Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Hood River

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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Hood River

Post by Amskeptic » Sat Aug 16, 2014 8:06 am

Jivermo wrote:Very neat pics, and that Snow Trac is really a fun looking vehicle.
I loved that Snow Trac. The engine sounded so good with the exhaust piping away the exhaust sound ten or so feet to the rear. Your photographs of the snowy road from behind the wheel almost made me want to experience some snow to drive it . . . almost.

Gorgeous pictures, you are living the Westy life to the fullest.
Colin
BobD - 78 Bus . . . 112,730 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles

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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Hood River

Post by 71whitewesty » Sat Aug 16, 2014 3:47 pm

Remind me not to post until I've proof read it.... jeez there are a lot of typos in that post! I'll get to fixing them.
The Snow Trac does make winter so much better.

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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Hood River

Post by Amskeptic » Sat Aug 16, 2014 7:07 pm

71whitewesty wrote:Remind me not to post until I've proof read it.... jeez there are a lot of typos in that post! I'll get to fixing them.
The Snow Trac does make winter so much better.
"Barley square up," I say . . . :flower:
BobD - 78 Bus . . . 112,730 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles

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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Hood River

Post by Jivermo » Sun Aug 17, 2014 7:40 am

"Barley malt, bottoms up!"I may have said that.

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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Hood River

Post by Amskeptic » Mon Aug 18, 2014 9:19 pm

Jivermo wrote:"Barley malt, bottoms up!"I may have said that.
"M'alt's barley charging n battery's down!" I may have :drunken: slurred that at a railroad yard.
BobD - 78 Bus . . . 112,730 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles

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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Hood River

Post by Spezialist » Tue Aug 19, 2014 11:37 am

I'm Pretty sure that snow cat used to belong to a friend (RIP) of mine here on kauai.
Hey Colin, sounds like a ground issue on the toasty points.
Thanks for all the cool PNWVW pictures, almost like being home.

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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Hood River

Post by 71whitewesty » Tue Aug 19, 2014 10:20 pm

The Snow Trac came from Stevens Pass. There's a small community at the top of the pass and there used to be a few of them in there. They'd use them to get back to their cabins. The fellow I bought it from said it came along with his cabin when he bought it. Did your friend have a cabin up there? That's all I know about the history of this particular one. This was the last one in the neighborhood. Seemed they all went to snowmobiles to access the cabins. There are a few of them around still in Washington. Thanks for chiming in. I spent about 11 years on Maui and this has helped with the transition back to PNW winters. ;-)

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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Hood River

Post by 71whitewesty » Thu Aug 21, 2014 9:31 am

One of the items we diagnosed was the dimmer relay. We checked the turn signal switch and it seemed fine, so we decided it was the relay. The other day I disconnected the battery and took out the relay and thought I'd have a look inside and see what we have.
This is what I found. There were a couple of big chunks of something in there and a good spoon full of rust. I wasn't going to try and resurrect these and thought I'd pull the one off the third 71 sitting out in the yard. It didn't work either and although I didn't take it apart I just decided to order two new ones.

Image

$80 and a day later I had these two delivered. Two different manufacturers but one of them seemed like a genuine German part....until I took it out of the box and it says made in Brazil! (not sure if you can read it or not but says Brazil on the part and Germany on the box)
I read somewhere that this is the case with Meyle but sure is misleading. Not that I really care on a part like this but just thought it was funny. The other one has no markings on it to indicate where it was made, that one is slightly heavier then the Meyle one. I haven't taken them apart to see how they look inside. I'll put them in today and see if that fixes the dimmer ability.

Image

One last thing is since Colin was here and we adjusted the timing and carb on the newer 71, it has a bit of a pitter in the exhaust when coasting down hill in gear. Maybe advanced too much? Pretty sure I don't have any exhaust leaks and it didn't do that before we messed with it. It's running pretty good but can also take a few extra cranks to get it started. I'm thinking it's advanced a bit too much but still runs well. Any thoughts on that one?

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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Hood River

Post by Amskeptic » Fri Aug 22, 2014 6:51 am

71whitewesty wrote:One of the items we diagnosed was the dimmer relay.
Meyle sure is misleading.

we adjusted the timing and carb on the newer 71, it has a bit of a pitter in the exhaust when coasting down hill in gear. Maybe advanced too much? Pretty sure I don't have any exhaust leaks and it didn't do that before we messed with it. It's running pretty good but can also take a few extra cranks to get it started. I'm thinking it's advanced a bit too much but still runs well. Any thoughts on that one?
Modern corporate thinking says to milk old reputations to death. "Meyle Germany" just means the company's mailbox is in Germany. They know that "made in Germany" is cachet, and they do avoid actual fraud by just titling the box Meyle Germany, and identifying the part as made in Brazil, which is a definite hit against quality for some parts.

The pitter (pitter?) is usually evidence of a slightly lean mixture which can cause a longer burn. You are hearing the tail end of combustion entering the exhaust system. VW went nuts trying to get rid of lean backfires back in the day with the dual carb buses, gulp valves and dashpots. The '71s had dashpots and the 70 and earlier had throttle positioners.

I think . . . retarded timing adds to exhaust backfire on overrun, but you are hereby not given permission to advance the timing just to reduce backfires. I can't remember our numbers any more, but do you remember which way we went? The re-positioning of the distributor drive gear I think erased any recording of what your timing was initially. I am *known* to make your engine weaker and smoother by setting the timing to absolutely no more than factory limit. Many do advance it up a bit for more power, and I frequently find Type 1 engines up at 30-32* btdc. Blaaahg I say.

If you would like to experiment, feel free, just note your starting point. I tune for performance, temperature and/or economy, and do not adjust anything in the attempt to eradicate a how do I say it delicately? . . . a trifling annoyance at best.
Colin :blackeye:
BobD - 78 Bus . . . 112,730 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles

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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Hood River

Post by 71whitewesty » Fri Aug 22, 2014 9:10 am

Thanks Colin. I say pitter because it's not quite a pop, pop yet. Just a pittering of sorts heading downhill in gear. I came up with that one myself;-)
I try to have the timing set between 28-30* btdc, hoses off and retard plugged. I was messing with it again last night and have yet to test it out yet. I also smell a bit more fuel than usual, so I was thinking maybe it's rich. Of course I've messed with it all since you were here, idle, mixture and the timing. But just small adjustments. I also noticed the dist wasn't settling down all the way and removed it to bend the clamp a touch. It's sits down fine now. I won't get to test it again until next week, taking another weekend trip this weekend.

On another note, I put the new relay in and still have no click when I try and turn the brights off. No change in that at all. I tried the other new relay and had the same result. I took the turn signal switch apart and manually made contact and still nothing. Cleaned all the fuses too. I think my next step is to fine the ground and give it a good cleaning.
I'll get it, eventually.

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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Hood River

Post by Amskeptic » Sat Aug 23, 2014 5:33 am

71whitewesty wrote:I put the new relay in and still have no click when I try and turn the brights off. I think my next step is to fine the ground and give it a good cleaning.
I'll get it, eventually.
I think so too. Brown with white stripe and brown only. The relay is a momentary contact with a rotating cam that moves the center contact to high beam then low in an endless circle.
Stupid cars. My horse never did this.
Colin
BobD - 78 Bus . . . 112,730 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles

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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Hood River

Post by 71whitewesty » Mon Aug 25, 2014 10:05 pm

Well I've been side tracked and I'm hoping the engine we worked on is up to the task of pushing its original owner around for a bit.
I just broke a valve off on my primary driver bus. Piston has a huge hole in it and the head is toast.
I was returning from about a 6 hour drive home, up and over a few passes and got within 15 miles of home and with no warning, it blew, I heard it and pulled over. AAA towed me home and I've pulled and stripped the motor to have rebuilt AND pulled the motor out of the one bus and almost have it in the other. Worked on it most of the day today. I posted it on the samba with a few photos too.
32,000 miles on that rebuild.

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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Hood River

Post by Amskeptic » Tue Aug 26, 2014 6:37 am

71whitewesty wrote:Well I've been side tracked and I'm hoping the engine we worked on is up to the task of pushing its original owner around for a bit.
I just broke a valve off on my primary driver bus. Piston has a huge hole in it and the head is toast.
I was returning from about a 6 hour drive home, up and over a few passes and got within 15 miles of home and with no warning, it blew, I heard it and pulled over. AAA towed me home and I've pulled and stripped the motor to have rebuilt AND pulled the motor out of the one bus and almost have it in the other. Worked on it most of the day today. I posted it on the samba with a few photos too.
32,000 miles on that rebuild.
I am going to pluck these later posts and stick them into the Type 2 Forum, since this is moving well beyond the Itinerary.

PLEASE do some forensics here and help us figure out why you dropped a valve.
Are they VW valves?
What does the valve fracture look like, does it have dull outer edges as in cracked for some time?
Are they the chrome stellite exhaust valves from 1971 that VW was proud of until they discovered that the stems could detach from the valve head?

Any evidence of hot running?
Loose valve guides?

Blowing up engines is frowned upon around here.
I don't WANT Chloe to think that she can just grenade her engine any old time . . . :blackeye:
BobD - 78 Bus . . . 112,730 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles

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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Hood River

Post by 71whitewesty » Wed Aug 27, 2014 9:26 am

Here are my observations. The valve head broke off clean with no signs of dulled edges on the stem. I don't know what sort of valve was used but the heads were new when installed.
I also don't know how hot it got because I have no temp gauge. I did just finish about 5 hours straight driving over about 5 passes and then going 60-65 on the freeway. I do think it was hot but I've done lots of drives like this before. I don't know if the valve guides were loose.
I already stripped it down and dropped off the long block yesterday to have rebuilt. I then came home and pulled the motor from the one we worked on and put it in my primary driver. It's all up and running now and seems to be fine. Of course I'm now paranoid and will be driving it no more than 60mph and will probably take a break every three or four hours of driving to let things cool a bit, at least until I have another back up motor ready...

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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Hood River

Post by Amskeptic » Wed Aug 27, 2014 6:40 pm

71whitewesty wrote: valve head broke off clean with no signs of dulled edges on the stem.
A clean break is evidence of the old original Type 1 and 3 valves that were welded together:

Image
71whitewesty wrote:heads were new when installed.
New? From who? How many miles?
71whitewesty wrote:I also don't know how hot it got because I have no temp gauge. I did just finish about 5 hours straight driving over about 5 passes and then going 60-65 on the freeway. I do think it was hot but I've done lots of drives like this before.
Me too . . .


71whitewesty wrote:Of course I'm now paranoid and will be driving it no more than 60mph and will probably take a break every three or four hours of driving to let things cool a bit, at least until I have another back up motor ready...
See: who made the heads

Colin
BobD - 78 Bus . . . 112,730 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles

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