Colin Visits Eskimo Tom’s Igloo in Lake Wobegon

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EskimoTom
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Colin Visits Eskimo Tom’s Igloo in Lake Wobegon

Post by EskimoTom » Mon Jun 27, 2016 6:45 pm

Aloha & Greetings

A little background, as I’m new here. I’ve been a VW bus driver going back to the early 90’s when I bought my 1st bus a 76 Westy. Identical make, model and color as Colin's current Itinerary ride)

I drove pretty steady for about 6 years until the motor gave out. In the meantime I drove an 86 Westy, disassembled an 89 deluxe and a few splitties. In August of 87 I went through most of the mechanicals and had the body refinished in original Marino Gelb. I sold it about 10 years ago, I sold off most of my Type IV spares, Belle Plaine Chris purchased numerous items. I began disassembling a 67 Deluxe late in 2014 and it’s currently undergoing metal replacement therapy.

Last June I picked up a 71 Sportmobile with typical Minnesota rust issues. It was a runner and I wanted to keep my bus wrenching skills current until the 67 comes home. I cautiously drove it home about an hour and half drive and we survived. I even took it to the VW show at Westside in the Cities last year when I found the brakes needed serious attention. I liked the idea that the 1600 was more in line with the 67.

Belle Plaine Chris invited me to spend some time with him and Colin last summer where I helped with “Heater Cable from Hell.”

This May on the the Sportmobile I replaced all the hard and soft lines, pads, shows, had front rotors turned and new rear brake drums and cylinders. It had a penchant for smoking quite a bit after running, even on short trips.

I pulled the H code beetle motor before Colin arrived. I hoped to track down the smoking issue. It has the dog house fan housing. The oil cooler bracket has 10 mm openings as does the bracket. However, being an older motor it has 8 mm oil cooler holes and requires the 8 mm to 10 mm oil cooler adapter seal between the block and the oil cooler bracket which it did not have, I ordered them before Colin arrived.

It was missing the flaps and a thermostat which I happened to have among my 1600 stash. The thermostat tested fine. I did a lot of cleaning and left everything apart in anticipation of Colin’s arrival. The heat riser was plugged on the manifold. Ken at thebusco.com was very helpful and sent me some heat exchangers, a manifold with a clean heat riser, the fan flap to air cleaner cable, the metal vacuum line tube, some replacement tin to help with the cooling and a missing motor mount bolt.

The starting point, REMOVED fan housing, intake, exhaust, oil cooler

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While I spent significant time disassembling and cleaning before Colin’s arrival, I had no appreciation or recognition of the time required to reassemble everything correctly in the time available. This day just flew by.

I highly recommend disassembling and cleaning as much as you are comfortable with ahead of time before Colin's visit. I learned a lot more about proper reassembly and learned I can’t always rely on the pictures I took while I was taking parts apart. Who is to say the prior owner had anything done properly.

A significant amount of time was devoted to correcting deficiencies. Despite having most of the major parts acquired, it’s the little, tiny unexpected items that can use up a lot of time. I can’t describe what it took to get the tiny captive/clenching washer thing that keeps the thermostat rod from coming off the flap mechanism installed.

Lesson? When stripping parts for your stash, don’t forget to take everything you can and when you get it home, don’t throw out any of it! Not one tiny bit like that rusty captive washer thingy. I happen to find a rusty captive washer thingy on another fan housing laying on the pile and we were able to proceed. That lack of one tiny piece would have put a dampener on the entire days progress because it’s about the air. We also had to fashion an air flap return spring I took off a progressive 2 bbl Weber I removed from a second 1600

The weather could not possibly have been more ideal. I was so happy and thankful for that. How nice was it? It was so nice the topic of weather didn’t come up. You know like “I wish it were more this or that.”

Colin arrives promptly at 9:00 am
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I wanted to get Colin’s quick assessment on whether “Rusty” was worth the effort. He liked everything above the backup lights as everything below suffers the savage abuse of the rust belt.

Colin felt, and helped me realize that with time, patience and immediate rust abatement, there was hope and likely worth the effort.

Addressing the motor, Colin again wanted to know my intentions, with the bus, the motor and my expectations. I elected to proceed with an end play adjustment right off, which I knew would erase my chances of having Colin’s test drive later.

Colin demonstrated the crude end play check of rocking the crankcase forward and back with screw drivers on the fan pulley and the flywheel. We broke out the dial indicator to get a more specific diagnosis. End play at .009" was well above the wear limit of .006". We pulled the flywheel and clutch, main seal, gland nut

One of my goals was to become more intimate with the engine’s inner workings. Checking and adjusting end-play is a positive step in that direction. Removing the clutch and flywheel were still mysteries.

I discovered how to get 300 foot pounds on the cheater bar and ¾ breaker bar. It was a lot less than I imagined.

The first task, Define and address the crankshaft end play:
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Revitalizing 20+ year old shims from the parts stash.
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Addressing the Oil Cooler seals and torque (Don’t forget to use Hooverbit when remounting oil cooler onto bracket. Learning to “feel” torque in fingers after having torque similar nut in accessible place

Now I understand why people rarely talk about food. Once you get rolling, time simply evaporates. It happened at 10:00 Brake issues in Fort Collins

My list of goals and tasks mostly went out the window. I put on a new clutch return spring without removing the clutch cable arm which was frozen to the clutch throw out arm. This was on my list however. The arm would not come off and I had to slide the clutch return spring over the top and nearly busted a finger getting the hook around the arm.

Reassembling the top end – We had the the oil cooler discussion, over tightening, spacers or not, Bentley is Book Number one, Colin is not a fan of Hayes book.
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Reuniting fan housing to top of engine. It required a few practice trial fits. Adding new window foam seal tape, remembering to correctly install the hoover bit (after we forgot the 1st time). The clenching washer at the end of thermostat rod attaching to flap lever.
Adjusting the thermostat rod to fan housing flap rod: I’m holding up the housing while Colin is adjusting thermostat and checking for free movement. Getting the doghouse set properly was a rather time consuming effort but it is all about the air flow so it was worth getting it right.
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Engine mostly buttoned up prior to reinstallation
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We lucked out, when it was time to attach the muffler. The engine had not undergone any serious modifications which would have altered the relationship between the exhaust manifold flanges and the cylinder heads.

Colin’s preference is Leistritz exhaust first, Ernst second and finally all the rest with this Dansk unit receiving no praise. Prior to Colin’s arrival, I made took the effort to have it sandblasted and I sprayed it with VHT brand high temp paint with ceramic. I fabricated a small tin oven using a two burner tabletop buffet unit to help bake the parts.

Manifold heater tube alignment with the big sliding wrench. Colin said it was one of first tools he bought. He stressed the importance of making sure the bolts can be hand tightened. A reminder to put anti seize on the exhaust manifold.

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Colin working the magic flange wrench
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The magic flange wrench. This will now be on my tool shopping list.
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Everything in its place. On the left side of my doghouse style fan housing there is a clip for holding spark plug wires with 3 slots despite there is only the #3 & #4 wires. I learned the 3rd slot is for the metal fuel line. I also learned that factory VWs had no wires touching each other and no wires touching the fuel lines, that everything has its place and relationship to each other.

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Reattaching engine tin screws
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Last major task of the day. Reestablishing the engine’s relationship to the transmission and the bus. The procedure is greatly enhanced with two people working two jacks, one on the motor and one on the transmission. With the motor jack operator cognizant of the orientation of the transmission bell housing relative to the motor. We experienced considerable bother getting the final fit locked into the pilot hole like Colin wanted. I did learn one can check their progress by rotating the crack shaft with your hands and look if rear wheels are turning. If so you are pretty close.

My bus motor was missing top left bolt and my replacement was the right width but not long enough. We were pressed for time and with what little use the bus will receive, I was happy to have the “extra dowel” in play at least that was better than nothing and my brain was pretty wrung out by this time.

By the way and in case you are wondering, because before all this started I wondered when the engine mounts at the ends of the mustache bar would be tightened, they were, literally the last item bolted together. After everything was aligned, the motor mated to the transmission, the motor mounts were secured to the mustache bar and the motor carrier brackets on the bus.

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Realigning the engine to the transmission was much more involved than any of the shop manual would have you think. Learned some valuable lessons of having the ability to adjust both the engine and the transmission separately to get the engine into place.

My homemade VHT muffler oven using a two plate electric buffet heater on high.
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Colin Heads off into the distance, Next stop Farmington, MN:
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1971 Camper. Sportmobile. "Rusty"

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wcfvw69
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Re: Colin Visits Eskimo Tom’s Igloo in Lake Wobegon

Post by wcfvw69 » Mon Jun 27, 2016 8:01 pm

What a great, detailed write up! Nice job.

Installing a dual port fan shroud on the engine w/the flaps, thermostat rod and other "stuff" is always super fun.. NOT.. :compress:

It sounds like you had a very productive day and it is nice to have someone help you stab the engine back in the compartment.
1970 Westfalia bus. Stock 1776 dual port type 1 engine. Restored German Solex 34-3. Restored 205Q distributor, restored to factory appearance engine.

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Happyfolk
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Re: Colin Visits Eskimo Tom’s Igloo in Lake Wobegon

Post by Happyfolk » Mon Jun 27, 2016 8:18 pm

Colin's "magic flange wrench" was the biggest assed pair of channel locks I'd seen! We bent my left heat exchanger riser out of the way with them so my left valve cover bail was free to move. The bail was also on upside-down which Colin noticed and rectified.

Very nice writeup!
79 CA FI Westy
Mexico Beige
"Sandy"

Squeebles
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Re: Colin Visits Eskimo Tom’s Igloo in Lake Wobegon

Post by Squeebles » Tue Jun 28, 2016 7:39 am

That is a great writeup, love all the pics. I never remember to take many, unfortunately.

How did the end play saga resolve? I assume you did a post- measurement? Were you able to re-shim and get that number up to spec?
1977 VW Bus, 2.0 FI

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the miz
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Re: Colin Visits Eskimo Tom’s Igloo in Lake Wobegon

Post by the miz » Tue Jun 28, 2016 6:29 pm

Nice, detailed write up, Tom! Although you didn't mention it, I hope The Mechanic enjoyed the Filet Mignon,fingerling potatoes, freshly foraged asparagus and Chateau Lafite Rothschild you served for lunch in the garage...er, igloo, on the "good" China, no less... :king:
miz
1982 Westy- Vana White

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Amskeptic
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Re: Colin Visits Eskimo Tom’s Igloo in Lake Wobegon

Post by Amskeptic » Wed Jun 29, 2016 6:10 am

the miz wrote:Nice, detailed write up, Tom! Although you didn't mention it, I hope The Mechanic enjoyed the Filet Mignon,fingerling potatoes, freshly foraged asparagus and Chateau Lafite Rothschild you served for lunch in the garage...er, igloo, on the "good" China, no less... :king:
miz
We had:
Victor Reinz Gasoline-sauted Fywheel Rings with a superb 10-40W glaze
Chilled carbonated GumOut Carb Spray-spritzed pressed coffee
Bowl of lightly tossed rusted nut assortment (delicious)
Valvoline DuraBlend Pate on Flywheel Thrust Surface

Four Stars.

Will write and some pictures after the Minnesota Marathon. Grifftenstein today, Dmiller tomorrow morning, then book to Iowa by nightfall for lilpig88.
ColinNoEnergizerBunny
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

EskimoTom
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Re: Colin Visits Eskimo Tom’s Igloo in Lake Wobegon

Post by EskimoTom » Sat Jul 16, 2016 9:56 am

To answer Squeebles question about resolving the end play, we got it to the middle range of acceptable with the shims on hand.

Today, after pulling the motor to tighten the intake manifolds, which I failed to check when Colin was here, I reinstalled the motor SOLO, using the jack on the transmission technique which I learned during Colin's visit and got Rusty idling properly. Just a few more adjustments to go.

I can't fully express the value of the visit I received from Colin. If you happen to be a new visitor to this forum, and sitting on the fence about deciding, the experience is truly worth it!
1971 Camper. Sportmobile. "Rusty"

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MountainPrana
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Re: Colin Visits Eskimo Tom’s Igloo in Lake Wobegon

Post by MountainPrana » Sat Jul 16, 2016 4:43 pm

EskimoTom wrote:the experience is truly worth it!
I thought so as well! Didn't know near what I thought I did, and put many things into the bag of tricks for future use.

Tim

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Amskeptic
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Re: Colin Visits Eskimo Tom’s Igloo in Lake Wobegon

Post by Amskeptic » Sun Jul 17, 2016 9:47 pm

MountainPrana wrote:
EskimoTom wrote:the experience is truly worth it!
I thought so as well! Didn't know near what I thought I did, and put many things into the bag of tricks for future use.

Tim
Well thank-you.
Maybe I should hold off on my applications to Walmart, Dominoes, and McDonalds.

"I was thinking of becoming a greeter, well, because I just love people so much . . . "
"No, really, that sign should stick to my bus . . . I don't think the pizza would get that cold, it goes 60."
"Why not supersize that? Then you and your order would match!"
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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