1978 Westfalia restoration project

[SGKent]

get the AAA membership with extended towing enough to allow them to bring it home if something happens.
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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

[Abscate]

Drop the tar that used to be engine oil out the bittom after reading this

The bolt that holds the Strainer casts into the case web and if overtoghtemed , ruins your engine
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.ssS!

[the blob]

Appreciate the tips. I'll definitely get that AAA towing.

For the oil change, I've been having trouble finding a torque wrench that goes below 10ft/lbs (I think The strainer and plug are supposed to be 9 ft/lb). Any recommendations? Or is hand tight good enough?

[KentABQ]

Question for the Sambanistas:
I think I remember Karl saying there is not a lot of difference between ECU's, and are quite interchangeable.
Does anyone else recall that?

[Abscate]

[SGKent]

Don't trust your hand to tighen that nut. Go get a small torque wrench from Harbor Freight or something. If you have a beam wrench that is say 10 ft lbs up to 150 , you can make sure the pointer is centered and go just shy of 10. The actual torque is 7 - 9 ft lbs as someone recently pointed out. I use 108 INCH lbs too, because none of my ft lb ones go that low.
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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

[the blob]

Think I'll get a torque wrench in in/lbs, not worth busting my engine to save a few bucks on tools. I'm sure a more experienced VW mechanic could eyeball it but that's definitely not me.

I got my keys in the mail on Friday and they work in the ignition, all 3 doors, and trunk. Great success! The engine hatch lock seems gunked up so I haven't gotten that to work yet. Planning to get Deep Creep from Advance Auto at the recommendation of the locksmith at some point to lube up all the locks, but that's low on the priority list right now.

I'm starting to learn about the FI system, so I'll likely have some questions as I investigate this week.

I'm also planning to hit as much of the rust as I can with POR-15 (probably getting the kit with the cleaner, etcher, and inhibitor from busdepot). I've posted a bunch of pics on the gallery so you can see more completely what I'm working with, but will highlight some notable areas here:

Passenger side door has a large area of rot (I use that to mean any of pinholes/holes/flaking/softness, pls correct me if that's not the proper use) in the door:

And the door frame is still solid but some rot starting to take root around the holes (drain holes?):

Worst area of the bus is around the passenger's side tail light (the battery tray is still mostly solid but has some holes in it, which is where I'm guessing this water came from, driver side is bubbling but not through to the surface yet):

Some bubbly rust (with a quarter sized hole) around one of the wheel well (also bubbling under the drivers side tail light, pic in gallery):

Pinhole in the driver's side in the front is the only notable rust on the front panel besides under the headlight:

Surface rust around some of the side windows:

Surface rust on the sliding door track:

Surface rust under the drain thing around the top:

Tiny bit of rust under the front headlight:

There's also some specks of surface rust inside the vents on the side in the back. Really hard to get a good picture in there but it looks like a thin mist of brown towards the back of the vents. That's going to be fun to try and brush or spray...

A few questions on general rust procedures:
- If there's rot that I don't plan on fixing completely right now (just want to slow down), will it be sufficient to hit it with a wire wheel brush and then POR-15 like the surface rust? Or do I need to do something more involved to slow it down before doing more involved body work?
- Given the surface rust around the drain/gutter, should I remove the camper top and luggage rack and see if there is any rust under them? I'm going to have to replace the weather stripping and canvas top so maybe it'd make sense to do that all now if I'll need the top off anyway.
- Any other places I may not have looked for rust that I should check? (besides interior, that'll come a bit later)

[JaimeH]

[RalphWiggam]

Ditch the por15 and go with masterseries. I've tried them all and masterseries is the best I've used so far.

[the blob]

Still trying to figure out my FI system. It gets confusing since many of the lines are missing. I'm following the service manual diagrams, and I think I have a strategy that will help me figure it out this week (look up pictures of each part in the diagrams I'm using and see which parts I can find), but I'll update here once I've identified what exactly is missing.

As I was investigating and cleaning this weekend, I had a couple questions:

What is this part by the rear driver side wheel?

Is this where the starter inserts? It is directly behind the engine bay in the center of the bus.

(not a question) I got the distributor out and there was still oil on the shaft and it rotated freely. I think I'll try just cleaning it up and installing new points etc. before replacing it. (more distributor pics in gallery if you're interested)

[busdaddy]

#1 = fuel pump (with bonus mystery blue goop)
#2 & 3 = yes, starter mounting pad. Clean it up shiny before installing anything, it has to make good electrical contact.

www.germansupply.com has fuel system diagrams for various years under fuel line kits, find yours to figure out what parts are where.
_________________
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!

[the blob]

Thanks! I had trouble reading the FI diagram on germansupply (it was blurry) but I found the same diagram blown up on ratwell's site after poking around a bit: https://ratwell.com/technical/FuelHoses/FI_Kit_Inst_7879.jpg

Also found this helpful thread that I'll link here for my own reference later:
Fuel Injection Diagrams Collection FAQ

It seems like most of the lines I'm missing are the vacuum lines (I had mistakenly thought they were also fuel lines, no wonder I was so confused trying to match them to fuel line diagrams...). Based on the diagram the fuel lines are pretty good (from what I had traced earlier) besides a missing 50mm connector (in between the left and right sets of fuel injectors) and a bunch of clamps. Great! Guess I'll be investigating the vacuum lines this week instead

[busdaddy]

[the blob]

Got it. Will do! Better safe than sorry. Do I need to replace any of the metal line or just the rubber/mesh parts?

[busdaddy]

Just the flexible stuff, unless the metal is rusty to the point of near failure.
_________________
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!

[ToolBox]

[the blob]

Been a while since I'd been able to get anything done, but it was really nice weather yesterday so I decided to change the plugs and replace the points, condenser, and rotor on the distributor (I got the distributor tune up kit from busdepot, pics on my gallery if you're interested).

Autozone didn't have a magnetic plug socket that fit, so I had to get a normal deep socket to get the plugs in and out. Plugs 1 and 3 (I think, towards the front of the bus) were easy to get out, but the other two that are deeper under the engine shroud were harder to reach with out the magnet. Getting them out involved me going fishing with my combination wrench quite a few times:

Luckily for me, none of the plugs stripped the threads. The old plugs were black, and the plug holes were really dirty with some grit, which I tried to clean out before putting the new plugs in:

After struggling a while to get the new plugs in, I came up with this method which worked quite nicely:

1) get plug, socket, and piece of duct tape:

2) loop tape to make it double sided and place on side of plug:

3) push plug deep into the socket to make sure it sticks:

4) screw in plug:

5) remove duct tape:

After getting the plugs in, I have been having trouble getting the wires on. I got the busdepot recommended wires, but they haven't been going on easy (I've pushed pretty hard). They've got this clip on the end, do I need to bend those first?

[wagohn]

On a bus, you remove the silver "end caps" on the plugs. Then the leads snap on easily.

See the plugs in your second pic, the old plugs, they have end caps removed.
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1976 VW Transporter, 2.0 FI Engine

[HoboBus]

You need to remove the threaded nipple from the top of the spark plug to make this plug:

Look like this plug:

The plug wires don't use the threaded on nipple.

Good luck!
_________________
Salt air it ain't thin, it'll stick right to your skin,
it'll make you feel fine. Makes you feel fine.
And I wanna be there. -- Jimmy Buffett

Just a beach-oriented camping Hobo with a bus.

[busdaddy]

That engine has to come out for a thorough de rodenting, you'll cook it in a mile if you drive it like that.

_________________
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!