Itinerant Air-Cooled

As I said over in my WTB thread, I bought a eche_bus's 1976 Westfalia Deluxe Camper.
My son has named him Gary. I shouldn't have let him watch Spongebob before showing him the Bus



Three days, 10 miles into ownership and no surprises. Jon was very open and honest about the condition of the Bus. Right now I'm trying to get a idea of it's mechanical wellbeing. So I carried out a compression test - warm engine and WOT:

130 1
135 2
112 3
140 4

If all cylinders should be within 75% of each other then anything over 105 is ok. Which is good. I haven't noticed anything of concern in the limited amount I've driven so far. Should I leave it there - or should I find out what's up with number 3?

- Steering is pretty loose,
- front shocks (or beam?) are squeaking
- shift bushes need attention.
- It's running a little rich. Stalling slightly on cold start. Has new TS2 in place. I have an LM1 on hand to begin tuning.

I'm planning vacuum smoke test next.

Check the center pin as those are usually shot........

tommu wrote:As I said over in my WTB thread, I bought a eche_bus's 1976 Westfalia Deluxe Camper.
My son has named him Gary. I shouldn't have let him watch Spongebob before showing him the Bus


Three days, 10 miles into ownership and no surprises. Jon was very open and honest about the condition of the Bus. Right now I'm trying to get a idea of it's mechanical wellbeing. So I carried out a compression test - warm engine and WOT:

130 1
135 2
112 3
140 4

If all cylinders should be within 75% of each other then anything over 105 is ok. Which is good. I haven't noticed anything of concern in the limited amount I've driven so far. Should I leave it there - or should I find out what's up with number 3?

- Steering is pretty loose,
- front shocks (or beam?) are squeaking
- shift bushes need attention.
- It's running a little rich. Stalling slightly on cold start. Has new TS2 in place. I have an LM1 on hand to begin tuning.

I'm planning vacuum smoke test next.

Congratulations! You will enjoy that bus.
Colin

Colin will give me a rash for what I'm about to admit....but it will be deserved. For the squeaking in the front beam, give it a very liberal lube. There a several zerks on it.

I lubed mine when I first bought it ......ohhhh about 12 years ago. I noticed last year mine was squeaking when I went up and down the driveway. Started freaking out about all the worst case scenarios. Then I remembered it hadn't been lubed in quite a while. After a healthy lube job, the squeak went away.

TrollFromDownBelow wrote:Colin will give me a rash for what I'm about to admit....but it will be deserved. For the squeaking in the front beam, give it a very liberal lube. There a several zerks on it.

I lubed mine when I first bought it ......ohhhh about 12 years ago. I noticed last year mine was squeaking when I went up and down the driveway. Started freaking out about all the worst case scenarios. Then I remembered it hadn't been lubed in quite a while. After a healthy lube job, the squeak went away.

I thought you only needed to lube them when they squeeked?

Should the thick intake manifold gaskets have paper on each side? The old ones I just removed don't and the new replacements also do not. I assume that matters?

EDIT: At closer inspection there appears to be a graphite like layer on each side of the spacer. I shall use these.

I make sure the intake ports on the heads are CLEAN and I use a light and even coat of grease on the gaskets. Please don't use RTV, unless you want to suffer taking it off.

Robbie

I've learnt that RTV lesson the hard way..

Intake manifold boots were so hard they simply fell off. The throttle body to plenum gasket was also hard and shrunken. Both places that were known vacuum leaks. As soon as the injector seals arrive I'll connect everything back up and smoke test.

Sounds great! I just finished that same reseal with BigEmma, and we found a few dozen bits of hardware and pebbles all around the intake runners and throttle body. Don't drop any in the intake! (We had the luxury of three humans around, with vacuums and wrenches and extra eyeballs.)

Check the AAR elbow, s-boot, and brake booster Y for cracks and vacuum leaks?

Robbie


Edit: don't pinch any tin under the intake runners. That's a great leak source if unchecked. With the runners off, you might as well take off the plenum and polish the electrical grounds, right?

Will do. I have a smoke tester ready to chase down everything else.
I had a shop vac with a duck taped reducer hose vacuuming the intakes as I removed them Lots of dirt seemed to have collected down there.

I have now:

- Changed intake pipe boots, throttle body seal and all injector seals.
- Carried out a smoke test. I used a little air from my compressor to create positive pressure in the vacuum system and I saw no leaks.
- Checked and set valves and dwell
- Set timing to 7.5 BTC. It needs to be just there for SMOG.

It starts with a turn of the key. When cold it stutters and stalls as I hit the gas. When warm I can drive happily. No missing or hesitation. After a good 15 minute drive the dipstick was barely hot.

I think it's runnnig rich and perhaps, after fixing some pretty bad vacuum leaks, I need to fiddle with the AFM. A frightening prospect.

tommu wrote: I think it's runnnig rich and perhaps, after fixing some pretty bad vacuum leaks, I need to fiddle with the AFM. A frightening prospect.

Colin has an app for that...err. a posting here in the tech section...check it out, good info.

Hi Tom,

Have you gone through the ECU plug checks of the fuel injection manual? I found the tests on page 40 to be helpful for new members to make sure the connections are all working.

After going through this, we have some more advanced tests to undertake. :)

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/man ... Manual.pdf

Good luck, and let me know if you're thirsty for beer or bus wrenching some time,
Robbie

tommu wrote:

TrollFromDownBelow wrote: I lubed mine when I first bought it ......ohhhh about 12 years ago. I noticed last year mine was squeaking when I went up and down the driveway. Started freaking out about all the worst case scenarios. Then I remembered it hadn't been lubed in quite a while. After a healthy lube job, the squeak went away.

I thought you only needed to lube them when they squeeked?

You people don't deserve to drive these fine automobiles . . .
Colin
(I lubricate the front beam every year, bigly)

asiab3 wrote:Hi Tom,

Have you gone through the ECU plug checks of the fuel injection manual? I found the tests on page 40 to be helpful for new members to make sure the connections are all working.

After going through this, we have some more advanced tests to undertake. :)

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/man ... Manual.pdf

Good luck, and let me know if you're thirsty for beer or bus wrenching some time,
Robbie

OK. I'm going to go ahead and verify the ECU plugs next and then hook up the LM1.

Robbie - I swear I've been infected with three different colds simultaneously. How does next weekend work for you - March 1st / 2nd? I should be less toxic by then and it would be great to catch up. Beer, food and wrenching all sound good.