The Day The BobD Died Again

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The Day The BobD Died Again

Post by Amskeptic » Sat Apr 14, 2018 11:01 pm

( we'll take this from Itinerary Preparations and stick it in Type 2 04/20/18 )

So yes, the BobD princess puff punishes me haughtily. Our relationship has changed because of this affair I've been having with the slightly older heavier sloppier NaranjaWesty who at least still gets up in the morning without complaining*.

I tried to make amends to the BobD.
Shortened the exhaust pipe that got bent April 22, 2014, visiting cheesehead in the Washington metro area.
Remember how it jutted out?

OLD (June 2014)
Image


Not any more . . . me and Dremel did a very tricky multiple plane exhaust pipe truncatin' so it would discretely follow the horizontal contour of the bumper curve and follow the vertical tuck-in of the right rear quarter panel:

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Replaced all the old plastic window chrome, yes, I did. Here's the ripped-out sliding door trim:

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Here is the "roll of chrome" waiting in a sink of hot soapy water:

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OLD
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Marked all chrome retainers so they wouldn't vary from the factory positions:

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NEW
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Got rid of that hated short windshield trim with the splice I have had to humiliatedly use since March 2014 when I got gypped by that Bug Haus guy from Connecticut. 2014:

OLD (July 13, 2014)
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NEW
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( to be continued)
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: The Day The BobD Died Again

Post by Amskeptic » Sun Apr 15, 2018 7:05 pm

(has done been continuing)
(today, I wasted more time to index the windshield's lower chrome trim cap to the exact center of the vehicle . . . this may be the only place in my life ever where anyone would almost have a passing interest in such arcana)

The chrome trim replacement may look better from ten feet or so, but any closer and you can tell it is "disturbed", and that:
a) makes me sad for this deteriorating world that inexorably tears things down and oxidizes them and corrodes them and breaks them down in countless ways, and the BobD now looks less than immaculate-though-shiny.
b) triggers my catastrophizing, the car is ruined! it looks like hell! F it! I don't care any more!

( I have subsequently fixed that pulled radius in the lower corner closest to the camera)

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This is a good distance to enjoy the view without little niggling critiques:

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But look at this! Look at this! There is nothing to be done! The trim cap doesn't know how to lay down on the new chrome profile! This is the sliding door window. One more moment where I have to retire not only my own standards, but lose the example of how beautifully these cars were originally put together:

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Now, the poor BobD has informed me that the honeymoon is indeed over. I have had a clacky hydraulic lifter begin to plague me at too many start-ups. So, at my first valve adjustment in three years, I decided to remove said lifter once I discovered which one was "soggy". Here is the 110,760 mile engine under the lower tin:

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Here is the heater valve dump tube, painted in 2011 outside of Fort Worth TX.

viewtopic.php?f=65&t=10045#p179583

That is primer plus clearcoat. Looks like the factory paint and is cheap and easy to execute, and heck, it has held up fine:

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110,000 miles of some pretty hot driving and all, and the head areas looked fine. This picture was taken minutes before my ten-year-long honeymoon was over:

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Yeah, party's over, right here:

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The above slightly blurry photograph shows #1 intake valve stem mushrooming. It means that the valve adjusting screw was not properly offset from dead-on center. The rocker arm needs a thrust washer to move it barely a half-millimeter to either side, but I fear that it is too late. THEN I thought to check the torques of the head nuts while the rockers were off. Dang again. One was at 12, another was 15 then 17 and a 20. Torque value is supposed to be 23. With torque values this low, there is a risk of distorting the heads by tightening only the lower ones. So, I decided to just do an easy zip up to 20 for all of them. Better than before, but not so much as to distort the heads too much. The engine needs to be torn down when I get a chance.

In the good news department, the hydraulic lifter "overhaul" was quick and it works like a charm now, that engine quieted down in seconds at first start. Lifter bottom (110,760 miles) looked pretty OK sort-of, if you ignore the caved-in bevel from outside to inside:

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(put a towel over the lifter as you pry the circlip out, so it does not launch into low Earth orbit)
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Circlip, pushrod follower, lifter piston, lifter body:

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There is the spring that your screwdriver pushes against as you preload the lifter to 1 1/2 or 2 turns:

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THIS, this little ball was why my lifter was clacky. It wasn't sealing well under oil pressure. I filled the chamber with GumOut and pressed the ball against its little seat spring and let the GumOut drain through a few times:

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Cleaned everything very clean, filled the clean lifter body with some oil and stuck the clean spring in it:

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The piston has a little chamber with a spring for that ball I was writing about. That chamber also serves to index the lifter spring. There are drain slots under the spring/ball and it all has to be clean:

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Oiled over the piston, pressed the ball under the oil with a well, test light probe, watched it drain down, and presto, the lifter has enough oil in it to pump up readily:

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Pressed the ball with the electrical tester, pushed down on the piston, crammed a 2.5 mm allen wrench end in the lubrication hole to hold the piston down artificially against the spring. Stuck the lifter follower on the piston and snapped the circlip into its groove to hold it all together. Had to wrestle the allen wrench out of the hole.

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Stuck the lifter in, reassembled the rockers, adjusted the valves, and cleaned both valve covers shiny so I can keep an eye on any future broiling oil-come-coke deposits:

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After all of this, I thought the BobD was going to be "grateful" for a little love. And it was, all the way to WalMart and back and until the next morning.
(to be recontinued)

Image
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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tommu
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Re: The Day The BobD Died Again

Post by tommu » Sun Apr 15, 2018 10:56 pm

Commiserations for your mushrooming. Were you able to get a look at the cam the the lifter bore?

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Re: The Day The BobD Died Again

Post by asiab3 » Mon Apr 16, 2018 1:06 am

1) Did you transcend space and time and install the trim without removing the windows? Or is that lubricant I see on the sliding door for reinstalling the windows into the car?

2) Can one use lash caps with hydraulic lifters to extend the stem life? (and maybe rocker pedestal spacers with them?)

3) I really enjoyed seeing the hydraulic lifter teardown! But your Kodak Easy Share isn't doing your pushrods any favors… :pirate:
Amskeptic wrote:Image

I'm glad the increasing lifter bleed-down wasn't related to bearing clearance oil pressure loss. How far into the engine would you consider diving?

Robbie
1969 bus, "Buddy."
145k miles with me.
322k miles on Earth.

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Re: The Day The BobD Died Again

Post by Amskeptic » Mon Apr 16, 2018 7:38 am

tommu wrote:
Sun Apr 15, 2018 10:56 pm
Commiserations for your mushrooming. Were you able to get a look at the cam the the lifter bore?
You know I wouldn't do that to myself . . . . :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: The Day The BobD Died Again

Post by Amskeptic » Mon Apr 16, 2018 7:57 am

asiab3 wrote:
Mon Apr 16, 2018 1:06 am
1) Did you transcend space and time and install the trim without removing the windows?
Yes, I did not remove the windows. I could not have beared bore borne (something) the thought. I used the supplied little tool which worked like a charm so long as there was plenty of dishwashing liquid. Now the car foams up like a rabid dog in the presence of any water/rain/rinse:

Image

asiab3 wrote:
Mon Apr 16, 2018 1:06 am
2) Can one use lash caps with hydraulic lifters to extend the stem life? (and maybe rocker pedestal spacers with them?)
Well, that is a great suggestion, Robbie.

asiab3 wrote:
Mon Apr 16, 2018 1:06 am
3) I really enjoyed seeing the hydraulic lifter teardown! But your Kodak Easy Share isn't doing your pushrods any favors… :pirate:
I know, can you believe it? That Kodak EZ Share612 bent the damn push rod just by staring at it.
(and many many minds will be very very confused by this assertion, but there it is. :joker: )

asiab3 wrote:
Mon Apr 16, 2018 1:06 am
I'm glad the increasing lifter bleed-down wasn't related to bearing clearance oil pressure loss. How far into the engine would you consider diving?
Robbie
Yay! An opportunity to chastise your incomplete understanding! *(phew!)

a) one badly behaved lifter cannot/does not indict an entire lubrication system.

b) the "increasing bleed down" should be read as "increasing number of instances" of clacky start-up.
This means that the lifter is bleeding down with the engine shut off. "bearing clearance oil pressure loss" Naw.

c) the actual cause of a clacky lifter upon start-up is just those occasions where the engine shuts off and stops rotating with that particular valve in an open state. All night, the 135-160# valve spring is trying to close the valve. The merest bit of varnish/speck o' crap at the ball/seat will allow the oil to leave the lifter. By morning, it is clack city.

d) NOW your question about "bearing clearance oil pressure loss" would come into play as the engine starts and builds oil pressure. Unfortunately, a cold engine has plenty of pressure and the viscosity of cold oil is hardly a obstacle in filling the lifter.

e) in conclusion, there are NO global engine lubrication/viscosity influences on any single lifter having a bad day. I go forth with a new understanding that anyone complaining of clacky lifters merely needs to remove and clean said lifters.
ColinSaith
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: The Day The BobD Died Again

Post by Amskeptic » Mon Apr 16, 2018 9:43 am

So, as the title of this thread states, the BobD did die again, and here we are almost at Page 2.
My earlier post had stated that I tried to mollify my prissy little princess with tender ministrations like painting the wheels, yet it died in an intersection on its maiden trip.

This time, I was punished for replacing the window chrome trim, adjusting the valves, cleaning a lifter, re-torquing the lower head nuts, trimming the exhaust pipe, and replacing the finally failed EEC diaphragm that I had repaired on August 14, 2011(13,181) :

viewtopic.php?f=50&t=9952


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(easy repair second time through with a nice new diaphragm that has been waiting for about five years to have its moment):

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Trying to get a riot of Volkswagen reflections:

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Noted that the engine barely started. My fifteen year-old Optima Spiral Technology Battery that had refused to start the car up at the storage unit in Atlanta is clearly in the process of saying "ciao". Pulled it out, "thank-you Optima Spiral Technology Battery, but I hear that your offspring actually suck now."

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Installed NaranjaWesty's original never-been-used Die Hard battery that I had swapped out the day I first worked on it:

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See how the cars are pointing downhill? Me too. I installed the Die Hard with the notion that it would charge right up after a jump start. But, not even the idiot lights would glow, and I needed some electricity to get the alternator going. So, I used the Optima Spiral Technology Battery to juice up the Die Hard just enough to get the alternator excited. On my way to AutoZone to get some new Duralast battery for the BobD, I realize that the engine is dying as I approach stops and I have no tools, no tools.

Uh oh . . . the dead Die Hard battery is really really dead, and I have to keep the engine at a minimum of 2,500 rpm just to stay running. My little mtcamper commemorative Silty, The Autocrossed Alternator, is not putting out with a battery too dead to excite its windings. See a pretty good story here (7695):

viewtopic.php?f=68&t=12212&start=30

I had written, after that little emergency,
"Ridiculously, the utterly mangled pulley, the yanked and bent and beaten and viciously filed pulley, just spins away imperturbably back there, it has given the belt no grief in the past two thousand miles."

That pulley has gone an additional 7,260 miles and I had forgotten all about how utterly mangled that pulley was. Just checked the belt. It is fine.

Barely made it into the driveway at AutoZone. A dumb parking lot "after you- no, after you - no really, I insist" dropped my revs below even running the coil. Told the counter-person, "I'll make you deal. Give me a 13mm and 10mm wrench, and I will buy a battery." Thankfully, the engine started right up, alternator is belting it out, and I step on the clutch to engage reverse and get on with the day.
KaTONK! and the clutch pedal sags halfway to the floor.

Now, I am wizened with VW bus experience. I KNOW I have maybe two threads of clutch cable to work with to get home. I have maybe two emergency clutch dips before that cable lets go entirely . . . choose wisely.
Well, thank goodness I have a new battery, poor thing. Engine off, select 1st gear. Start in 1st and lunge out of the parking lot, grab 2nd by ear, grab 3rd by ear, release accelerator a bit and bunt into neutral to the first red light. Shut off the engine. Select 1st. Engage starter, lunge off to the next red light. Poor transaxle at least has good synchros. I had a lovely chance to blow through a triangular intersection with two sets of lights still on green, but alas, at the next intersection, some Zombie Cellphone Denizen just sat there and ruined my momentum. The trip up the steep driveway was the assigned emergency clutch dip as I killed the engine and entered the garage at six mph. Quick stop. Phew:

Image


My precious prissy BobD princess becomes more Italian Brazilian Turkish Mexican Armenian every day. But at least she can disengage now.
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: The Day The BobD Died Again

Post by Mr Blotto » Tue Apr 17, 2018 6:51 am

Amskeptic wrote:
Mon Apr 16, 2018 9:43 am
My precious prissy BobD princess becomes more Italian Brazilian Turkish Mexican Armenian every day.
And to think I witnessed it (still fresh and all German) on that fine spring day about 10 years ago when you picked it up from Bob D...
Image
1978 Sage Green Westy - 2.0 FI - SOLD WITH 109887 miles :-(

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Re: The Day The BobD Died Again

Post by Amskeptic » Thu Apr 19, 2018 9:17 am

Mr Blotto wrote:
Tue Apr 17, 2018 6:51 am
And to think I witnessed it (still fresh and all German) on that fine spring day about 10 years ago when you picked it up from Bob D...

Oh yes ouch, it was: Friday, ‎October ‎31, ‎2008, ‏‎1:42:37 PM

Let's compare that maiden drive to today's wretched tired-out old mutt:

At 36,980 miles:

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At 110,770 miles:

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April 8, 2009:

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April 18, 2018:

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April 8, 2009:

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April 18, 2018

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April 8, 2009:

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April 18, 2018:

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April 8, 2009

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April 18, 2018

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November 4, 2008:

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April 18, 2018:

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You just can't give me nice things.
Colin :cyclopsani:
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: The Day The BobD Died Again

Post by Curtp07 » Thu Apr 19, 2018 8:28 pm

Oh the horror...

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Re: The Day The BobD Died Again

Post by Amskeptic » Fri Apr 20, 2018 4:23 pm

Curtp07 wrote:
Thu Apr 19, 2018 8:28 pm
Oh the horror...
I could show you horror up close if you like. Have you ever watched the droplight with the spring-loaded electrical cord reel disengage from the roof gutter and rake its hook across the left quarter panel? Apparently, I have a real talent for rue.
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: The Day The BobD Died Again

Post by glasseye » Sat Apr 21, 2018 9:29 pm

I just realized. I miss you guys. :salute:
"This war will pay for itself."
Paul Wolfowitz, speaking of Iraq.

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Re: The Day The BobD Died Again

Post by Amskeptic » Sun Apr 22, 2018 1:28 pm

glasseye wrote:
Sat Apr 21, 2018 9:29 pm
I just realized. I miss you guys. :salute:
Hello glasseye,

We've been missing you too. I and my Kodak EZ Share soldier on. We have both been losing function buttons. The Kodak no longer allows access to the menu, so I am on some unknown default. That applies to me too. We both can't see in the dark. We both have problems focusing. When I need a quick candid shot, it says, " . . . . what? Oh. You want a shot? Here?"
Colin


Image
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: The Day The BobD Died Again

Post by glasseye » Sun Apr 22, 2018 5:07 pm

Amazing that it's still working and still viable. That's gotta be ten years old, right?

I must confess to forensically inspecting one image that has a reflection of you and the camera, just to see if you were persevering with that Kodak. Inconclusive results.

Still. Nothing wrong with any of your images. "Drive it 'til the floorboards rust through"

I'll be watching the dates on your Idaho Transit (which usually follows the Missoula Transit). Frito's always looking for an excuse.

best,
Peter
"This war will pay for itself."
Paul Wolfowitz, speaking of Iraq.

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Re: The Day The BobD Died Again

Post by Amskeptic » Mon Apr 23, 2018 6:48 pm

glasseye wrote:
Sun Apr 22, 2018 5:07 pm
Amazing that it's still working and still viable. That's gotta be ten years old, right?

I must confess to forensically inspecting one image that has a reflection of you and the camera, just to see if you were persevering with that Kodak. Inconclusive results.

Still. Nothing wrong with any of your images. "Drive it 'til the floorboards rust through"

I'll be watching the dates on your Idaho Transit (which usually follows the Missoula Transit). Frito's always looking for an excuse.

best,
Peter

I'll be coming through from the west. Are you sort of lined up with Seattle to Missoula, or Missoula to Bozeman? :

Itinerary Schedule link:

viewtopic.php?f=77&t=13559

The most recent reflection telltale . . .Image

And my first selfie using "Crack" the cast-off LG6 "smart phone" (whose only place in my life is music library) . . .
Colin

Image
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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