I picked this sweetheart up yesterday. Say hello to Nikki.

[cegammel]

If you get tired of dealing with her, I'll gladly take her off your hands! That is one lovely Vanagon.

[energyturtle]

Nahhhh. I love this shit! It is my daughter's. We will see if she gets tired of dealing with it. I highly doubt she will.

[energyturtle]

Update. Nikki LIVES. After changing a few rotten fuel lines, and changing the plugs, we sprayed some fresh gas in the plenum, hit the key, and vroooom. I had to finesse the wiper on the AFM damn near all the way CCW to get her to run. The exhaust coming out is HOT as HELL. The number 3 and 4 valve train is really loud, as well as, a lot hotter than 1 and 2. I let her run for 15 min or so with no change in valve chatter. I am going to fire her up again this morning and attempt another valve adjustment. If this fails I will remove the rockers, push rods, and tubes to start forensics on the lifters. More to come.

Scottie

[energyturtle]

She runs Great! It took a while to get her dialed in, but now she runs, idles, revs through all the throttle range perfectly. The durability of the type 4 power plant is engineering at its finest. This bus had been left to rot like so many others, at the hands of uneducated, let's throw some parts at it, "it has to be that damn fuel injection system" tyrants. To sum up I will quote Colin, "Once the needs are addressed and met, these are amazing drivers". Now on to brakes, and I am going for a drive!

Scottie & Makayla

[energyturtle]

Update. Bled the brakes and went for a drive to the car wash. Ive never driven a Vanagon until now. All I can say is they are amazing drivers, much more comfortable and aerodynamic than a Bay Westy. She is a sweet heart. I still have some tuning to do when the correct distributor arrives, but all in all, a very productive day.

Scottie

[Amskeptic]

Update. Bled the brakes and went for a drive to the car wash. Ive never driven a Vanagon until now. All I can say is they are amazing drivers, much more comfortable and aerodynamic than a Bay Westy. She is a sweet heart. I still have some tuning to do when the correct distributor arrives, but all in all, a very productive day.

Scottie

Yes!
I had a terrible time with my loyalties when I bought a Vanagon on March 20, 1989 and brought it home to park alongside my trusty beloved Road Warrior. The Vanagon was such a fine road car, quiet, smooth, strong, amazing visibility, excellent heat, electric heated mirrors, a/c, sounded so cool around town, a trouper during my cross-country blizzard epic in 1991.
Then I would get back into my frumpy dowdy old bay window bus and . . . . . . . get re-seduced by it every time.
I remember the day I accidentally sold the Road Warrior to buy a BMW, and the sick feeling deep in my stomach when I watched it drive away.
I remember the day I sold the Vanagon to those real estate ladies and watched it drive away, no sick feeling, just a quiet recognition that life is about the comings and goings and ebbs and flows.

Enjoy that Vanagon! I love driving them, but I do demand good shifting with that monster-throw gear shift lever.
Colin

[energyturtle]

It will not go in reverse. We will address that on your visit. Energy turtle is my baby. The vanagon is Makayla's, as she instantly fell in love. She has been with me every turn of the wrench so far. I find it to be quite empowering for her. The look on her face when the vanagon came to life was priceless. She's getting pretty handy with a wrench. I told her show me a bachelor's degree before she's 20 and I'll sign the title over. Anyways, were hitting the road to edisto beach next Friday for the FMBC Freeze yer toe camp out. Wanna come meet some good vw folks?:)

[TrollFromDownBelow]

Update. Nikki LIVES. After changing a few rotten fuel lines, and changing the plugs, we sprayed some fresh gas in the plenum, hit the key, and vroooom. I had to finesse the wiper on the AFM damn near all the way CCW to get her to run. The exhaust coming out is HOT as HELL. The number 3 and 4 valve train is really loud, as well as, a lot hotter than 1 and 2. I let her run for 15 min or so with no change in valve chatter. I am going to fire her up again this morning and attempt another valve adjustment. If this fails I will remove the rockers, push rods, and tubes to start forensics on the lifters. More to come.

Scottie

Curious minds want to know...why was the valve train loud? what did you have to adjust to get everything running as it should?

Cheers
Mike

[energyturtle]

These lifters had not been pumped up in 3 years. It took 3 valve adjustments. I finally went with 1/8 of a turn past 0 lash. It liked that, all pumped up and were fine afterwards.

[energyturtle]

Update...... I installed my new to me, correct, vacuum advance, stock Bosch distributor this afternoon. Holy smokes, instant change. I was able to set the timing statically to the correct 7.5 BTDC. I then plugged in the vacuum advance hose and off we went. It is like a new bus, quiet, responsive, excellent idle. The engine wants more gas, as I have found to be true for every AFM that has to have the cover pried free of glue. I think I will leave this one alone for a while until I get some mileage accumulated. Next up is an oil change, and figuring out why she wont go into reverse? More to come.

Scottie

[Amskeptic]

Update......she wont go into reverse.
Scottie

. . . and we do not force anything, yaah? So, how's that clutch master/slave relationship working out there?