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Itinerant Air-Cooled's Last Calls

Posted: Mon Oct 21, 2013 7:51 am
by Amskeptic
It was on my way from western New York to Pennsylvania that the skies closed in with a grey rainy cold that reminded me that this dumb planet is tilted at a 23* angle, and that angle is currently moving my beloved sun down to the horizon. If Pennsylvania's general latitude is around 40*, the noon sun on June 21st is a reasonable 72* off the horizon, but the winter solstice's sun barely hits 26* off the horizon. That is Totally Unacceptable to your Itinerator.
As was this:

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What's this? I swear it looked like the Statue Of Liberty escaping New York, seems to have made it as far as the Susquehanna:

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Boxed in by the remnants of the The Big Tectonic Crash Of Africa and America (aka the Alleghanian orogeny) under Pennsylvania's ridiculously inescapable hills, Chloe battled big trucks, big truck tire spray, and pesky Audi A6s for days on end.

The morning of my appointment with psucamper, we had a brief respite from the rain:

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There she is again, battling the currents of rock-headed demagoguery:

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Yes it is so very beautiful . . . but I am chilled:

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I can deal with trucks when they are not throwing water:

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See the railroad bridge down at the very bottom?

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This Susquehanna River is older than the Ice Age:

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Psucamper had me worried. He is an Engineer's Engineer, and he will do crazy things like install his own valve guides at home, and perform a three-angle valve grind at home, and I was afraid he would unmask me as a Hack's Hack:

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Fortunately, he is preoccupied with two challenging projects:

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We enjoyed a pretty relaxed day with his very helpful son replacing the fuel tank and doing some Beetle defroster hoses and trunk release work. All I can remember, however, is that crazy Penn State vs Michigan football cliff-hanger ( 4 overtimes!).

From psucamper's house, I continued west into more rainrainrain to Runamuck Bus in western Pennsylvania (our day is in another thread here in the 2013 Itinerary forum). Then I drove into more rain on my way to visit vwlover77 in Ohio (our visit is in another thread here in the 2013 Itinerary forum). Then I drove into more rain on my way to Muthashabubu's house in southwestern Ohio.
Muthashabubu has MANY VOLKSWAGENS which have been suffering TOO MUCH RAIN, too! Poor things, all rusty. But the wife's daily driver was a splendid little Fastback Automatic that reminded me of that Doyle Dane Bernbach ad way back in 1969 "Volkswagen Springs Into The . . . Present" with a photograph of an automatic gear shift.

After a tune-up, we test drove it and discovered, like Ethan's Vanagon in Connecticut, no kickdown. I left Muthashabubu with a diagram of how to rig up an electric kickdown switch on the throttle cross-shaft, and a plea to STOP THE RUST in his fleet. Here is why I do not like clearcoats:
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Yes, you are forced to put on a clearcoat over metallic paints, but I do not recommend them on solid colors. Anyways, did it rain when I left Ohio?
Of course.

Cumberland Plateau I-75 near Kentucky/Tennessee border:

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Last bit of Interstate before Chloe pulled into the storage unit 18,086 miles since May:

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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled's Last Calls

Posted: Mon Oct 21, 2013 8:59 am
by BellePlaine
Glad that you made it safely through another itinerary, Colin. You really provide a great service and I tell anyone who will listen about it.

I'm already thinking about what we'll do together next year; an exhaust swap going from my loud aftermarket rig to stock, including putting heat into the cabin. I need new heater control cables and the aux fan to work. It works, that is, I've seen the fan run once although it squealed like crazy. Or, we can install an auxiliary battery and do some interior light switch maintenance. Or, we can rebuild my 091. You said, that you'd need two days.

Give Mpls an extra free day or two so we can have a day at a beerhall and/or we find you some extra local appointments.

Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled's Last Calls

Posted: Tue Oct 22, 2013 5:31 am
by retro1302
Enjoy a long winter's nap, Chloe. See you in '14.

Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled's Last Calls

Posted: Wed Oct 23, 2013 8:16 am
by Amskeptic
retro1302 wrote:Enjoy a long winter's nap, Chloe. See you in '14.
The plans for Chloe are on hold. I have no garage space this winter to:
a) replace all vent window surround rubber
b) put in the new old stock interior panels
c) install a new headliner
d) install new main/connecting rod bearings (for the heck of it)
e) weld in new exhaust flanges between heat exchangers and muffler
f) install new rear wheel cylinders

. . . so I guess I'll go write a book or sumpin

Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled's Last Calls

Posted: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:20 am
by Lanval
Colin,

Thanks for the final pictures. Over the last couple of months, this forum has been a center of peacefulness for me; the pictures and stories of your peripatetic endeavor are calming, settling in a way few things are. I'm increasingly dispirited with what I'm doing, and it offers some degree of solace to read about the material value of your presence in people's lives. You come, there is camaraderie and fixing, and when you leave a sense of purpose and slightly more ordered universe. You are the anti-entropic force which binds together man and VW.

I revel in the American beauty you introduce me to; the many places I've never been, nor likely will ever go. You are, in that sense, a modern-day de Tocqueville revealing to us an image of ourselves, imperfect but alluring, not in spite of, but because of those failings.

Some quiet part of me will go into storage with Chloe, I guess, and quietly await the eternal turn of seasons, until spring approaches once again, and the happy rumble of 4 opposed cylinders springs to life once more. In the meantime, perhaps the occasional picture on your ramble to the store for more pencils will keep me awake enough to the world that I can winter over here, in sunnier clime, expectantly rather than immersed in melancholy.

ML

Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled's Last Calls

Posted: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:45 am
by Bleyseng
Amskeptic wrote:
retro1302 wrote:Enjoy a long winter's nap, Chloe. See you in '14.
The plans for Chloe are on hold. I have no garage space this winter to:
a) replace all vent window surround rubber
b) put in the new old stock interior panels
c) install a new headliner
d) install new main/connecting rod bearings (for the heck of it)
e) weld in new exhaust flanges between heat exchangers and muffler
f) install new rear wheel cylinders

. . . so I guess I'll go write a book or sumpin
and post lots of pictures of snowing falling in drifts, fires burning in the stove and updates on the book

Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled's Last Calls

Posted: Wed Oct 23, 2013 3:26 pm
by Amskeptic
Lanval wrote:Colin,

Thanks for the final pictures. Over the last couple of months, this forum has been a center of peacefulness for me; the pictures and stories of your peripatetic endeavor are calming, settling in a way few things are. I'm increasingly dispirited with what I'm doing, and it offers some degree of solace to read about the material value of your presence in people's lives. You come, there is camaraderie and fixing, and when you leave a sense of purpose and slightly more ordered universe. You are the anti-entropic force which binds together man and VW.

I revel in the American beauty you introduce me to; the many places I've never been, nor likely will ever go. You are, in that sense, a modern-day de Tocqueville revealing to us an image of ourselves, imperfect but alluring, not in spite of, but because of those failings.

Some quiet part of me will go into storage with Chloe, I guess, and quietly await the eternal turn of seasons, until spring approaches once again, and the happy rumble of 4 opposed cylinders springs to life once more. In the meantime, perhaps the occasional picture on your ramble to the store for more pencils will keep me awake enough to the world that I can winter over here, in sunnier clime, expectantly rather than immersed in melancholy.

ML
I also move south right here on the website . . . from the summer itineraries up top, to the General Chat forum down a ways. There may be a story brewing about the Lexus and a newly noisy timing belt idler bearing . . . I pray not:

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I'll be inviting numerous people to check this place out, so I hope it doesn't get too quiet around here, CALLING ALL LURKERS, YOU CAN PARTICIPATE, YOU KNOW.

Once a week over the winter, I will be posting little video clips stretching back to 2007 with commentary on the commentary that you can barely hear over the rushing wind. Some of these video clips are short and embarrassingly quaint . . . :hello2:

I will also be doing a concerted effort to post up illustrated technical articles once a week on Drawing Board Day-Off (a mandatory option this winter). Rsorak 71Westy has, of course, given up all hope that I'll ever get around to the rear wheel bearing replacement write-up, and I know better than to promise anything but "stay tuuuuned."
Colin

Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled's Last Calls

Posted: Thu Oct 24, 2013 4:46 pm
by zabo
where abouts are you wintering colin?

Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled's Last Calls

Posted: Thu Oct 24, 2013 6:42 pm
by Bleyseng
Hopefully, Key West...in a beach shack.

Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled's Last Calls

Posted: Sat Oct 26, 2013 7:24 am
by Amskeptic
zabo wrote:where abouts are you wintering colin?
I am but 5 hours from my wintering spot . . .Pensacola, Florida. If I get there, that is . . .
The Lexus started a horrible bucking and dying gig on Interstate 75 yesterday.

I had already dealt with this . . .

viewtopic.php?f=65&t=9438#p170129

and it gave me a nice scare on the way through Syracuse last year with the same symptoms.
I was pretty sure that it was the fuel pump circuit, seeing as it has a high amp circuit and a low amp circuit and a special two-pole relay to sort out which of the two circuits is best utilized according to the all-wise Electronic Control Module.

But, you know, the human story is always more complicated than just that which confronts you. Like a spunky movie that ties different story lines together in a last-minute surprise, the Lexus symptoms that plague me in this very moment are also related to . . . this:

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That's right. The SAME damn DEFECTIVE leaky CAPACITORS in my Dell Optiplex Desktop computer's motherboard are found in my Lexus electronic control module! I will be ordering a pile of these ....
Qty. 3 of 10µF - 50v
Qty. 2 of 15µF - 35v
Qty. 3 of 47µF - 63v
Qty. 2 of 100µF - 10v
Qty. 1 of 220µF - 16v
..... from Digikey in Thief River Falls, Minnesota, to be soldered into the two boards sandwiched into one little aluminum case buried in the passenger footwell of the Lexus.

This whole massive defective motherboard disaster that befell Dell is also responsible for the junking of numerous Lexi and Acuras and Toyotas over the past decade, because the symptoms mimic all number of other components, and after mechanics have gone through those other components at great cost to their hapless customers, everybody gives up in anger.

I will keep you abreast of this challenging repair . . . if I make it to Pensacola. The leaky capacitors are eating the copper traces on the circuit boards as I type.
Colin

Lexus ECU With Defective Capacitors:
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I shall not be

Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled's Last Calls

Posted: Sat Oct 26, 2013 10:02 am
by hambone
Solex! :cheers:

Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled's Last Calls

Posted: Sat Oct 26, 2013 8:56 pm
by 72Hardtop
Be sure and use solid state capacitors.

Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled's Last Calls

Posted: Sun Oct 27, 2013 10:16 am
by dingo
Lanval summed it up quite eloquently....i thoroughly enjoy keeping track of the itinerary as it zigs and zags...whether it be corrosive capacitors or dustdevils in the desert...thanks for keeping it real out there !!

Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled's Last Calls

Posted: Mon Oct 28, 2013 6:07 pm
by Amskeptic
72Hardtop wrote:Be sure and use solid state capacitors.
I am limited by the exacting constraints of capacity, size, and limited space. I cannot use tantalum (sic) or any of the capacitors that like to burn when pissed off. I am getting high-quality exact replacements from Nichicon and Panasonic.

ECU is sitting on my desk as I type. Soldering is fun except when it totally matters.
Colin :geek:

Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled's Last Calls

Posted: Tue Oct 29, 2013 7:24 am
by Cindy
The fifth grade grammar lesson I'm teaching today compels me to point out your misuse of [sic].

Couldn't help myself.

Cindy