Itinerant Air-Cooled Wraps Up In New York

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Itinerant Air-Cooled Wraps Up In New York

Post by Amskeptic » Wed Jun 19, 2019 8:10 am

I have billions of photographs and stories and a failed brake booster. I also have a mangled time-line here, so forget any chronological cohesion. My last "official" Itinerary post was "New York New Heads Day Two/Three".
We left off with a poorly running engine on June 6th at 5:45M that was also hitting some serious head temps, "hey Len Hoffman heads, welcome to my life." I had blown out of wdollie6's house on schedule but with loose ends because I had to get to my parent's house on June 7th in Essex NY some 200 miles north with no time to spare.

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We had friends flying in from the mid-Atlantic, this visit had been on the books for a couple of months. This visit was "why" I begged off on making it to Maupin this year. This visit was to steel myself for the inexorable march of time that is taking my mother. This visit was to reconnect with an adolescent human being of such great vitality and intellect that it is a sheer joy to converse with him, sixteen years-old, last seen when he was twelve when we had had a riot of laughter careering through fussy little tourist trap shops in Essex.

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NaranjaWesty RAN fine but idled poorly and backfired menacingly over the first 60 miles of rushrushrush. I stupidly but understandably went to the AFM and thought to richen up the mixture over that of the old heads (you saw the photographs of the white pistons and combustion chambers, yes?). Sure didn't help. The next morning, June 7th, 150 miles shy of destination, did help. You see, I scheduled a mandatory valve adjustment for the very next morning because as new valves seat into their new valve seats, they gobble up clearance. Yeah, good thing. Guess who never DID adjust the #2 valves? Mememee. I was too fragmented with multiple operations at the wdollie Hospital For Headless Volkswagens, and I now remember that all I did was to screw in the valve adjuster screws to eat up the changed dimensions of the new heads, but I never DID adjust the valves. Well, there you go, folks. I was so uncomprehending of this horrific oversight, that I thought I had rotated the crankshaft in the wrong direction when I moved from #1 to #2. Then I rotated it another 360* and I STILL had NO clearance. Then I checked the position of the distributor rotor and holy cats. Sorry, Len Hoffman heads.

With properly adjusted valves, re-torqued exhaust studs, and one rebuffed observer, "hey, are you broken down? VWs always break down don't they?" I hit the road north to Essex and the engine was smooth and lively and still a little hot. Was it the flaps? The sticking flaps? NOOOOO, the fail-safe spring had won the day and muscled those sticky flaps open. It was yesterday's AFM mucking about adjustment. I LEANED out the wiper and RELAXED the spring, and somehow got back to 16 mpg (good-nuff) and head temps about 400*. The engine is definitely smoother with these heads, but now we are stalling at stoplights whenever I step on the brakes.

Really NaranjaWesty? Adjusted the mixture screw "superrich" and jacked up the idle speed so that I get a lousy lean idle with foot on the brake, and a lousy rich idle with foot off the brake, and I pondered such compromises. Do two Lousys on opposite sides make a nice Middle? No.

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Beautiful day, lovely Lake Champlain, sad sad sad to see my larger-than-life parents and their amazing journey through 50 plus years come to a point, a small point in space and time. Delighted, but vaguely disconcerted both by this new sixteen year-old so very awake and alert and questing, and our lifelong friend (once-upon-a-time fourth-grade teacher!) who burns with a passion yet to teach. Our walk down the dirt road in Essex New York June 2019 so far from our Old Days in Virginia 1965, yet here we are, we are still us, we life-long friends seeing the mysterious unfolding of our Selves.

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In that golden afternoon light walking along the fields (but mom is trapped in a bed never to walk again), we ambulators all did recognize in that moment that the Journey is Unknowable Until It Is Done.

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I listened to the sixteen year-old mulling some point about about God and Humans, and noted to myself that we all have our unique path to wisdom, and I had a flash of irritation at all of the pontificating "Gurus" who presume to fill the heads of others with their numbered lists to "Enlightenment". I say, "keep clear of the questing creatures and only answer their immediate questions."
Here is a question for any Guru, "how does a brake booster control valve fail and pass air through to the engine no matter the position or pressure on the pedal?"

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Will try to fill in later, but I am going to Detroit .... Detroit.
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 Wraps Up In New York

Post by vwlover77 » Wed Jun 19, 2019 11:49 am

Beautiful place, beautiful thoughts...... Safe travels! (Missed seeing you on your way through the Buckeye State!)

I feel a small, happy connection to your parents. A favorite childhood book of my daughters was illustrated by your stepfather. I have fond memories of reading it aloud to both of them as toddlers, now they are 24 and 25 years old. Journeys indeed......
Don

---------------------------
78 Westy
71 Super Beetle Convertible Autostick

"When we let our compassion go, we let go of whatever claim we have to the divine." - Bruce Springsteen

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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Wraps Up In New York

Post by Amskeptic » Wed Jun 19, 2019 1:22 pm

I said good-bye to our lifelong teacher, I said good-bye to the bright sixteen year-old, I said good-bye to my own favorite living children's book writer (and I left her producer-ish middle-age son with a very general heart-felt remark about how the cheap disneyfication of great honest works just roils my blood). I tried to say an easy practical good-bye to my step-father, but I spied a photograph of my mother on the counter (a photograph that had inspired me to do a pencil drawing of her when I was twenty or something) and that just crumpled me. I flee in such moments, and I'll flee again I am sure ... :cyclopsani: :

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... ... ... "towards WHAT?" you ask exasperatedly.
Albany. Syracuse. Rochester. Now Detroit.
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 Wraps Up In New York

Post by Amskeptic » Wed Jun 19, 2019 1:59 pm

But in Rochester, I had two appointments. First appointment was with BusBassist sporting his Jazz Piano t-shirt:

viewtopic.php?f=78&t=13846


Second appointment was with JudahTheDog the next day, when the weather threatened us into moving the appointment to his mom's house in Webster Ontario County, old stomping grounds for me when I was a HVAC guy in this area of the country. The brake booster leak was now taking away my boost and messing up the engine. The temperatures dropped just enough to make the engine stall again if I applied the brakes while the engine was cold. Showed up with my BusBassist Box Of Coffee of the day before to see another 1973 VW bus, but this one had some original artifacts that impressed me mightily. Look, a real air pump drive pulley.
(just like the Road Warrior had between 81,262 miles on January 5, 1979 and 81,400 miles on January 20, 1979 before it blew itself up in the Bronx, outside of Pratt Institute which told me shortly thereafter that my portfolio was more engineering than art)

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I enjoyed meeting and working with JudahTheDog, who is an archetypical Rochester denizen, don't mess with 'em, but they know a good laugh. We started the day with "what are the four strokes of the internal combustion engine ... ?" We adjusted the valves on this truly fine complete rusting away low mileage bus, and did they ever need adjustment! Most were at the ragged edge of "0" lash:

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... and the rains came. So did BusBassist in his spiffy 1973 blue and white bus with the fine fine brakes:

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Here's JudahTheDog schooling BusBassist on timely valve adjustments probably:

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The test drive to get an air filter was a real eye-opener. A centermount carb can destroy your automatic transmission. Yes it can. The vacuum signal is off. The vacuum-informed throttle modulator misses how firmly to shift under load. If you have a dumb dual throat carb with a huge flat spot, you get this:

a) step on throttle, vacuum drops to zero, transmission thinks you are going balls-to-the-wall and drops you two gears down, but the engine is in the middle of its flat spot, then is kicked back alive by the sudden lurching increase in rpms and it "comes on cam" just as the transmission decides that maybe two gears down was one gear too many and it shifts up and we had some horrific slipping. I told JudahTheDog, please avoid this. We practiced lifting up on the accelerator at just the point before it wants to shift, so we can do No Load Shifts Forevermore. We outran the rain back to his mom's "you want pizza? Here's a pizza! You want another pizza? Here's another pizza! You sure you don't want another pizza?" I dismayed JudahTheDog by attacking his rocker sills with a screwdriver, and vast pieces of car came off in a rusty gravel of metal flakes down the side of the car. BUT, we also got the tailgate to work and the horn NOT to work every time you indicated a left turn. It truly is a lovely original car above the rust.

I took my leave at the end of the darkening day in the rain, drove PAST the Brockport WalMart parking lot where the Coke-Addled Pick-Up Dude blocked me off in the Lexus back in 2012, and had a restful rainy windy night's sleep:

(9675)
viewtopic.php?f=66&t=10678
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 Wraps Up In New York

Post by judahthedog » Tue Jun 25, 2019 10:13 am

More Pizza... and an original dual carb and a back up automatic transmission... If anyone has the carb and transmission I will buy them and throw in a pizza delivered to your house... fresh.

It was a great day, for a dolt I learned a lot and look forward to learning more. Thanks again!

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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Wraps Up In New York

Post by Amskeptic » Tue Jun 25, 2019 2:55 pm

judahthedog wrote:
Tue Jun 25, 2019 10:13 am
More Pizza... and an original dual carb and a back up automatic transmission... If anyone has the carb and transmission I will buy them and throw in a pizza delivered to your house... fresh.

It was a great day, for a dolt I learned a lot and look forward to learning more. Thanks again!
You're the dolt? You're the dolt? I just spent eight hours re-discovering the exact same problem that had plagued Kit and Jr, also plagued Emma and Sven. Doltishly did I discern dumbly duh dat duh TS 2 was devilishly deviant.
Yer gonna do fine!
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 Wraps Up In New York

Post by judahthedog » Thu Jul 11, 2019 6:58 am

I know, I know this is very long overdue... Until my visit with Colin last month I was the guy who immediately called AAA and then paid a garage (who did good work, but not a lot of tlc) to fix the problem. After my 11 hours with Colin I am feeling more comfortable exploring a problem...

When the bus stopped on the expressway last Thursday, the 4th of July is was 90 Degrees... I called a friend who picked up 2 fuel electric pumps and brought them out. I completed the surgery and confirmed that it was getting power and also confirmed that the pump psi was too low... Back to the parts shop who had the exact same pump that I had, the
Holley 12-427 (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00JS ... UTF8&psc=1. Worked like a charm and drove about 300 miles to a festival and made it home too.

Sorry about the boring story, but I needed to share with people who may get the feeling of the peeling yourself off the pavement to drive away in a working bus...

Now to the point. While this is the first fuel pump I have replaced (I know it is an easy fix, but a fix nonetheless), it is the 3rd that I have needed to replace. The Holley 12-427 seems to be the best fit, however I don't understand why they fail. Is it working too hard because I don't have original dual carbs? Is the gas tank dirty and gumming up the fuel filters burning up the pump?

Thanks,
Randy

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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Wraps Up In New York

Post by Amskeptic » Thu Jul 11, 2019 7:59 am

judahthedog wrote:
Thu Jul 11, 2019 6:58 am
I know, I know this is very long overdue... Until my visit with Colin last month I was the guy who immediately called AAA and then paid a garage (who did good work, but not a lot of tlc) to fix the problem. After my 11 hours with Colin I am feeling more comfortable exploring a problem...

When the bus stopped on the expressway last Thursday, the 4th of July is was 90 Degrees... I called a friend who picked up 2 fuel electric pumps and brought them out. I completed the surgery and confirmed that it was getting power and also confirmed that the pump psi was too low... Back to the parts shop who had the exact same pump that I had, the
Holley 12-427 (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00JS ... UTF8&psc=1. Worked like a charm and drove about 300 miles to a festival and made it home too.

Sorry about the boring story, but I needed to share with people who may get the feeling of the peeling yourself off the pavement to drive away in a working bus...

Now to the point. While this is the first fuel pump I have replaced (I know it is an easy fix, but a fix nonetheless), it is the 3rd that I have needed to replace. The Holley 12-427 seems to be the best fit, however I don't understand why they fail. Is it working too hard because I don't have original dual carbs? Is the gas tank dirty and gumming up the fuel filters burning up the pump?

Thanks,
Randy
Randy, good for you, getting in there and keeping it on the road.
Yes, you can piss off a lousy fuel pump.
A) Mount it as close to and under the gas tank outlet as you can. Mount it in a cool spot away from the exhaust system or air-cooled engine heat blast, and do not allow it to suffer road debris rock strikes.
B) Route fuel hose (safely no sharp edges or chafing allowed!) in as cool of a path as you can. Keep it away from hot engine parts and let the hose have a little wiggle room to absorb engine movement.
C) Vapor is what kills these pumps. They will rattle their fool selves to death on an air bubble.
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

judahthedog
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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Wraps Up In New York

Post by judahthedog » Fri Jul 12, 2019 11:19 am

Thanks!

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