Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings IL/IN/MI

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Amskeptic
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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings IL/IN/MI

Post by Amskeptic » Sun Jul 29, 2018 8:00 pm

Well, look at you all chiming in with write-ups! And I am waaaay behind trying to keep up with this cascade of days just tripping along.

OK, BUGSTUFF, you are correct that I did not post a write up about my visit with ryankschultz on the 16th. I don't think I even took a photograph, but he did. Ryan? I did then have to drive from Illinois to Indiana to do another half day with Pearl76 and her lovely little white-on-white Cabriolet. Traitorously, we even discussed selling Pearl and getting another white-on-white Cabriolet that would not have orange paint under the white in the front area, and would not have a tired carbureted engine, but these cars have a way of telling you things, and this bug has a saucy little attitude that makes it difficult for me to recommend casting it out into the used car world. The leaking brake hose took away any hope of a test drive, so Pearl's caretakers have some homework to do before they get to drive it.

Drove back to Illinois to do the Big Emma call written about further up in the thread. Then drove to Kentucky to do the Paducah Frank call.
Then drove up to Fort Wayne IN via Indianapolis for another half day call with blue72beetle:

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blue72beetle has a perfect little 1970 Karmann Ghia with something like 64,000 miles. Oy! Behold!

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The primary goal of the visit was to go over engine overhaul details, but I am pretty sure that blue72beetle has it under control. What he did NOT have under control was my reaction to hearing that his '71 bus had begun to run poorly on the way back from its last trip last YEAR and he had just parked it. Sure we have a beautiful red Karmann Ghia looker sitting all pretty princessy there, but where did my heart go? To the poor bus of course. WHY was it not feeling well? Well, we discovered four tight exhaust valves and after a little fuel prime, the bus ran quite well, thank-you very much.

Michigan was next. I greeted the specter of bashing over Michigan roads with loathing. I was not not disappointed. They were trerribibblele and ppoott-h2ef:lkOLRELyqiugfbskjev holey and my tteeeetthh hhurrt ovveerrr the BUmps and heaved concrete slaps just hammering poor NaranjaWesty. Seriously people, there is NO EXCUSE:

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They know it too. There is talk in Michigan in making it a legal requirement to:
"build good roads"
"hold the contractors to a warranty for the roads they do build"
Huh.

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I think the local concrete lobby has just snookered Michigan into making these solid expensive slabs that can't mold to frost heaves, that crack into undriveable and sharp-edged juts, I saw a barely couple-of-year-old concrete section that you could see rebar rust already staining the concrete. Another section of I-69N you could see all the rubber seals falling out between the slabs, just mile after mile of rubber strips broken off or sticking out. Here's I-94 in Detroit:

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All right quitcherbischin, but a piece of crumbling Michigan roadway thrown up by a fast truck did crack my original German Hella left front turn indicator that I so carefully restored on April 19th at 9:25PM.

Enjoyed the Physics Defying visit with Alman72. I don't know how it was that his car was sitting there in the garage having arrived all by itself. How did it do that? The points were closed up. Closed up. The transaxle had a completely busted off chunk with the Bowden tube bracket bolt screwed into it with a chunk o' bracket, horrendous! How did the clutch work?

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Our repair was a damn fine representative of Hacktastic, but hey, it works:

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Then I discover that he was somehow driving with no point gap, no clutch cable anchored to nothing, AND the shift coupler cage was bent to junk so badly that you could arc the shifter to the side far enough that the shifter pin would pop out of the shift rod!
"I used it carefully, two fingers like." It think it might have been stressful:

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My first shift sent the shifter out of the pocket and you could then spin the shifter around in circles but nothing else.

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to be cont....
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 IL/IN/MI

Post by blue72beetle » Sun Jul 29, 2018 8:40 pm

Amskeptic wrote:
Sun Jul 29, 2018 8:00 pm
The primary goal of the visit was to go over engine overhaul details, but I am pretty sure that blue72beetle has it under control. What he did NOT have under control was my reaction to hearing that his '71 bus had begun to run poorly on the way back from its last trip last YEAR and he had just parked it. Sure we have a beautiful red Karmann Ghia looker sitting all pretty princessy there, but where did my heart go? To the poor bus of course. WHY was it not feeling well? Well, we discovered four tight exhaust valves and after a little fuel prime, the bus ran quite well, thank-you very much.
Colin, right after you left I realized I didn't even get a picture of you or your bus.

I wanted the goal of his visit to help ease my mind and boost my confidence on building a new engine for my bus, and he did. I've never built an engine from scratch before, and especially with VW aftermarket it's tough to know what is junk and what are quality parts. Bentley and Wilson's book are great, but there's nothing like having someone experienced standing in your garage teaching you things. We did cover things I never would have thought of, including my H-beam rods and goofy pistons.

The bus..... well Colin, about that. Yes, it did idle nicely before you left. I took it out last night, and it started out fine. But after a bit of driving, it would die every time I took my foot off the gas for a stoplight or stop sign. But then start it right back up and it would idle (and the idle would still hunt up and down a bit). I was so frustrated and upset with it. You said you would haunt me if tore it apart, but last night I was so ready to yank it out of there. I just don't understand, Robbie got it running well a thousand miles ago, then it just starts acting up again. Bad distributor? Bad carb? I'm at my wits' end with this thing.

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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings IL/IN/MI

Post by BusBassist » Sun Jul 29, 2018 9:48 pm

Thanks for the follow up commentary Colin.
Looking forward to seeing you in August.

Per the oil discussion above, I have been using Valvoline VR1 20w 50 racing oil.



However, the last time I want to Auto Zone, where I have purchased it for the two years, they said they have stopped stocking it because of low sales.

I'll probably have to buy it online...
Late 73 Bay w/a transplanted 914 Engine.

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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings IL/IN/MI

Post by asiab3 » Mon Jul 30, 2018 12:28 pm

Amazon has VR1 cheaper than the national chains anyway. I don’t mind internet sales stealing the business of huge chains, but check with your local VW shops, racing shops, and industrial suppliers. It’s nice to keep those places open.

blue72beetle, will you be changing your user name after you sell the bug? ;)

Do the large and small carb adjusting screws always behave themselves as planned? Or does turning them one way or the other give unexpected results? Last two 34pict3 carbs I really dig into with recalcitrant speed and mixture screws had two completely different issues, so you should make a technical thread so we don’t clog the narrative here.

Colin, do you air your tires down for Detroit roads? Grand Rapids seemed much better last year...

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

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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings IL/IN/MI

Post by Amskeptic » Mon Jul 30, 2018 7:41 pm

asiab3 wrote:
Mon Jul 30, 2018 12:28 pm
Amazon has VR1 cheaper than the national chains anyway. I don’t mind internet sales stealing the business of huge chains, but check with your local VW shops, racing shops, and industrial suppliers. It’s nice to keep those places open.

blue72beetle, will you be changing your user name after you sell the bug? ;)

Do the large and small carb adjusting screws always behave themselves as planned? Or does turning them one way or the other give unexpected results? Last two 34pict3 carbs I really dig into with recalcitrant speed and mixture screws had two completely different issues, so you should make a technical thread so we don’t clog the narrative here.

Colin, do you air your tires down for Detroit roads? Grand Rapids seemed much better last year...

Robbie

Blue72beetle, is the gas fresh in the bus, or is it old old stale gas from last year?

Robbie, those Michigan roads made me drop my air pressures 6psi all around to 32 f and 41 r, still the jarring impacts haunt my dreams. NaranjaWesty is running pretty much perfectly for reasons I do not understand after that beating.
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 IL/IN/MI

Post by asiab3 » Tue Jul 31, 2018 5:19 pm

Amskeptic wrote:
Mon Jul 30, 2018 7:41 pm
NaranjaWesty is running pretty much perfectly for reasons I do not understand after that beating.
Michigan 2016 created two new rattles in my car, but quieted the ground loop hum in my radio… Wish I knew why…

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

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