Body Panel Replacement - A First Timer's Journey...

[Goach2]

for the Canadians, eh?

https://germansupply.com/heater-cable-floor-bus-76-79.html
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1977 FI Westfalia

[Jetfxr69]

Just went through your story. Took a bit to get through 30 pages. Were travelling down similar roads on our rigs. I too am newbie to bodywork, and welding. So far, the stuff youve come across is exactly what ive found. Rotted c pillar, rear arch, corners, bat trays, and rear pillar boxes. With every page I read, I felt like I was reading my own story.

My earliest fear and obstacle to overcome was to put the cutting wheel onto the bus and start shredding metal. Luckily I had the help of a very experienced cut and weld guy to show me the way. Now that fear is gone. As youve probably learned, whatever gets cut out/off, can always be welded back together.

Nice job with the storyline and detailed photos. Will be keeping up on your project, so keep updating. Heres some links on my two projects going. The relevant parts are the last couple pages about “Crusher”. Thats where im at today. Seamus is out to pasture for the winter. Cheers

Crusher
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=730294

Seamus
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=716201&highlight=
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You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline. It helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer. Zappa

‘77 westy Seamus
‘76 tintop Crusher
‘77 westy The Judge
‘72 tintop bastard westy Hudson

[Goach2]

Thanks for your comment, always nice to hear from others in a similar situation. That's what makes this community great, the willingness to help and share. I'm looking forward to reading through your story as well.
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1977 FI Westfalia

[orwell84]

Your heating system looks in great shape. It’s probably the best system put on a bus.

Thinking about your sliding door...I would get the other body work done first. Once you get it off and get into it...it can be can of worms and you can’t drive without it. My sliding door needs quite a bit of work. Ideally I would throw on a junkyard spare while I got it done.

[Goach2]

Thanks Orwell,

I thought I'd have the winter to work on the door, but it doesn't look like it'll be in stock any time soon. In the meantime, heater is about ready to go back on. I happened to notice that the cable for the hear heat deflector was broken, so I have on order now. Will install and adjust that before getting the heater all remounted.

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1977 FI Westfalia

[Goach2]

Finally got everything reinstalled, but having trouble starting it up. Key on, middle dash lever down, push and turn knob to the right. Does the engine need to be running? I read that it didn't, but no fans or pumps are running...

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1977 FI Westfalia

[orwell84]

Did you get the heater running on the bench? I’m not familiar with the BA6, but have brought a couple of BN4 heaters back from the dead. There are a number of safety features that will keep it from running. I got the heater running first and made sure the safety features worked...like making sure it would turn off after x amount of time without getting fuel. On the BN4, there is a metal strip inside a plastic box which heats up and trips a switch. The metal strip was broken in mine so I tried it with different sizes of stranded wire until it tripped within the time limits. You get the idea. After running it through all the cycles for a long time on the bench I installed it.

From installation, I rigged up wiring to make it go and later found the proper egg timer switch. The switch I have let’s it run with or without the ignition turned on. The egg timer is to prevent it from killing the battery when the ignition is off.

[Goach2]

Tested the parts individually, but not as a whole unit. Nothing seems to be happening, so I'll start with fuses and power, but I don't know if I'm missing anything to the start up sequence.
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1977 FI Westfalia

[orwell84]

The BN4 works through a relay on the heater which is connected to the battery. The dash switch gives power to the relay through either a keyed circuit or with an always live circuit.

You could power the relay without all the dashboard wiring and switch just to test the heater and then sort out the dash wiring later.

[Goach2]

Swapped out the relays last night for one someone had given me recently. Fans kicked in immediately, but no pump. Reading through here, looks like ungrounded relay be the cause and I didn't install it yet. Will try it today and see.
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1977 FI Westfalia

[Goach2]

Traced it back to the points on the combustion fan. Can't get the friggin' set screw out to pull the blade. Spraying, tapping and sitting. Any other suggestions?
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1977 FI Westfalia

[Goach2]

Finally got fan disassembled and cleaned up. Plugged it in and tested before install, trouble light in place of the pump is flashing. Sweet, now to reassemble without breaking anything....
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1977 FI Westfalia

[Goach2]

So got it all together and turned it on. The pump wasn't doing much, gave it a hit and it started pumping. Kept pumping for a bit, then seemed to slow and stop. A light tells me that it's still getting it's intermittent voltage, but nothing is happening. Tried my spare pump and it's not moving either. I'm wondering if it's possible that fuel isn't flowing? Does the engine need to be running? Or should I adjust the output on the pump? I have it all the way tight at the moment, perhaps too tight?
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1977 FI Westfalia

[orwell84]

Old fuel can gum up the pump. I used WD40 and tapping to free it up. It may have to pump for awhile to prime.

[Goach2]

Pulled the pump out, had fuel in both lines. Swapped my spare in, same thing. Pumps for about a minute, then stops. I think it's pushing fuel until the pressure on the push side builds and it can't push any more. Can something keep it from entering the ignition chamber?
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1977 FI Westfalia

[Goach2]

Do the wires on the glow-plug have to be connected in a certain way? One is power the other is ground. Just wondering if having them backwards might affect how it works...
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1977 FI Westfalia

[Goach2]

Feels like the plug is getting warm, so I think the glow function is working. I don't hear the sparking though, if I'm supposed to. Put a plug tester on the coil and it's working. Now I'm remembering that I put some anti-seize on the glow plug threads. Does it need a good clean contact to ground the threads for spark?
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1977 FI Westfalia

[orwell84]

It’s possible. A safety switch turns off everything if the heater doesn’t light in a certain amount of time. The spark plug is also a glow plug on the BN4 at least.

[Goach2]

So, for the hell of it I thought I would see if running the engine made any difference. That's when I found out the battery was way low. Fans would run and all that, but not enough juice to fire. Started the heater up and she fires right up. So much smoke! Airing out the garage now. Smoke was even coming out of the vents, should I be worried about that? It's supposed to be a closed system, unless something inside the cabin portion is just burning off...
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1977 FI Westfalia

[orwell84]

Yay! It’s normal for them to smoke a lot after starting up for the first time in decades, but it should stop after awhile. Let it run for awhile and burn out all the crud. Make sure it chugs through the different cycles. The pump should go off as the fan runs, then it will come back on and the heater will light again. This is how it maintains the temp you set. When you turn it off and the pump will stop but the fan will run awhile to purge fumes for awhile before it goes off. The next thing is to adjust the pump output.