Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Minnesota 3

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Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Minnesota 3

Post by Amskeptic » Tue Jun 23, 2015 8:06 am

Jun 13/14 Done! llarosa16 ........................ Farmington MN
Jun 16 Done! Belle Plaine .......................... Belle Plaine MN
Jun 17 Done! grifftenstein .......................... Saint Peter MN
Jun 18 Done! llarosa16 ii ............................. Farmington MN

Jun 19a Done! the miz .......................................... Eagan MN
Jun 19b Done! grifftenstein ii ..................... Saint Peter, MN

By the evening of June 16th, my mind is swimming with "notes to self". Let's add more. Drove down to Saint Peter to visit grifftenstein and his '72 Westy fresh off a 700 mile trip.

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"Ran great," he said. "We could do a bunch of little projects like drill out the broken thermostat bracket bolt in the case."
"Let's remove that progressive carburetor and stick on some factory dual carbs," said I.


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That suddenly raised the bar on making the factory dual carbs work "greater than great." There was a very nice used 1972 1700engine with the dual carbs sitting on the floor in the garage, and it looked like rain, so why not, right?

No time for reflection, we began to dismantle the Ran Great Progressive. We needed some fuel and vacuum hoses and a throttle cable splice, so grifftenstein motored off to the auto parts store in his Jetta and I set to work with a convoluting cumulus of new needs springing up like a thunderstorm, call themiz and tell him that I need to put him in on my travel day to Iowa (the 19th), wire connectors, wire, fuel hose clamps, vacuum hose clamps, carburetor overhauls (they need them).......
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....... re-route the throttle cable, what to do about the front tin that someone had hacked to allow the throttle cable to come through where the Ran Great Progessive wanted it, and what about Lisa's steering lock, did I remember how that thing is supposed to go together? we need elbows for the vacuum booster pipe, wait, there is no vacuum booster pipe, was it really the white wire that caused our electrical melt at the fuse box on Lisa's bus, hey look, the rain is here, I have to shove this bus into the garage now, close Chloe's sliding door! I hope these cut-off jets work, this has to be DONE today, I have no time left for contingencies and we have parts strewn about, if Lisa paid expedited shipping on the new dimmer relay and ignition switch from different vendors, she is paying dearly, that poor cactus needs water, call her to see if they have arrived, I have to see if the vacuum retard unit works, and there is grifftenstein "hey, you're back, did you find everything OK? That's a big heater hose. Did you find a throttle cable clamp, no dice?"

Somehow we managed to "refresh" both carbs, get the manfolds and carbs and throttle linkages on, we had a wild loop of red heater hose serving as brake booster vacuum pipe, we got the fuel pump located and a safety relay for it, replaced the fuel hose at the tank to the newly located fuel filter (ask me about gas burns in the armpits) and we used a heater cable clamp to splice together the throttle cable, but of course it just had to rub against the vacuum retard hose and be a "return? never!here's some more rpms for ya, ya want even more?" PIA, and a return spring that couldn't care less.

At, oh say, 9:30PM, we got the engine running and backfiring and shaking and overrevving with that lousy return spring. Around 10:45, Grifftenstein notes that he has an appointment with a doctor, "I have to go to the doctor." "Well, I have to get to Farmington."

Yeah, we both have things to do yet, this fine never-to-end day. It is obvious to me that I must return. I promise to fit in a return visit on the travel day to Iowa after my vist with themiz on my travel day to Iowa. Drove out onto US 169 north in what felt like the dead of night with my dead of mind through the Minnesota countryside "there's the light on top of the Rahr Malting Company's biggest building" and it was beautiful, but the Notes To Self list in my frazzled brain is looking like an explosion of confetti. It was 12:30AM at a gas station island (better lighting under the canopy) reading the Bentley again about some steering column lock procedure when the overnight shift clerk came up an rapped on the driver's window, "Uhh,huck, duuuude that is the most awwwwesome vaaaan, I neeed one of those, hey, I'm not bothering you, am I?"

Showed up at Farmington call, Lisa is at work until 3:00, and I dive in with a new ignition switch and a new dimmer relay sitting right there on the passenger seat. Got the steering lock, column, horn wire! all back together, get the wiring all together, punch a dimple at 12:00 oclock on the light switch hole to help it stay seated, button up the dashboard, and take a test drive.

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Yes. Engine is balky as heck. Adjust carburetor on Lap Three of the neighborhood, engine is a little better. Chat with Lisa's older daughter and her boyfriend and explode his dreams of joining the Marines while I get the steering wheel on, "you will have to obey the whims of our leadership and live with the consequences for the rest of your days" or somesuch. Everything works, turn indicators, horn, ignition switch . . . gear shift is a little dodgy, Lap Four of the neighborhood and the garage sale people down there at the corner are wondering if I will ever get over my shyness and actually stop to browse as I keep circling, but the gear shift is finally a little better.

When Lisa gets home, we have a new used cross bar for the right rear brake and she gets to work installing it while I go back into the dashboard because the stupid dimmer does NOT work. I of course blame my work and tear the dash and turn signal switch back out looking for some errant mis-wire. The YoungerDaughterSolderedOldSwitch works flawlessly. Now it is time for her older daughter to get into the electrical stuff. She discovers that the new dimmer switch relay windings are open. She tests the old dimmer relay with the melted plastic that botched the switching action and its windings are good. I call the Arizona Autohaus while Lisa disassembles and frees and lubricates the right emergency brake cable. I tell them that although this is a non-returnable electrical part, it is defective and we need a new one and we ain't paying for shipping neither.

So, at the end of the day, Lisa and I take Betty Anne The Bus for a test drive and we test the brakes and the shifter and I am very relieved that I can throw out many of the Notes To Self. She may need some of you Minnesota folks to jump in here and there, we are devoted to keeping this car away from the "professionals", and she has the chops to get this VW stuff down. It was a joy to meet your family, Lisa.
Feel free to jump in with your impressions and fill in any details I might have overlooked!
Colin

(got a PM from Lisa a couple of days later "the bus died on our little family drive, *just like it did before you got here!" Aside from the cold inner chill of "I can't do this anymore", I told her that it was probably simple and get in there and find out the cause. She did, too, a loose battery cable)

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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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