system seems receptive to a pressure bleeder. I thought I read in the Green Book that it was the recommended method??

The picture with the bottle of new fluid installed in the reservoir... how does that adapt to pressurize the system? Or am I mis-reading the picture?

2) Great job keeping part numbers in your pictures! That is SUPER helpful!


I also suffered a TS-2 problem for the late Baywindow. It was a manufacturer problem, then for a brief period the damned things weren't available from normal suppliers at all.

Once you learn more about the Bosch fuel injection (I'm still learning!), you will find that keeping dual carbs functioning properly is probably more work than the fuel injection hassle... but it takes awhile to get really comfortable with it. Two things I have learned about Bosch L-Jetronic: The system has ZERO tolerance for vacuum leaks. And the system needs a strong battery and charging system ALL THE TIME. Keep your grounds super clean and tight! Great job renovating your ground strap! Add another strap from the car body to your engine.

On Stuart's comment about the boot dissolving... he's probably right! Today's rubber quality is absolute shit. Talk with Ray Greenwood and others about this. This issue of course will be found in cheap fuel line (Gates Barricade Ethanol Rated fuel injection hose is really good stuff), and CV boots, too.

[Buggeee]

[Buggeee]

Oooo, Oooo, ooo I forgot to talk about the AFM! How could I skip that?! I did something really cool, unusual and unorthodox. Peeps are gonna Love it, Hate it or not even care! I guarantee it.

Before I get to all that I'll have to post the mundane part of it, which is not so mundane but still will pale in comparison... you will see.... that will be a later post.

In hunting gremlins and casting demons I performed a deeper multimeter test on my AFM. It had passed the resting test, just passively checking the Ohms across all the pins while it sat there in the van.

For the deeper test I brought it into the house and let it get to room temperature, ran the passive tests again, and then I tested the Ohms while sweeping the air vane through its arc.... Houston, we have a problem!

The meter was sometimes where it needed to be, but as I swept it through the arc it would spike crazy to three times the specification and sometimes error code for no reading at all!

I was really confused because this meant my carbon coating was goofed but looking at it in the van it looked fine, no scratches or wear marks at all. Then I noticed it was all a matter of perspective. From one direction in looked fine. Sitting on my kitchen table I could turn it around and see from another direction, finding a good scratch all the way through its sweep. Worn through. You can see the copper scratch here:

I tried losening the circuit board and relocating the contact point of the arm. I tried bending the arm, etc. Anything the threads might suggest. No improvement. This is toast. It also looks like there are two rows of scratches per each of the two contact points (four total sweep wear valleys in total) so someone may have been in here before doing this.

A friend of mine had an extra Late Bay Bus AFM and I threw that in. Here is the discussion on that from my comments elsewhere. This shows how multimeter readings and Ohms specifications between the late Bay and Vanagon 2.0 AFMS are almost identical - indicating a plausible swap, which it is.

[Vanagon Nut]

If the front rotors are within spec, and pads-rotors are in otherwise good condition, maybe using the brakes will clean up the rotor surfaces?

Is that HF brake bleed tool a gravity feed or is that a vacuum type device pulling fluid through?

I don't know if Van-cafe et al still have these but new rear brake back plates might still be available. As you know, they can rust out. I guess the rust would have to be pretty advanced to pose any real potential problem but rust perforation is an easy thing to overlook.

Neil.
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1981 Westy DIY 15º ABA

1988 West DIY 50º ABA

VE7TBN

[Buggeee]

[Wasted youth]

That's pretty cool that you took one for the team with your AFM experiment. I was idly thinking about this over the past couple of years. The AFM is married to a 2.0 air cooled engine, so it seems plausible that they should interchange. But, as you know, there are several different part numbers for these.

So the Vanagaon air-cooled engine does have a couple more engine management controls than the 1977-1978 model Baywindows, but I never studied the parts, electrical plans or anything else to try to find the differences. There is even a different AFM for California emissions Vanagon.

[Stuartzickefoose]

I have a couple vanagon AFMS. Cali and federal spec, each. Hit me up if your interested
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Stuart Zickefoose

2011 Jetta Sportwagen TDi 6 speed manual

206-841-7324
[email protected]

[GenXer]

Just made it through from start to finish and I am signed up for updates. Great read Buggee. For now, I can live vicariously through you.

[Buggeee]

I was alive to witness the birth of Pong.

I cut my teeth on Atari, Space Invaders... and Asteroids.

But when my best friend and I stumbled Sonic the Hedgehog into a secret tube, accidentally, and found the wealth of a hidden world....Pling, Pling... Pling, Pling, Pling... Oh the Feeling! THE FEELING!!!!

Nothing beats the visceral feeling of an honest to goodness HACK!

Is everybody in? Everybody in? The ceremony is about to begin...

Yute of today say WTF?

Oh, yah... I'm going full-on Taboo for this one... Early 80's Chrysler/Renault!!! Go puke if you have to. Get it out now.

Back? O.k.

Do not attempt to exit until the ride comes to a complete stop.

Looky dis

What is that? What can it be?

You have no idea.

Check it.

Huh? Never expected Bosch at this party did you? Have to stay up late and get out once in a while. Don't be disappointed in your precious and pure disciplined backbone of German manufacturing. Bosch is a MONSTER. Bosch is everywhere. Bosch is even in early Eighties sh!tboxes like the 1981 - 1983 Renault Fuego R18i.

And Chrysler and AMC and Renault used the last of the free-swinging neighbor's-wife-swapping mood that could be found in the 1980s to exchange enough dna ladden fluid to result in this NOS 1981 1982 1983 Renault Fuego R18i Bosch Air Flow Sensor Meter T06 79443 dp showing up on my doorstep in an AMC/Jeep/Renault/Mopar/Chrysler Motors Genuine Parts box!!!

Dirty pictures has a new meaning now doesn't it. I am not ashamed. Look at this one.

Yep. Thats seven pins Peeps. Seven. And... they are numbered like this gem served as the model for a picture in Bentley Orange.

Don't look at me like that. Here's this for your pipe and smoke it:

Oh yeah That's the part number for the AFM on my 1983 Vanagon Air-cooled 2.0, except the last digit is a 7 instead an 8.

So now that your are looking a bit pekid and starting to sway, you better have a seat.

Lets check this out together.

Yep, bottom looks good nuf

Throat's the same.

Idle air screw is an allen key instead of slotted. So?

But the air cleaner attaches differently in France it seems... so let's just fix that

_________________
1966 Sportsmobile Camper https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=...mp;start=0
72 Super Duper http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=672387
(adopted out) 61 Turkis Pile https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=728764

[Buggeee]

Still here? Good.

I ran the multimeter tests on this room-temperatured Made in Germany stow-away. All of them. From Bently Orange.

The passive tests were very close, like 100 ohms above the targets in our world. The sweep test was consistently 200 - 300 ohms above the targets. But, it was consistent.

This is a brand new NOS never been used AFM. I found two NOS AFMs for Vanagons. None were for my Van. Both were 400 to 600 dollars (each). My order for a rebuilt AFM from Bus Depot was cancelled by them because they were out of them and it would be four weeks after I mailed mine in to get it back at a couple hundred PLUS shipping PLUS an initial core charge, to be refunded later (but its mine though). I started the quest for an alternative. I got this one for a hundred and thirty bucks delivered to my door. (Apparently there is not a cult of wackos swallowing up all the parts for an early eighties Renault Sh!tbox. Rebuilt AFMs for this are all over Ebay for $89 - no core).

Did I say it was brand new? It is brand new.

So I went without protection and just stuck it in there.

Then I drove that thing aaaaaaaaall around town.

It was fine. It was non-eventful. It was a bit rich.

That's from my tail pipe when I stopped at Target for some household items.

So when I got it home I broke the seal and took a look:

Familiar? Yep. I thought so too.

So I dove into the AFM tuning procedure found here:

https://itinerant-air-cooled.com//viewtopic.php?t=7761

I found that my brand new (love saying it) AFM was consistently rich accross the whole sweep. That was good! If it was rich only at the higher RPMs then I'd be messing with the spring tension. If it was rich only at the lower RPMs than I'd be messing with the idle air-screw. Because it was equally rich accross the sweep, I simply had to loosen the screw and adjust the position of the contact arm, like so.

It took a little more than an eighth of an inch movement clockwise in the arm to settle it in to the "edge of lean" as suggested in the Itinerant Air-cooled procedure. So, when done, at idle the RPMs would just begin to drop off when I pushed the arm to the lean/clockwise direction, but would not do much of anything to the RPMs for a good quarter to 3/8 of an inch to the rich/counter-clockwise direction.

Using the lingo of the Itinerant, my AFM had been on the edge of rich as installed out of the box, and I adjusted the arm to the edge of lean. Shoving a screwdriver into the throttle to hold the motor at a consistent 3,000 rpm, it held at the edge of lean up there as well... consistent across the whole sweep.

Then I took it for another run around town... and on the highway... and around town... and around the block...

POWER. Yep. Crisp, confident, athletic... um, well maybe not athletic. It is a Vanagon. But this is the best this engine has performed so far. Better than the original worn Vanagon AFM. Better than the in-spec Bay Bus AFM. Noticibly better. Like pulls up the hill on the highway moving the speedo to the right rather than just maintaining the number. Not in the mind, in the gauges. Better. And shipped for a Renault. LOL.

Pling, Pling.... Pling, Pling, Pling.

For the web-crawlers (Google this is your cue) I offer the following:

Vanagon Aircooled 2.0 AMF Air Flow Meter Mass Air Flow Sensor Replacement Alternative Substitute Repair 1981 1982 1983 Renault Fuego R18i Bosch Air Flow Sensor Meter T06 79443 dp

P.S. For those staying after the credits to enjoy the music, the Gremlin has yet to be nabbed. Still an intermittent cut and stumble at mid throttle acceleration after its really warmed up. Stay tuned.
_________________
1966 Sportsmobile Camper https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=...mp;start=0
72 Super Duper http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=672387
(adopted out) 61 Turkis Pile https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=728764

[riceye]

Outstanding!
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'87 Westy Weekender - daily driver on salt-free roads

There's gonna be some changes made.

“I find that things usually go well right up until the moment they don't.” - Ahwahnee

"Quality isn't method. It's the goal toward which the method is aimed." - Socrates, later quoted by R.M. Pirsig

[Stuartzickefoose]

Might want to recheck that, you should want it on the rich edge to lower head temps per Colin’s direction unless I am much mistaken. Not rich that it’s pig rich, but the rich edge to lower temps a bit. Lean means hot I could be wrong but I’d rather be wrong then see you burn it up because I didn’t say something...


You said you solved the mis but haven’t told us yet? My bet is a plug wire or a loose contact. Just to toss out a likely incorrect guess...!
_________________
Stuart Zickefoose

2011 Jetta Sportwagen TDi 6 speed manual

206-841-7324
[email protected]

[jimf909]

Are you wearing a suit for this unpacking?

I heart this thread. Thanks.
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- Jim

[Buggeee]

[Buggeee]

[Stuartzickefoose]

[Abscate]

This exceeds excellence by a large margin, capital theta.
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.ssS!