Pearly's latest adventures

[pearl-the-bus]

Hi all, sorry for the lack of updates lately. But the last couple of weeks have been a bit overwhelming in Pearly World!
After arriving in Tucson, we stumbled upon a VW aircooled shop and stopped in to meet the owner and a temporary resident. Robert is living in his '73 Westy and is wintering in Bob's Bug Barn in Tucson, while rebuilding his engine and doing a few other projects to his bus, 'OJ' .
The next day, after experiencing issues I believed to be related to my clutch cable stretching, I stopped back to see if they wouldn't mind me changing it myself in his yard, in case I had any problems. This turned out to be a wise choice, as not only was changing the cable problematic , it also turned out not to be the issue! I needed a clutch. It seems that the clip from the throwout bearing had come off, and when I released the cable, the bearing itself fell off.
In the spirit of me learning to repair my own vehicle, Robert let me do much of the removal and reinstallation of my motor myself. After a weekend of working on this, as well as camping out in Bob's Bug Barn and VW graveyard, we were back on the road! Even if that meant tooling around the Tucson area for a few more days to make sure that all the bugs were worked out, we were glad to be free to see the sights!
Until a couple of days later when we're cruising out of town, and my oil light comes on! Having recently been schooled on what to do in just such a scenario, (thanks Colin) I reacted instantly! Looking in the engine compartment I see a large amount of oil has sprayed all over, (I had just wiped down not only the engine, but the entire compartment while the engine was out!
After a tow back to Bob's, and pulling out the engine and replacing it two more times, (good practice) Robert realizes that oil is leaking from behind the pulley, and since this is a pressurized leak, there must be serious internal issues. We leave the engine out awaiting Bob's opinion in the morming. He agrees and together Robert and Bob start tearing the engine down.
When he gets inside, he starts finding so much wrong, that Bob decides that a total rebuild is in order. For instance, three pushrods were aluminum, while one was steel! It also seems that the cylinder was damaged before being rebuilt (see picture), among other irregularities. ..
Bob is a second generation VW man, and he's been building engines for 35 years, he replaced and upgraded many parts for the sake of preventative maintenance, and the result is a practically brand new engine! Bob is handling all the initial valve adjustments and oil changes as we hang around Tucson putting some miles on Pearly's new heart.
Luckily we like Tucson and might even relocate here at the end of our trip, so hanging around town while Bob tweeks our ride before we head off into the desert is no burden.

[Jivermo]

Great place for this to happen, it seems. Robert and Bob must be terrific guys. Please, pictures of the adventure.

[pearl-the-bus]

"File size too big"

[Boxcar]

Pearly bless her heart has but one "heart". Her oil pump.

Sounds like you are in the right place though! Good calls on all your decision points!

Keep posting!
Thanks/Eric

[Amskeptic]

"File size too big"

Email me with your pictures as attachments?

Upload them to a host site and then post them here with [IMG] tags?

Pictures! or it didn't happen.
Colin-IWillFindYouThisSummerSomewhere