Itinerant Air-Cooled

Quite a productive, exhausting, and satisfying day yesterday. The bus feels better than ever.

Here's what we accomplished:

1. Installed a beautiful fuel pump relay setup to replace the hot wire from the coil to the pump, using an inexpensive Dorman 84601 relay from Autozone like this:
2. Replaced the front brake pads.
3. Rebuilt the gas pedal so it now works smoothly, allowing the car to be driven wearing shoes.
4. Adjusted the front wheel bearings, one of which was loose and one of which was very dirty.
5. Adjusted the steering box to eliminate steering slop.
6. Replaced the accelerator cable (including a super elegant $0.20 barrel nut from OSH to replace a gnarly bolt that interfered with the #4 plug wire).
7. Adjusted the rear brakes and hand brake (which finally works!).
8. Uncovered the front beam grease nipples underneath the dirt and greased the front beam.
9. Adjusted the timing to reduce excessive advance from a sloppy distributor.
10. Fine-tuned the carbs so they now work perfectly (including a frustrating 40-minute futz session with the central idling cutoff).

The most satisfying part of the day? Passing a big truck on 101 going from 50-60 in seven seconds (approaching Raby territory here).

What is so enjoyable about these days is how focused you are. It is very different from the typical Saturday wrench session, where you are trying to fit it in between dog walks, laundry, and afternoon hikes. Having Colin advise you on your efforts as you go along also reduces a lot of the stress about whether you have things repaired and maintained correctly.



(It's amazing how he gets those buses to levitate).

great stuff!!!! I bet Colin enjoyed the warmer weather!

covelo wrote:
3. Rebuilt the gas pedal so it now works smoothly, allowing the car to be driven wearing shoes.

Great stuff. So how did you get the pin out of the gas pedal hinge. Mine is rusted into it. I put so much rust blaster on it, my gas pedal just fell off the hinge. I now have the gas pedal zip tied to the hinge. I actually works better than it did before. I bought a repair kit, but I still can't move that stupid pin.

I may have to cut of the hinge and bolt on a new one as the hinge that came with the rebuild kit suggests I do.

Manfred wrote:

covelo wrote:
3. Rebuilt the gas pedal so it now works smoothly, allowing the car to be driven wearing shoes.

Great stuff. So how did you get the pin out of the gas pedal hinge. Mine is rusted into it. I put so much rust blaster on it, my gas pedal just fell off the hinge. I now have the gas pedal zip tied to the hinge. I actually works better than it did before. I bought a repair kit, but I still can't move that stupid pin.

I may have to cut of the hinge and bolt on a new one as the hinge that came with the rebuild kit suggests I do.

same problem on mine. I eventually just left it and worked around the issue. I always wondered what people did on this.

uh oh, I'm next, and not ready at all. aye yi yi