Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From The Gorge

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Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From The Gorge

Post by Amskeptic » Sun Jul 24, 2016 10:24 am

We start this update of the Itinerant Air-Cooled Fuel Filter Cleaning Odyssey driving from Roslyn WA to The Dalles OR.

NaranjaWesty is now at 57,800 miles, driving very nicely in all regards but one, a dainty little cough occurs every once in a while when some new chunk-o'varnish pebble catches in her throat briefly.

Driving down 97 south from Interstate 90 to Interstate 84 is a wonderful experience. The countryside is utterly unique:

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Nothing makes me relax more than a vista on a sunny day:

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The scale and beauty of this floor pan coursing out between the cliffs inspires questions. Is it a result of the Great Missoula Floods?

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First sighting of the Columbia River:

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Again, the scale is vast. Toy cars and ships waaay below. Out west, I use 3rd as an engine brake far more than back east:

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First sighting of Mount Hood. Back East folks . . . that thar is a volcano. Camera freaked out with the reflections off the water perhaps, or maybe it was thrown by the fact that all of these pictures here were taken at speed and it can't figure out exposures, but arty results anyhow:

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Here's the I can't remember the dam name again:

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Arrived in The Dalles and camped somewhere. Had an appointment with 83AC, a professional in the field I bailed from. I had to hold back from pestering him all day about the current state of understanding in the realm of counseling/therapy/today's children (hell, today's adults), no, we had to analyze and assist an air-cooled Vanagon that could not speak of its traumas and unspoken secrets, suffering as it does, from a painful Hall Effect. We decided to do a dynamic intervention. Perched over the back seat, baby-sitting a fuel gauge that last spewed gasoline all over the side of the road in Wyoming, and touching the AFM's wiper as 83AC drove full throttle up hills, we slowly determined that our client was suffering from a chronic case of over-nutrition. The AFM was a a willing experimental test mule from the back of my car, and we seemed to reach an appropriate state of driveability by the end of the day. Then we put his AFM back in, "yeah, ahh good luck with that, just do what we did with mine on yours."

We are still working out the adjustments, and I await the updates with bated breath.

Then I went all stupid, that way, towards the volcano:

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(to be updated a bit later today - off to do projects along the railroad tracks in Troutdale)
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: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From The Gorge

Post by Happyfolk » Sun Jul 24, 2016 5:23 pm

Gorgeous pics! I'm envious! I was in that area in 1972 on a family vacation with an Apache popup trailer camper. We visited relatives who lived in the middle of nowhere at the foot of Mt. Hood. There were hummingbirds swarming around a flowering tree in their front yard. One of my most vivid childhood memories. :sunny:
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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From The Gorge

Post by ruckman101 » Sun Jul 24, 2016 5:33 pm

Ahem, the name of the dam is right there on the side. The reservoir put the oldest continuously inhabited, some 15,000 years, Native community of Celilo underwater, along with the tribal fishing area of Celilo Falls. Criminal.

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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From The Gorge upd

Post by Amskeptic » Sun Jul 24, 2016 11:12 pm

It was a rash rush up the hill to go find Hambone & Friends Of The Dripping Ferns at 7:30PM after my day with 83AC. I had no idea where I was going. I had no real idea how far. I knew I was good for about 65-80 miles with a full tank of gas before the pump would get upset from a lack of head pressure.

"I have always found my customers," said me to myself.
"But this is in a forest at night," said myself to I.
My directions scrawled on a paper towel in Bic blue said,
"Come on! It's easy! 35 south, 26 south, right on Forest 42, right on Peavine, there it is on the left! Summit Lake campground."

Topped up the tank in The Dalles. On the first good hill to Odell, the engine hiccoughed:
Beautiful country up there on Rt 35 south towards Government Camp. Mount Hood loomed beautifully larger for the first time in my life. I shall see Hambone in his element. This I wanted to see.

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The fuel filter decided I needed to take a break. The fuel HOSE decided I needed to stay here until usable light was gone. The hose had just begun to leak at a hitherto unseen point upstream of the filter. Trimmed the hose to just a tad too short to reach the filter with a bit of a pull, could not get the hose to go over the filter. The hose, you see, had apparently gone rock hard brittle in just seven months and would not stretch over the filter nipple. Finally tore it, bunched it, chewed it up on the inside diameter, crammed it on the filter all while fuel dripped out of the hose because my new clamp position upstream was unfamiliar with being squeezed. Barely enough lap to get the clamp on. Oy vey, but hey, ain't it beyootiful here?

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Little nip to the air, light is failing, how am I going to see road signs in the dark? Stopped at a closed Chevron and topped off again. Took this shot along US 26. Never been so close to Mount Hood, The Sleeping Volcano. Camera does not show the little lights of what must have been climbers (?). Heat coming out of the footwells is great. I'm doing this.

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Darkness fell. The road goes on and on. Saw a brown sign that read, and I quote, "Forest Road 42." Aw hell, this will be easy. I thought Hambone et.al. roughed it . . . pshaw, paved and striped roads out here! Heh, he probably photographs Ma just on the dirt driveways to his camp sites. Fuel pump begins to sing. I slow to 30 mph in 4th and just cruise along the road quietly in the moonlight. Tree silhouettes jot the sky and illuminated branches crowd the sides of the road. Rush up to my first pickle. The road splits to the right and the left with a triangle in the middle of the intersection. Timothy Lake thataway. I don't remember Timothy Lake. Neither does my napkin. Brietenbush? towards the left is some horrifying 82 miles through these trees. No road numbers to assist my choice. I don't trust my fuel supply. It is 10:00PM or something. How does the wizened forest denizen Hambone make his way around without road signs? I pick the horrifying fork. I don't see any validation that I am still on Forest Road 42. No wonder people die out here (do people die out here? - ed) I see a sign to the left "Oregon Skyline Road" and remember that I am to stay right. I must be on 42. Oh but hey, the road is shrinking down to a single lane. Intersection after intersection, little roads bristling off the "main" single lane road I am on, any one of them could be Peavine.

"You are an idiot," says me.
"Aw shut up," says I. I have a rule that says 1/2 tank is always a turn around point if out in unknown parts. We are still well within the 3/4 point, even if the fuel pump is buzzing like a mosquito. Many miles later, where is Peavine? The moon is now coming throught the driver's side window, and that is not a good sign. It is not a good sign because my napkin said that 42 was a southbound road and Peavine was a westbound road.

I flag down an oncoming vehicle (not hard to do on a one lane road). A nice lady out at 11:20PM in the middle of nowhere tells me that I am indeed on 42.
"Are you going to Ollalie?"
"No, I am going to a gas station."
"Out here, you won't find one."
"That is what I am gathering quickly. I was supposed to be visiting a group of fellow VW campers at Summit Lake. Do you know where Peavine Road is?"
"No. I am supposed to be directing a group of hikers tomorrow at (can't remember-ed)."
"My fuel pump wants me to find Peavine soon, but my common sense says find a gas station."
"If you stay on 42, it will turn into 46 which takes you to 224 which goes to Estacada, it has gas. If you take 4230 to SE Oregon Skyline Road which is 4220 to Ollalie Lake Resort, they may have gas in the morning."
"'Kay, thanks, thanks for stopping, good night."

Are you kidding? I think to myself. I missed one stupid road already, that is all it takes to just wander the forest until I am eaten by a bear next to my stone cold car and a tattered NAPKIN scrawled with directions. Darwin AWARD!

Drove up and down, right and left, slowly and with frequent double-clutches into 3rd on mild hills, coasting down in neutral, catching 4th at the bottom and I drove and drove and watched the fuel gauge and ignored the pump and flicked the fuel filter with my finger with the engine off to dislodge little blockages at the inlet and by and by, found 46 in the night along some Calackitacactimus River. And after thirteen thousand curves and some Riverford Campground, 46 found 224. And 224 ran across Ranger Stations and Ripplebrook Campgrounds and more curves and hills and the pump just dropped me dead up from some Timber Lake Job Corps Civilian whatever. I crashed out dead exhausted.
"Go back to Hood River and blame the filter for not seeing Hambone & Camping Crew, how the hell do I get back to Hood River? z-z-z-z-z-z"

Awoke at a weigh station. Cleaned the filter. Leaky hose not happy. Hit the road. Pulled off at a logging site entrance at a crest of a hill. Stripped down in the welcome sunshine and performed a religious cleansing ritual with a Motel 6 bucket of Tide and Chlorox. Barely unbare when a voice calls out,
"How's your fuel pump?"
What the? It was the nice lady in the Jeep.
"I saw your camper and wanted to see if you needed a ride into Estacada."
"Well that is very nice of you, but I need to just fix it, I have the parts I need."
"We are not doing the hike today. Are you sure you don't need a ride? I can give you a ride. I got all day."
"Thanks, but I need to fix this and try to find the campsite after I fuel up in Esta, Esta, Estacama?"
"Cada."
Heard a pair of Volkswagens drive by. Heard them slow immediately.

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Met Chachi and his Vanagon and Mary and tristessa. We sure did go over the directions, yes we did. Wrote new notes on the other side of the humiliated napkin. I ranted about the "cheap new fuel hoses hardly last six months". They pulled out (note to self: tristessa's bus sounds pretty good!) , "see you around 1:30PM!"

Drove to Estacada. Filled up. Found a bar parking lot. Morning patrons boisterously hailed me as I jacked up the right rear, removed the tire and gingerly yanked the fuel hose off the full tank [ . . . because I do that, I fill the tank to remove the main fuel hose, the better which to take my late-morning bath (idiot - ed)]. Not too sloppy, if I say so myself. The new hose was pre-snaked through the underside over to the left side where I needed to cut it to length and insert it on the filter. There's the vise grips pressed into service at the end of the new hose. I expertly routed the hose just so to the filter and cut it at the correct place. Gas sprayed out over me and all over the ground. See, if the vise grip is at the end of the hose, and you cut it upstream, you promote an uncontrolled fuel spill situation. This I had to tell the bar maid who had just lit up outside the back door.

After that splendid moment of real idiocy, I looked at the old hose. It was the original hose. No wonder it fought me when I trimmed it and tried to wrestle it onto the filter last night. Pretty damn good 39 year-old hose when you think of how many filter removals and twists it had endured since meeting me.

Got lost again with tristessa's directions. Got pissed at a Honda Prelude, passed it at 60 mph on 224 southbound and had to hook a mean right turn. Cactus de-potted on the way to the floor. Cactus soil exploded all over and in everything. Stopped at Ripplewood Campground of the night before and re-potted the poor cactus with apologies. Honda Prelude pulls in while I am sweeping the carnage out the sliding door. I size up my road tormentor. Decide his life has enough on its plate. Young woman at the counter knew everything about the roads and told me about last night's meander, "you sure did drive around.
"Don't forget, Peavine is 1/4 mile past the power lines, you can't miss it."
Drove across on a more sensible 57 to 42 again.
"Hey, there's Timothy Lake AGAIN." "Hey, there's Wilson Road AGAIN.""Hey I missed Peavine AGAIN." Well, I did. The sun was coming through the driver's window when it wasn't supposed to. Accosted a ranger driving past while I cleaned the filter in preparation for my reclimb of the hill I had just descended.
"Where in GOD'S NAME is PEAVINE??"
"I have no idea, I am new. Do you need help?"
We look at his map. You have no idea, all you who are not named Hambone or tristessa or Gypsie or Mike Boell or Xevin/RustySub or 71whitewesty, the maps are a spaghetti snake pit of numbers and what the heck, throw in elevations! and lakes! and the numbers were not making a whole lot of sense to me or the ranger. The ranger couldn't tell where we were.
"Is that a 4220 sprayed on the pavement there?"
"Why yes, I believe it is."
"Where is it on your map?"
"Why, I can't find it."
Eventually, we discovered that I was way past Peavine AGAIN. Drove up the hill I had just come down, and told myself that I am going back to Hood River if I can't find Peavine this time, come on! I have TWO appointments in a row starting TOMORROW, this interlude has been exhausting!

But no. From THIS direction, there is a sign "Summit Lake 1 Mile." The road, I would have never found in the night. It is a little dirt path leading up a steep hill. Pulled in with a screaming fuel pump. There's the ranger! He had decided to find Peavine and Summit Lake campground and announce to the group that I had been seen wandering the hinterlands with a fuel filter in my hand.

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Hambone In His Element:

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Xevin/RustySub and tristessa:

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Mike Boell's bus showed me for the first time that this color actually looks pretty good when it is waxed. I have never seen a properly cared-for Westy of this color!

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Gypsie's Vanagon!

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Had my first smores, thanks to tristessa and Mary. They're pretty good!
Sat around the fire and drank beer and scarfed other people's dinners and listened to some excellent Gypsie and Hambone, it indeed had to rain and drip (but no ferns), drank beer and I think Robbie and I shut it down around 2:20AM.

Morning came quickly. Cold. Filter clogged just ahead of Xevin in our 7:00AM cold dash back to civilization. I sent him on his way to Portland and I headed to Hood River. So pretty:

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Grabbed a cup of coffee in Hood River and filled the tank and did an Itinerant Air-Cooled day with Ol' Shadow. What was supposed to be a 116 mile round trip turned into a 260 mile tour of the forest. Wouldn't have it any other way.

Will fill you in on Ol' Shadow and 71white westy appointments.
Beautiful. Chilly. Tired. Good People.
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: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From The Gorge

Post by dingo » Mon Jul 25, 2016 6:05 pm

good thing youre not Itinerating in Norway,or each clogged-filter episode would be quite costly

Norway 6.53 $/gallon
turkey 5.77
France 5.43
UK 5.40
Korea 4.82
China 3.67
S.Africa 3.19
Mexico 2.77
US 2.15
Russia 2.15
Iran 1.49
Saudi 0.91
Venezuela 0.02
'71 Kombi, 1600 dp

';78 Tranzporter 2L

" Fill what's empty, empty what's full, and scratch where it itches."

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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From The Gorge

Post by Bleyseng » Mon Jul 25, 2016 6:49 pm

The Netherlands is about $6.50 a USgallon these days too but the roads are so nice
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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From The Gorge

Post by MountainPrana » Mon Jul 25, 2016 9:26 pm

Aw Man I sure do miss that area! Molly and I walked through Ollalie Lake, Timothy Lake and around Mt Hood on the Pacific Crest Trail. If you ever get closer to Mt Hood in the years to come do yourself a favor and go to the Timberline Lodge for the all you can eat breakfast buffet. The food is truly a fine dining experience, in fact it's the best food we had in 2,660 miles and six months of walking.

Tim dreaming of Belgium waffles with all the fixings

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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From The Gorge

Post by Amskeptic » Tue Jul 26, 2016 9:44 am

MountainPrana wrote:it's the best food we had in 2,660 miles and six months of walking.
Tim
Well heck, Tim, I reckon anything would taste good after 2,660 miles and six months of walking . . . . :bom:
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: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From The Gorge

Post by MountainPrana » Tue Jul 26, 2016 2:48 pm

Amskeptic wrote:
MountainPrana wrote:it's the best food we had in 2,660 miles and six months of walking.
Tim
Well heck, Tim, I reckon anything would taste good after 2,660 miles and six months of walking . . . . :bom:

Well played sir, well played.

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Post by asiab3 » Tue Jul 26, 2016 9:45 pm

Amskeptic wrote:I think Robbie and I shut it down around 2:20AM.
I think you're right. I didn't have a clock to look at… I was worried yet certain you would peek at the Traveling Dashboard Clock…

Has it only been three days?

Having closed the place two nights before 71whitewesty's appointment, I was ready to try all the crazy fixes Colin promised me would solve my warbly brake pedal. Of course I thought it was a warped drum, and of course I procured a good used drum.

Of course Colin and I both had a few beers around the campfire but sure enough, he was right.

I woke up a few hours after their day started, because crashing any IAC appointment requires being well-rested. And I showed up to find the work just getting started:

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I took a few pictures before starting my task; I had no idea how long it would take to sand the over-greasing off my drums and shoes.

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Lunch was had, (thanks Sean!) laundry was done, (thanks Sean!) and test drives were enjoyed, (thanks Sean!)

I could only hear grumbles, as Sean's engine compartment was apparently as hungry as we were.

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By the time I left them, the starters were going to be swapped to diagnose the slow cranking/no start issue, and my brakes were feeling mighty fine.

Thanks you two.
Robbie

Image
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145k miles with me.
322k miles on Earth.

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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From The Gorge

Post by dingo » Tue Jul 26, 2016 10:04 pm

can you elucidate further on the .warbly brake....cause, effect, solution etc...cause i have same issue i need to address to
'71 Kombi, 1600 dp

';78 Tranzporter 2L

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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From The Gorge

Post by 71whitewesty » Wed Jul 27, 2016 7:46 am

Great update. I'll add to it soon.... =D>

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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From The Gorge

Post by 71whitewesty » Thu Jul 28, 2016 10:04 am

I figured I'll just add to this thread and keep all the gorge stuff in here.

First off, we had a great time. I felt fortunate to be on Robbie's short list of stops on his cross country trip and the timing worked out perfect for a campout with the Portland gang and an IAC day with Colin and Robbie. You know you're in good hands with Colin and Robbie in your driveway and seriously, what are the chances of having these guys from each coast pull in for a day to work on VW's? I learned a lot and I have a lot to learn.

I lined all 3 busses up in preparation for Colin's visit. That's about all the preparation I did. I just put my old high mileage but trusty motor back in the tin top (Bus 3) after a 2 year amicable separation (same motor Colin helped me with on my first visit at Maupin). The tin tops been sitting in my field and it was time to make it move again. We didn't do much to it but Robbie noticed on his first night at my place that I had 3 and 4 spark plug wires switched, that explained why it was only running on two cylinders. I thought I checked those wires a few times...I still have a lot to learn. It's running pretty well now once it's warmed up. I might make the tin top my next winter project. I put new wheels and a good set of tires on it since they left. Left rear drum is sticking but I'll get to that.

On Bus 2 we just checked the timing on it. There seems to a bit of an anomaly on how to time this with the 205Q distributor and I think after watching Colin do it I've confirmed why I have trouble getting it just right. Colin might be able to explain better but fortunately he did leave some detailed instructions on how to time it. This is the Bus we tuned up last year and it's been running great and I've now put almost 20,000 miles on it since the last visit a year ago. It has the HFM long block and it's been great. No leaks and runs real smooth. I took Bus 2 to the Hambone campout.

Now Bus 1 was my focus this year. It's been languishing over the last 1.5 years with some sort of electrical gremlin. I've tried hard to sort it out. I've replaced EVERYTHING, I mean everything at least once. So when they ask about xx, my answer is "I've done it, replaced it and it made no difference". In short, it acts like a bad ground to me. It has burnt out 2 sets of condensers. Still this spring I was driving it around and put almost 3k on it before it burnt the 2nd condenser and then I knew I had to get this fixed before I took it on any big trips.
Last year Colin and I spent a bit of time on this but the bus didn't have an engine in it to test it. We thought it might have been the stereo but once the engine was back in, I could tell the stereo wasn't the issue. It has a slow laboring start to it and sometime would "click" a couple of times before the starter would engage.
So we started testing things like voltage, we cleaned cables and batteries and ground connections. We tested some more. The problem was still there. We discuss the hot start relay and how I'm wanting to avoid that if possible. (damn thing worked just great for years!)
Finally as a last ditch effort as the day was nearing it's end, we decided to switch batteries and starters from Bus 1 to Bus 2 and vise versa. So we took out my nice new (I think about 2 years old?) starter from Bus 1 and put it in Bus 2 and I'll be damned, Bus 2 now has the electrical gremlin!
So long story short, it was the starter all along. I've now put in an old greasy one I had laying around and it's spinning and starting super fast now.
So how the hell could this happen when I insisted that I had changed the starter too? Well the more I think about it the more I think I replace the starter when I did have a poor ground issue and that wasn't the problem but I just left the starter in there anyway. It worked fine for a while but then my new starter took a dump at some point and I've been chasing my tail in other directions since there's no way my "new" starter could have gone bad so soon. Well it did and I can't even find a receipt for it to see if I can return it yet.

So now all busses are up and running. Two are ready for big trips and the tin top well maybe just the local back roads for now.
All in all another great visit from Colin (and Robbie) and my busses are running better than before. Now next years visit maybe we can do something other than engine work if I can keep these running well.

I've recovered the front seats and moved back in to Bus 1 and taking it on a 6 day trip starting tomorrow. It really feels good to have both campers ready to roll anytime.

Now for a few pictures.
This is how my driveway looked for a day.

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And this is the view from the kitchen window. My wife might see a driveway full of broken down cars and greasy homeless guys but I see a flower bed with gardeners.

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Here is Robbie and Colin in Naranja and yes I also got to drive it. Fantastically tight and smooth.

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I'm glad nobody takes this work too seriously.

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Robbie is probably cleaning rubber ball joint boots and greasing his front end. Inspiring to say the least.

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By the way, this is the offending starter. That one on the left sucks, the dirty one on the right rocks.

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I had to tour Robbie around just a bit. Took him up to Timberline Lodge and Little Crater Lake on our way to the Hambone campout.

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Weird things happen. As usual Colin was off and I ran right out after him on a date with my wife and I ended up in one of these before the night was over.

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That's about it folks. I enjoyed the visit from both Robbie and Colin immensely. They are both "next level" vw guys and they keep me in check for how much more I have to learn about these things.
Thank you for the visit and put me on the calendar for next year. Safe travels to all.

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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From The Gorge

Post by the miz » Thu Jul 28, 2016 2:03 pm

71whitewesty wrote: And this is the view from the kitchen window. My wife might see a driveway full of broken down cars and greasy homeless guys...
Thanks for providing a good chuckle here, 71whitewesty!

Altogether, this seems to be the most epic itinerary post yet this year: Sir Colin Loxley, taking a brief break from his crusade, bushwhacks the back roads of Cascadia in search of his band of merry men! Again, fantastic photos and good narratives...nice to see shots of some of the forumites (and their VWs) whom I had the chance to meet in the Spring of 2015 at The Lab one rainy Monday evening!

miz
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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From The Gorge

Post by Amskeptic » Sun Jul 31, 2016 8:46 pm

Thankfully, 71whitewesty stepped up and wrote it all out. I sure as heck haven't had the time as of late. Pulling into 71whitewesty's driveway is always a joy. Behold!

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So, yes, in the realm of diagnostics, I had to focus our 1971 Westy curator on a few points regarding the Diagnostic Track Of Resolving The Slow Cranking Problem.

a) intrinsic logic must be suspended

That means, if you have put together any sort of cause-and-effect, feel free to disregard it and pursue other avenues. We were lucky to have I dunno about four other buses there to ascertain exactidinously how the damn electrons are supposed to work. We did static voltage tests at the battery itself and the ignition switch, we then did load voltage tests to see how much the starter motor pulled down the battery voltage, both at the battery and the ignition switch again, we tested the physical resistance of the engine against turning, and all tests suggested that the starter was eating a disproportionate share of electrons and giving us lousy production. I had to disabuse 71whitewesty of putting his condensor frying events into the slow starting symptom.

b) creative experiments are Good

That means that voltage testers are fun and all, but pulling starters and batteries and ground straps out of other Volkswagens are infinitely more so. This allowed us to deal with questions that were unanswerable through scientific means. That aforementioned engine resistance, how could we test it other than twisting the crankshaft pulley with our hands,
"Feels more resistant . . . "
"Do you think that's it?"
"Naw."
"I didn't think so either."
Turns out that the engine's resistance to rotation was not a factor. As importantly, we got to clean terminals . . . :bom:

c) there is always more to learn for all of us

The timing issue was nuts. I tested my factory distributor on NaranjaWesty and it behaved as I expected. You sit there at idle with the timing light flashing on the scale, and it does not matter if you stick the advance hose on or off, the timing remains the same. The advance only joins in as the engine speed increases. Not 71whitewesty's westies . . . that vacuum advance hose jerks the idle timing up at idle. And the retard hose pulls the entire timing map down all the way up the rpm range. It is supposed to kick off as soon as the throttle plate opens and dips below the port. I have research to do to see what is up with these advance/retard units.

Robbie showed up and efficiently removed both of his front drums to sand the friction surfaces and remove just a bit of grease from around the wheel seals to help keep the grease away from the linings. The moly grease is a bit more runny than the lithium greases, so we need to use about 30% less in the hub cavities.

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We did not work on this particular bus this particular day . . . . but this picture was found in my camera:

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Lunch was great. I had a classic old Los Angeles Jerry's Deli Sunday Morning lox, cream cheese and bagel (minus the Sunday morning beer of my youth) I can't remember who drove what when or where, but I got the pictures:

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I think this is Robbie in front of 71whitewesty and I in NaranjaWesty as we tried to heat up White Westy # 1 so it would give us its best imitation of a high-compression muscle car trying to start on a hot day:

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Enjoyed our visit! As always! I love the sound of your VW-powered Snow Cat!
Here's a parting shot that I don't remember taking:

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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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