1974 Safare Custom Camper Build

[Cvannoy]

Yea, I’ll be messing with the idle jets today to see if I can get the mixture just right and yes the vacuum advance port is capped on the carb.
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1974 Safare Custom Camper
1978 Datsun 280z

[Cvannoy]

I wasn't able to get to it yesterday, but I played with the idle jets and mixture. Like I've said before, as the engine heats up it starts to idle higher. So I would set the idle really low and then adjust the mixture until it felt right and the popping did go away. Then I would bring up the idle (~900-1000 rpm) and rev the engine slowly and the popping would start again. But I also noticed the idle creeping up a little bit. I am wondering if the idle is high enough that it's pulling from the primary jets and making a lean mixture which is causing the popping. If I am misunderstanding how the carb works please let me know.

On the interior update, my wife began painting the inside white. We're just using rustoleum glossy white because it was what home depot had on the shelf and the interior paint doesn't matter to us because it will be covered with wooden paneling.

I currently have a large excel spreadsheet going comparing different prices of refrigerators, I have been convinced to go the electric route for refrigeration. I am also comparing solar panels, looking into different heater options (probably propane), interior pricing (re-covering the front seats and putting in new padding), bike rack options, and much more.

I will be building custom benches which will use the same bracketry as the "rock and roll" benches, westfalia bench seat, or "Z Bed" (I know it's not this, people just call it that). I will probably post some pictures of CAD on my thoughts because I am going to use it as a project for my engineering class.

A little more about me that people don't know, I am in my last year of getting my Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering with an Aerospace Concentration. This does not mean I know what I'm doing. It just means that I have paid a lot of money to try to retain more information than my brain can handle in a very short amount of time. And also means that I own a lot of expensive books that have information you can easily find on the internet nowadays if you want to learn everything an engineer learns without going to school. I'll get off my soapbox now though.

All this to say, I've got a lot of work to do. But am still very excited to do it all and will post more pics once the interior is all white (before and after) and will also hopefully have proper custom cabinetry being made by a friend soon.
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1974 Safare Custom Camper
1978 Datsun 280z

[busdaddy]

Idle speed increasing with temp can only be a few things.
* idle mix lean or just right, poor combustion until internal engine temps can accommodate the mixture. (maybe it's time to reactivate that choke?, that's what it's for).
* Throttle cable too tight, as things expand it opens the throttle slightly.
* sticky parts in the distributor, if it doesn't fully return from an advance the idle will go up. (not possible unless you rev the engine).
* Too rich and a vacuum leak opens up at temp. (your choke test pretty well ruled that one out).

While on the subject of vacuum leaks, those Prog kit manifolds have crazy thin flanges where they bolt to the heads, it's easy to bend the crap out of them tightening them up, it's also easy to trap the edge of the cylinder tin under a flange, both cause vacuum leaks and that may cause "popping", worth a look.
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[Cvannoy]

[skills@eurocarsplus]

[Cvannoy]

[Tbob]

I loved your explanation of the education process of becoming an engineer. That's the way I felt about all my higher education, I just didn't put it into words anywhere as well as you. And, about engineers, and I am sure you have heard this, but engineers are people who design solutions to problems you didn't know you had in ways you can't possibly understand. I had 2 uncles who were engineers, often times I wish I could have followed in their footsteps. Congrats on your carreer choice.
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1969 Deluxe, owned since 1973
1973 Westfalia, owned since 1983
1980 Westfalia, watercooled conversion
1985 Westfalia, stock!
1986 Westfakia, Audi I-4 conversion
A couple of trucks and a couple of Jeeps

[Cvannoy]

Update on the engine:

So I adjusted the auto-choke to be more open and now the engine tries to fire up immediately. Yay progress! The problem now is that the idle is still so slow to begin with that it doesn't want to stay running. This makes sense why there is a fast idle screw, so the idle is increased while the electric choke slowly opens up completely, then once the choke is open then the engine should be mostly heated up and the idle should be somewhat stable. The problem is that the fast idle does not work on the carb... This is due to probably multiple things.

In the picture above you can see:

1. There is a spring holding the throttle shut.
2. There is a pretty hard angle from where the throttle linkage is in comparison to where the throttle cable comes out.
3. Not shown in the picture, the fast idle adjustment has a lot of slack in it before it would actually move the throttle linkage.

So, how this custom solution works in letting the weber carb function and how it doesn't work. If you were to remove the spring and press down on the accelerator pedal then the pedal would get stuck in whatever position you ended because the throttle linkage does not have enough strength to pull it back. This I believe is due to the hard angle put on the cable. It is rubbing against the hole it is coming through and snagging which is causing enough resistance to prevent the throttle linkage from fully shutting. The next issue is that if I keep the spring on, then the choke doesn't have enough strength to move the fast idle linkages to increase the idle during start-up. I also need to tighten the slack because when I remove the spring and operated the fast idle assembly by hand all the choke did was tighten the slack on the fast idle and did not actually change the throttle linkage position to increase the idle. This was all visual and not while the engine was running so maybe it was able to increase the idle a small amount, but it didn't not visually look like it would work.

So my solutions are to either figure out how to make the throttle linkage in-line with where the throttle cable comes out, remove the spring, and reduce the slack in the fast idle assembly. Or buy solex carbs and move back to the original configuration.

I thought I had the original solex set-up in a bin but it looks like I just have extra intake manifolds for the weber carb
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1974 Safare Custom Camper
1978 Datsun 280z

[busdaddy]

Yeah, that cable angle needs attention, time for a new hole in the tin over the bellhousing.

The fast idle doesn't set just itself by choke tension, you have to pump the throttle once before starting when cold, that releases the spring tension on the idle cam and allows it to swing into cold position (choke plate also then closes most of the way), you'll also have to blip the throttle again once it warms up to let it snap back to warm idle position.
_________________
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!

[Cvannoy]

Interesting, well then my fast idle is not working properly because when I blip the throttle when cold the fast idle does not touch any cams. I'll have to figure out how to adjust it.
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1974 Safare Custom Camper
1978 Datsun 280z

[busdaddy]

#36 here:

https://www.piercemanifolds.com/category_s/329.htm
_________________
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!

[Cvannoy]

Got it, fast idle is set now. I'll know for sure tomorrow morning when I try to start it cold. While in the process I noticed that one of the intake manifold studs stripped out... So there's probably a leak there and I'll need to put a helicoil in or something similar to fix that.

I did drive the bus a little more today despite it's problems. It still drives great, a little bit off popping on deceleration sometimes (I'll attribute this to the intake leak until I have that fixed) but it started up great initially and once I was finished playing tennis for a couple hours. I did notice that it seems to be leaking oil so I'll need to figure out where that is coming from. Also I got home, hopped out and let it continue to run while I opened the gate, and once I was walking back to the bus I noticed that it was smoking a little from the engine area. But once I made it back over there it went away... So I'm not certain if it was coming from the exhaust or where it came from but mildly concerning nonetheless.
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1974 Safare Custom Camper
1978 Datsun 280z

[busdaddy]

[Cvannoy]

Today was a major success. I went out to start the bus cold (today is actually a hot day in WA at 69* F) and when I turned the key the bus started without a single hesitation! This is the first time it has ever done that! Thanks to the choke, fast idle, timing, and all other things that were problems now being set this bus is on it's way to being somewhat reliable! And of course thanks to the support of everyone who has helped on this forum!

Painting has been a slow process but someday we'll finish it. Then we might take it out for a couple days and go camping with a blow-up mattress for a bed since we won't have any furniture yet.
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1974 Safare Custom Camper
1978 Datsun 280z

[Cvannoy]

Drove the bus around some more and got to see where the smoke was coming from. There is oil dripping onto the exhaust from I think the valve cover. Looks like I need to get some new gaskets.

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1974 Safare Custom Camper
1978 Datsun 280z

[Cvannoy]

It has been a busy week so I haven't really been able to do anything to the bus. But we have done quite a bit of shopping for it so here are all the things that we have recently purchased.

Seat Covers $164.21
Seat Pads $175.00
Sun Visors $71.25
Sun Visor Screw Kit $0.90
Retractable Seat Belts $144.30
Retractable Seat Belt Hardware $8.92
Noico 80 Mil Sound Deadening $144.26
Noico Sound Deadening Tape and roller $18.56
Maxxair 5100k Fan and Exhaust $214.90
Carburetor Idle Jets $32.52
Norcold NR751BB Refrigerator $658.37 (ouch... these 12v fridges are expensive)
Primer Paint and Supplies $61.00
Mariner Alcohol Stove $65.00

With the cost of the Bus and it's registration we are so far into it around $5200. So still not too bad in my book. But we still need cabinetry, wood paneling, insulation, custom benches (the rock n roll bench hardware is expensive...), sink, extra tank (grey water or extra fresh water tank, not sure yet), and flooring. There probably is more. Man we have a lot of work to do and a lot more money that needs to be spent...
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1974 Safare Custom Camper
1978 Datsun 280z

[Cvannoy]

Interior paint for the most part is done now. It isn't pretty, but it is much better rust protection than just leaving it alone! Everything that is painted will get covered up with either flooring, cabinets, or wooden panels along the walls so the paint job shouldn't matter.

On the engine side of things, I drove the bus over to the store and had the lights on (which are garbage... will need to upgrade those), turned off the lights, went into the store, came out, and tried to start the bus and the battery was dead... Went back into the store and bought a mini jump box I can fit in the glove compartment (I wanted one anyway so it wasn't a big deal to me) plugged it in and the bus started right up. Drove it over to my parents house, had to jump it again to leave, and it has been sitting at my house since.

Initial thoughts were that the headlights weren't turning off when I would turn them off or were just drawing energy constantly after I had turned them on for the first time in forever. Headlights are turning off. I checked the voltage of the battery while running and it's around 12v so now I have an alternator issue or loose wire issue. There was a wire disconnected from the voltage regulator so I plugged it back in and made sure it was snug but the battery voltage was still around 12v. I still feel like there is probably a wire somewhere that must have come undone because the alternator has been working perfectly fine this whole time. But alternator's do stop working and if that's the case then I will be making sure to get a high output alternator if the one I have isn't already one.

But sadly until I can get this figured out, the bus isn't going anywhere
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1974 Safare Custom Camper
1978 Datsun 280z

[wagohn]

[SGKent]

on the oil leak on the valve cover. When you pull the gasket off, lay the valve cover on the head without a gasket, and try to rock it at the corners. If it rocks, tweak it with your hands and try again. When you get it to where it doesn't rock, then put your gasket on and the cover on after that. If you put a new gasket on and the cover is tweaked it will still leak. They get tweaked over time from being pried off.
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“Most people don’t know what they’re doing, and a lot of them are really good at it.” - George Carlin

[orwell84]