Itinerant Air-Cooled

Well my head is spinning too much to chronicle the day's events. For now suffice it to say that I learned and did things that I never thought I could or would ever do. I hope my brain check valves don't fail so I can keep everything in my head at 14psi and recall them tomorrow when the Gumout vapors have cleared. Thank you Colin for everything.

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That is by far the truest explaination of a first Colin visit Ive ever read =D>

Very good, and be patient to await the 'greetings from IAC visit to Vt' post. Do not be upset if it does not occur. A truly unexplainable event, I know. Spend some more time with the 'other party' (probably, a bus), consolidate. Let us know more, when you can. Pics are a plus.

Runamuck Bus wrote:Very good, and be patient to await the 'greetings from IAC visit to Vt' post. Do not be upset if it does not occur. A truly unexplainable event, I know. Spend some more time with the 'other party' (probably, a bus), consolidate. Let us know more, when you can. Pics are a plus.

Thank you but, believe me,I am not looking to be immortalized in a post. This was an 10+ hour tune-up. Something most of you will knock off in the matter of an hour or two at most. It certainly was not like some of the epic adventures we have already read about. The worst thing was when Colin was trying to get the shift lever re-seated into the shift rod and that only took about 20 minutes without any swearing.

Still it was epic for me and I learned that my bus was not as perfect as I thought, but has a solid foundation for greatness. Also, I am no longer afraid to get in there and tackle some of the issues we uncovered. The missing cooling flaps have me a bit spooked though at this point.

That looks picturesque and pastoral. I wish I kept my green bus in a red barn, so green and peaceful ...are there more pictures?

Well I am a professional photographer so it stands to reason that I did not get many pictures... I was too busy trying to keep everything he was firing off at me in my head while looking at my bus upside down on my back. In addition he was asking my opinion on the current political situation while I was trying to remember if I backed off a screw 1 or 1 1/2 turns. Wily Zen Master!

Colin kept remarking on how green everything was and took a number of pictures. Hopefully he will have the time to post a few.

aopisa wrote:Well I am a professional photographer so it stands to reason that I did not get many pictures... I was too busy trying to keep everything he was firing off at me in my head while looking at my bus upside down on my back. In addition he was asking my opinion on the current political situation while I was trying to remember if I backed off a screw 1 or 1 1/2 turns. Wily Zen Master!

Colin kept remarking on how green everything was and took a number of pictures. Hopefully he will have the time to post a few.

Here's a green one not:



I was accidentally enthralled with this vista outside of Bennington, the picture doesn't catch it so well, but it was timeless northeast:



Green, though, green did hit the next morning:



It was sooo pretty as I waited for my toes to thaw out from the night before, Aopisa was a gracious host and was equanimous as his every offer of an exquisite breakfast menu was whittled down to finally a piece of toast and a cup of coffee. Spring was so new up there, that the tops of the hills were still bereft of leaves, there were some very interesting vistas further up the road. Out into the green, to see our two green buses in the green landscape:






This bus has some real possibilities to reach the VW Bus Road Warrior state-of-being. It was a bit heavy on the external restoration and a bit light on the internal restoration, but it has good mechanicals underneath. (let me know if the steering has lightened up and improved its self-centering). I will await your report on dipstick temps as you get out on the roads in summer. You can pull into a rest stop, take a job down to the entrance ramp and back to your parking spot to allow "heat-soak" to warm it up. Anything under "ouch-dammit" is good.

Enjoyed meeting you, conversing with you, and the Pollo-de Ceasar Con Pano was excellent.
Colin

Here is the initial report as I took the bus out for a short run to get gas for the mower this morning.

-The steering is looser, more responsive, springs back better and I feel less "white-knuckly" at higher speeds (55-65). The steering wheel spokes are a few degrees off center when going straight down the road which greatly bothers me in my peripheral vision. I attribute this to me not paying enough attention when you were under the bus adjusting the steering box. How do I straighten it out without changing the steering play?

-Engine runs much smoother while driving and the backfire has disappeared. Idle sounded a little low this morning. I will keep an eye on it and rmake adjustments (now that I know how!) if it seems to continue.

-Shifter play is greatly reduced rattle is gone now too.

-I performed a near flawless down shift from 3rd to 2nd, but it took great effort and concentration. Unlearning is much harder than learning, but I will keep working at it.

-Looking into finding the air flap replacement.

-Thank you again so much. I wish the time had not passed so quickly, but I knew all along that it would.

Tim

You can take the steering wheel off and move it over a spline or two to get it centered.

Amskeptic wrote:.....n dipstick temps as you get out on the roads in summer. You can pull into a rest stop, take a job down to the entrance ramp and back to your parking spot to allow "heat-soak" to warm it up. Anything under "ouch-dammit" is good.

.
Colin

sorry for the hijack, but I have a question.

where is the appropriate grab spot on the dipstick to test the temp? The tip that has oil on it when you pull it out is freaken hot on my bus - dammit hot if you will. On the other hand, the loop that you grab all the way down to the little "hat" is totally grab-able. Am I passing the test, or is there reason for concern.

chitwnvw wrote:You can take the steering wheel off and move it over a spline or two to get it centered.

Um . . . no you can't here in IAC Land. We, aopisa and I, were just talking about how people will seemingly willfully ruin these great old cars by not learning the correct way to adjust things like steering boxes. His was way over-tight because someone did not notice that the play was actually because of loose center pin bushings.

There is a little divot on the steering shaft seal at the top of the box. It has to be centered above the little boss cast into the metal of the box. Once it is, then you confirm that the steering spokes are horizontal. If not, then you have my blessing to re-position the steering wheel. Otherwise, you are compelled to do the correct thing which is to remove the drag link and shorten or lengthen as necessary.

Now then, aopisa, the steering box adjustment does not change the orientation of the steering wheel. You are lucky . . . you have two, count 'em, adjustable tie rods on your fine bus, unlike the factory fresh buses. If you tell me which way your steering wheel is off, we can walk you through the centering procedure, it takes less than fifteen minutes, so give yourself an hour

Oregon72 wrote:where is the appropriate grab spot on the dipstick to test the temp?

The handle.
(Marquis du Sade says, "grab the tip immersed in the oil hahahaHA.")

We know that good normal oil temp on a summer day is hopefully at boiling temperature, and that is ouch dammit every time. So, it is useless to touch the immersed tip, it will hurt every time.

The handle is cooled by ambient air, the stalk is cooled by the passage through the fan housing, so we need to give it some heat soak time to bring the oil temp up to your measuring spot. The Type 1 engines have short dipsticks that do a good job of telling you oil temps right away.

It is a pretty noticeable thing if the oil temp is too high.
The dipstick will bite you immediately which is totally out of character.
Colin

aopisa wrote:Well I am a professional photographer

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I was gonna say...

Amskeptic wrote:There is a little divot on the steering shaft seal at the top of the box. It has to be centered above the little boss cast into the metal of the box. Once it is, then you confirm that the steering spokes are horizontal. If not, then you have my blessing to re-position the steering wheel.

Sorry, I assumed that since you had done the work, that the above was true.

Amskeptic wrote:

chitwnvw wrote:You can take the steering wheel off and move it over a spline or two to get it centered.

Um . . . no you can't here in IAC Land. We, aopisa and I, were just talking about how people will seemingly willfully ruin these great old cars by not learning the correct way to adjust things like steering boxes. His was way over-tight because someone did not notice that the play was actually because of loose center pin bushings.

There is a little divot on the steering shaft seal at the top of the box. It has to be centered above the little boss cast into the metal of the box. Once it is, then you confirm that the steering spokes are horizontal. If not, then you have my blessing to re-position the steering wheel. Otherwise, you are compelled to do the correct thing which is to remove the drag link and shorten or lengthen as necessary.

Now then, aopisa, the steering box adjustment does not change the orientation of the steering wheel. You are lucky . . . you have two, count 'em, adjustable tie rods on your fine bus, unlike the factory fresh buses. If you tell me which way your steering wheel is off, we can walk you through the centering procedure, it takes less than fifteen minutes, so give yourself an hour

I will snap a photo of the steering wheel in its slightly askew orientation and post it later, after I check the divot and boss on the steering box.

An hour sounds about right, maybe 45 minutes since I won't be answering questions on the current political climate.....Any bets on how long you think it will take me to do an oil change, 2 hours?