Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings Los Alamos II b

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Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings Los Alamos II b

Post by Amskeptic » Mon Aug 16, 2010 3:48 pm

Once in Los Alamos there was work to be done!
The BobD was gasping a bit for oxygen and acting like an old Type 1 bus on the hills . . . so I decided to enjoy life as an old Type 1 bus and just wafted up the hills.

Visited PMaggiore and found two of his three children ready for work.
So I put them to work . . . and found eager competent mechanics in training. Tom installed the evaporative fuel vapor lines with tees and proper routing, removed and installed the spark plugs, and displayed a decent intuitive touch:

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Cody was responsible for removing the belly pan ("is it going to fall on me?") and disassembling and lubricating the accelerator pedal linkage + cable, and he cleaned and gapped the spark plugs and made extra-sure that the anti-seize paste reached each and every thread with abundance.

The family that repairs to underneath the bus together, stays together:

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These kids then got Itinerant Air-Cooled Driving Lessons at a local parking lot, and did an exceptionally good job of driving with coordination and being nice to the family Volkswagen's clutch.

I did not take photographs at the annual JTauxe Los Alamos Volkswagen Reunion whereupon five or six Volkswagens materialize in the time it takes to turn around and grab your Diet Coke. It was a pleasure to see Tom Stockton show up with his bus (I had left it in April in the cold rain with no clutch arm and many other pieces still to be installed), and it was a real pleasure to spend two half days with Jtauxe's neighbors, The Bowers, working on their once-owned-by-jtauxe's Westfalia. We did all four CV repack/new boots plus custom modified lock plates in a credible four hours, and I got to play their WELL-CARED-FOR Steinway very briefly.

John, I await photographs and word on the Bluebird . . . . . . . :blackeye:

Then it was off to Colorado along US 285 North and US 64 East.

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Once I was in the glorious countryside groove:

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I just had to visit the NRA:
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where friendly statues welcome you:
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Somebody actually thought this was . . . just right for the entrance:

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The NRA cares not. They only care for support.

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Ahh, but three gear changes later and I am back in the countryside:

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. . . where bullets seem unnecessary:
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Do this. Don't do that. You're not the boss of me:
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Left New Mexico in the night, New Mexico, the Land of Enchantment:
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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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Post by jtauxe » Tue Aug 17, 2010 5:33 pm

'Twas indeed a classic visit. No fewer than 7 VW Type 2s were at the house on Thursday, including Stan Primak's new acquisition: at beatup but running 1958 Single Cab that he drove back from Dixon. We also had my 3 buses, the BobD, of course, as well as Ryan's '76 hard top camper, and Tom's '79 brown transporter. Quite the gathering. Here's a photo of at least part of the crowd:
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As for the engine-o-mysteries in BlueBird (the '78 pickup with the 2-L GD engine and '75 vintage FI system)... well, here's the scoop:

We had returned it to the condition that it last ran well, with the AAR with the hole drilled through it to provide some more air. It is running well -- dare I say fabulously -- when running around, and in fact I just drove it to Albuquerque (100 miles) without incident. Purred all the way.

But it is still hard to start at times (especially when warm), and it wants to idle at a high RPM.

And one thing I did that I now may have messed up and need help with: I fiddled around with the idle air mixture screw on the AFM. I fear that I should not have, as I now have no way of checking the quality of the exhaust gases. Is there a way to find a happy adjustment to that without the exhaust gas meter?
John
"The bus came by and I got on. That's when it all began..." - Garcia/Weir/Kreutzman
http://vw.tauxe.net

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Post by Amskeptic » Tue Aug 17, 2010 6:41 pm

jtauxe wrote:
It is running well -- dare I say fabulously -- when running around,

But it is still hard to start at times (especially when warm),

I fiddled around with the idle air mixture screw on the AFM.
I now have no way of checking the quality of the exhaust gases. Is there a way to find a happy adjustment to that without the exhaust gas meter?
Hard start when warm? Fuel pressure regulator bleeding down and allowing the gas to boil in the rail, right?

You do have a way to check your fuel mixture without the fancy-schmanzy analyzer dealio. On a warm engine, pull the vacuum hose off the intake manifold that leads to the pressure regulator, that little one just above the intake pipes on the right side (remember? it let the engine run at all). That causes a vacuum leak that you get to manipulate. Put your finger over the nipple and barely roll it off so you cause just a mini-vacuum leak. Idle jumps up? Turn screw on AFM counter-clockwise. Idle drops precipitously? Turn screw clockwise. Use your spatial relations skills to properly translate clockwise and counter-clockwise to a screw that is facing upside down.
ColInDenver
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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jtauxe
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Post by jtauxe » Tue Aug 17, 2010 8:55 pm

I'll try that when I get back to the bus, now parked at the airport. Then a good long drive home will settle the matter.
John
"The bus came by and I got on. That's when it all began..." - Garcia/Weir/Kreutzman
http://vw.tauxe.net

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