Itinerant Air-Cooled

aopisa wrote:

Amskeptic wrote:

chitwnvw wrote:You can take the steering wheel off and move it over a spline or two to get it centered.

Um . . . no you can't here in IAC Land. We, aopisa and I, were just talking about how people will seemingly willfully ruin these great old cars by not learning the correct way to adjust things like steering boxes. His was way over-tight because someone did not notice that the play was actually because of loose center pin bushings.

There is a little divot on the steering shaft seal at the top of the box. It has to be centered above the little boss cast into the metal of the box. Once it is, then you confirm that the steering spokes are horizontal. If not, then you have my blessing to re-position the steering wheel. Otherwise, you are compelled to do the correct thing which is to remove the drag link and shorten or lengthen as necessary.

Now then, aopisa, the steering box adjustment does not change the orientation of the steering wheel. You are lucky . . . you have two, count 'em, adjustable tie rods on your fine bus, unlike the factory fresh buses. If you tell me which way your steering wheel is off, we can walk you through the centering procedure, it takes less than fifteen minutes, so give yourself an hour

I will snap a photo of the steering wheel in its slightly askew orientation and post it later, after I check the divot and boss on the steering box.

An hour sounds about right, maybe 45 minutes since I won't be answering questions on the current political climate.....Any bets on how long you think it will take me to do an oil change, 2 hours?

Oil change is 30 minutes. For the neophyte.
Colin

Man, I miss Vermont so much. And that is a beautiful bus you've got there too.

Those two buses together with the Vt. backdrop makes for an absoluly beautiful picture. We are moving to RI in July and I look forward to being so close to Vt. I have spent a bunch of time in Stowe and can' wait to drive the bus up to the Green Mountain State.

aopisa wrote:.Any bets on how long you think it will take me to do an oil change, 2 hours?

Amskeptic wrote: change is 30 minutes. For the neophyte.
Colin

Well, I was right. The first time took only about 30 minutes.

First off the oil drain plug was replaced with some kind of bolt with a hex in the center that is pretty well rounded off.

So I drained the oil through the strainer. The bolt on the sump plate was very tight. I hope the damage has not already been done. Plus there was no crush washer.

I cleaned everything up, changed the filter and added fresh 20w50 Castrol. Put it all back together started it up and noticed a very little oil leaking from the edges of the plate. Took it for a drive and checked again. Oil was now dripping at about a drop every 30-60 seconds.

Drained it again. This time I did a closer inspection of all the strainer parts. I noticed that the strainer flange was not exactly flat in a few places so I did my best to address it. Next I applied a very thin layer of moly grease to the plate and the flange of the strainer to keep the gaskets from shifting (I hope this was OK). Carefully put everything back together and added oil.

Seems to be much better. Only a very thin film of oil around the edges of the sump plate, no drips. I will keep my eye on it.

Total time 2+ hours....

I don't know if I should try to replace that drain plug. I don't know how to get it out plus my fear is that whatever is in there might not be correct and could have stripped itself on the way in and that the proper replacement will not fit.

Edit- After 2 hours of sitting in the garage, I have 5 oil drops on the floor. What now?

aopisa wrote:I have 5 oil drops on the floor. What now?

You and BP. Outrageous, I tell ya.

Clean the engine and the floor. If you are not certain that you are at 9 ft/lbs torque limit on the strainer, see to it that you get there. Clean again.
If it leaks from the strainer area again, sometimes you need to clean and dress the crankcase seam surface where the paper gasket contacts it (I use a razor blade very carefully), and if the strainer screen gasket contact surfaces are not perfectly smooth, you might need to replace the strainer. You can sand the strainer plate itself against glass flat surface, then wash it thoroughly in soap and water and reinstall. Copper/aluminum washer in good shape on the strainer bolt?
Colin

I don't know if I am at 9 ft. lbs. I used the Amskeptic just a socket without leverage method. The socket and I were a little oily the other day so I cleaned everything and turned the bolt about 1mm more (maybe 2). Now I just have more of a weep than a drip. A thin film collecting on the plate. Crush washer seems to be in good shape. I have cleaned and cleaned the strainer and the plate. I read somewhere about using lapping compound on the plate and carefully around the crankcase. The PO had no leaks because they cranked down on that nut hard.

I will try to see if I can get my hands on an inch pound torque wrench. Or I can try a junk shot of golf balls into the crankcase.

On another note, we scored one for the home team tonight. My son and I took the bus to a cruise in at Hemmings Motor News in Bennington, VT. I used to take the boys when they were just little tykes to look at the muscle cars. I thought it would be fun to hang out and talk to some people. There were over 100 cars there and the bus definitely drew a lot of attention. We won the Best Import award! I didn't even know there were awards at these events. It was a fun time and I loved listening to Elliot give the Westy tour.
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Congratulations. The kids must have loved winning that award.

Cindy

aopisa wrote: I will try to see if I can get my hands on an inch pound torque wrench. Or I can try a junk shot of golf balls into the crankcase.

aopisa wrote: On another note, we scored one for the home team tonight. My son and I took the bus to a cruise in at Hemmings Motor News in Bennington, VT. I used to take the boys when they were just little tykes to look at the muscle cars. I thought it would be fun to hang out and talk to some people. There were over 100 cars there and the bus definitely drew a lot of attention. We won the Best Import award! I didn't even know there were awards at these events. It was a fun time and I loved listening to Elliot give the Westy tour.

Congratulations! No funny stuff with the engine I assume?
Colin

No funny stuff as far as I can tell. The other day when the air temperature was pushiing 100, I thought I had a slight bucking when shifting into 2nd. I was prepared to have it die on me and was figuring out a troubleshooting game plan. It had no further issues then or since. The bucking was inconclusive as it could be driver error since I was not 100% mindful of what I was doing at the time. All in all it seems to be running great.

Cindy wrote:Congratulations. The kids must have loved winning that award.

Cindy

Definitely!