Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Minnesota 2

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Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Minnesota 2

Post by Amskeptic » Tue Jul 05, 2016 4:42 pm

I have been very curt and rude with my customers when they offer dinner, a beer on the porch, a stay-over, and it pains my heart mightily. Yet, there is a reason for my anti-social tendencies in the midst of such very good people . . . my fuel tank. I have to front-load each appointment with as much time as possible to absorb the very familiar lurch-n-die as some new boulder comes crashing into the fuel filter inlet. Then I coast to the side of the road and do the Here We Go Again fuel filter removal, cleaning, and re-install. Totally knownst to the Minnesota contingent, I was frequently late ANYWAY, because the fuel tank has been getting into this diet of Sea Foam + Horrendous Road Agitation.

After I had left Mulcheese (we did get one beer in) the promise of rain delivered in a big way. Sheets of sideways rain pellets and gusty winds pounded down on me as I headed west on I-94 to Eskimo Tom's pastoral splendor, so I escaped to a Starbucks with my vwlover77 Commemorative Starbucks Card, set up the computer and the mouse and the Verizon LTE wifi box and the ear buds (the better which to drown out Starbuck's idea of what I should have to listen to), and I ordered, against my every inner scolding plea, a diabetes disaster 450 calorie lemon pound cake slice with my coffee. Got on the forum. Saw the list of eleven PMs, six registration requests that always require an email notification along the lines of "Dear xmfbl44xsskx, please respond to this email to validate your account. Administrator - Itinerant Air-Cooled", but of course that sends me into my email where I have a dozen or so replies to deal with. By the time I processed all of the busy work, the sun was shining low in the west and I needed to find a campsite. Found one in the dark. Collapsed in deep fatigue, but I tell you what, I like my fatigue. These are good long days.

The Eskimo Tom visit is posted elsewhere here in the 2016 Itinerary Forum, a fine write-up by a fine customer who offered dinner, I so do suck. I had a day "off" coming up and I needed to get to my what was supposed to be peaceful campsite. I did not know it abutted the factory that makes pallets for all humankind at all hours of the night all night. I was going to camp there and get on the tire rotation/valve adjustment/fuel filter clean + fuel pump reverse-flush first thing in the morning, but instead, I gave up my nice little hideaway next to the pallet manufacturing hub of the universe, and blearily drove off into the dreary night to a spectacle of consumerism that coated acres and acres of Minneosta, it was a night of lights and parking lot curbs and wandering vehicles with blatting exhaust notes, and Naranja was beginning to buck like a bronco, so I camped in a vast mall, a blastingly well-lit consumer Maul of the senses in the middle of what should have been hushed countryside with stars overhead. Woke up at 5:30AM to get to work. But no no no, there is a Panera Bread, and my little self-indulgent Savage Brat Within entreated me to a cinnamon roll and a cup of coffee. "No," I said to the Brat. "No. I mean it. We are so damn fat now, that I can't even tie my shoes."

After a cup of coffee and a cinnamon roll, I spy a message from the miz *, something like, "the brakes went to hell, the alternator light is ON, and I don't know about taking VanaWhite on our trip." Coffee Sugar Buzz Colin Brat goes into hyper-drive, "forget our day, Naranja, we are backtracking to the miz miasma NOW. Fuel filter felled me on Pilot Knob, and I bucked up to the garage. No VanaWhite. Ya think I should have called first? Do ya? Luckily, Mrs. Miz Herself was there with a phone and she called the miz to tell him that I was on my way in to his work, where our Second Annual Beer Social was to occur anyway. The miz and I had to speak delicately so as not to frighten off VanaWhite's probation officer standing next to me, I think we settled upon "velocity retarders not optimal". I was in a fury, folks. I could see my life decaying into a bottomless pit of time-stealing call-backs trying to massage lousy parts as I try to bend th.. cold set them back into some semblance of functionality all across the country for my disappointed customers.

Arrived in the parking lot and spoke very sternly with VanaWhite as I removed her drums. The self-adjuster bar had fallen right off the shoes on the right side. Reassembled and checked twice, thrice, the operation of the self-adjuster, which of course performed flawlessly for me again. This time, however, I went to theSamba and read of others' torment with these self-adjusters. "Adjust them real tight", wrote one. I did.

Installed the old alternator from the old engine. It had far better bolts than the shiny crap Adrian had used with the new alternator. The miz came out from his office at the end of his work day and we started VanaWhite. The alternator light came on. Now I am hyper-GoddammitVanaYerGoingOnThatTrip ButSorryIDon'tKnowWhatIsAilingYou. No longer the patient teacher, I ripped the dashboard apart in the parking lot and lassoed the multimeter on a bunch of connectors. "The brakes feel good, though." Upshot was that there was no communication between the alternator and the idiot light, idiot, but it still had some ground path somewhere to turn the damn thing on when the damn ignition was on.
"We're going to run a wire straight from the coil to the alternator through a lamp somewhere," I barked at the miz, "you are going on that trip."

He gamely went off to the parts store for some wire, wire connectors, a little lamp. Meanwhile, the Minnesota contingent is arriving:

Image

There is poor forlorn VanaWhite sitting in the background waiting to see if our kustom idiot light experiment is going to work, while we The Proud, The Baywindow Boys, pose in front of our baywindow buses that don't use plasticky printed circuit tape to run our idiot lights:

Image


The miz comes back and actually wires up the experiment while I am busily getting inebriated and re-acquainted with my customers of past years as well as the past few days. We have a new-to-me 1972 Westy owned by the vice-president of the Twin Cities PBS membership and viewer services, there's MuedeStefan's green 1970, Belle Plaine's '75 Riviera, bradgt74's '70 Westfalia, and here comes Mulcheese in his easy-running '82 Vanagon with bicycles atop.

The kustom idiot light experiment performs as intended, all the miz has to do is look in the rear view mirror to see a charming little amber bulb hanging from the headbanger cabinet aka Rear Engine Monitor Ceiling Console. That little sucker keeps the alternator excited and working until the miz finds out what went kablooey in the printed circuit tape behind the dash panel. Here's the Bay Plus Vanagon line-up:

Image


Then BusBard BusBerd shows up with his Westy for the full complement shot, I think that is Phaedrus 76 chatting with the miz:

Image


We took another tour of the malt plant with that superb view, I forgot to bring my camera AGAIN. I blame drunken stupor, but it was probably fatigue.

Got a little lost the next morning on my way down to Bell Plaine MN to replace ball joint boots with Belle Plaine himself.

viewtopic.php?f=70&t=13096

Call me if you ever need instructions on how to negotiate the interchange of MN 101 and US-169 and MN 13. I am sure I can get you lost, too. We got to work:

Image


Replaced the drag link boots too, and used the SGKent Commemorative conical spring retainer thingamawhatever

Image


Here's Belle Plaine doing a thorough job:

Image

. . . and the final shot, a front suspension ready for the road:

Image


As mentioned in Belle Plaine's write-up, we went a little unconventional here and there. I do not trust aftermarket gauges as a general rule, and his oil temperature gauge was promising a hot crankcase after only 20 or so miles. If the oil is 260*, I figure the outside of the case has to be above boiling. But our pair of infra-red thermometers both agreed that the case was below boiling. So did my spit, which has visited many an engine.

Had to scram to Saint Peter for the grifftenstein dual carburetor call, so I once again rudely departed in search of a campsite close to the morning's destination in case the fuel filter might call it in. I don't even remember where I camped. I think it was a public works parking lot, next to some trailers used as offices. The grifftenstein call is up next in Minnesota 3.
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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the miz
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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Minnesota 2

Post by the miz » Wed Jul 06, 2016 11:40 am

Amskeptic wrote: After a cup of coffee and a cinnamon roll, I spy a message from the miz *, something like, "the brakes went to hell, the alternator light is ON, and I don't know about taking VanaWhite on our trip." Coffee Sugar Buzz Colin Brat goes into hyper-drive, "forget our day, Naranja, we are backtracking to the miz miasma NOW. Fuel filter felled me on Pilot Knob, and I bucked up to the garage. No VanaWhite. Ya think I should have called first? Do ya? Luckily, Mrs. Miz Herself was there with a phone and she called the miz to tell him that I was on my way in to his work, where our Second Annual Beer Social was to occur anyway. The miz and I had to speak delicately so as not to frighten off VanaWhite's probation officer standing next to me, I think we settled upon "velocity retarders not optimal". I was in a fury, folks. I could see my life decaying into a bottomless pit of time-stealing call-backs trying to massage lousy parts as I try to bend th.. cold set them back into some semblance of functionality all across the country for my disappointed customers.

Arrived in the parking lot and spoke very sternly with VanaWhite as I removed her drums. The self-adjuster bar had fallen right off the shoes on the right side. Reassembled and checked twice, thrice, the operation of the self-adjuster, which of course performed flawlessly for me again. This time, however, I went to theSamba and read of others' torment with these self-adjusters. "Adjust them real tight", wrote one. I did.

Installed the old alternator from the old engine. It had far better bolts than the shiny crap Adrian had used with the new alternator. The miz came out from his office at the end of his work day and we started VanaWhite. The alternator light came on. Now I am hyper-GoddammitVanaYerGoingOnThatTrip ButSorryIDon'tKnowWhatIsAilingYou. No longer the patient teacher, I ripped the dashboard apart in the parking lot and lassoed the multimeter on a bunch of connectors. "The brakes feel good, though." Upshot was that there was no communication between the alternator and the idiot light, idiot, but it still had some ground path somewhere to turn the damn thing on when the damn ignition was on.
"We're going to run a wire straight from the coil to the alternator through a lamp somewhere," I barked at the miz, "you are going on that trip."

He gamely went off to the parts store for some wire, wire connectors, a little lamp. Meanwhile, the Minnesota contingent is arriving:

Image

There is poor forlorn VanaWhite sitting in the background waiting to see if our kustom idiot light experiment is going to work, while we The Proud, The Baywindow Boys, pose in front of our baywindow buses that don't use plasticky printed circuit tape to run our idiot lights:

Image


The miz comes back and actually wires up the experiment while I am busily getting inebriated and re-acquainted with my customers of past years as well as the past few days. We have a new-to-me 1972 Westy owned by the vice-president of the Twin Cities PBS membership and viewer services, there's MuedeStefan's green 1970, Belle Plaine's '75 Riviera, bradgt74's '70 Westfalia, and here comes Mulcheese in his easy-running '82 Vanagon with bicycles atop.

The kustom idiot light experiment performs as intended, all the miz has to do is look in the rear view mirror to see a charming little amber bulb hanging from the headbanger cabinet aka Rear Engine Monitor Ceiling Console. That little sucker keeps the alternator excited and working until the miz finds out what went kablooey in the printed circuit tape behind the dash panel.
Thanks, Colin...you definitely saved the camping trip...not that it wasn't without any mechanical issues. The rear velocity retarders functioned superbly throughout the trip...as did the kustom headbanger idiot light!

...stay tuned for a write up on the trip...hopefully coming yet this week.

miz
1982 Westy- Vana White

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Amskeptic
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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Minnesota 2

Post by Amskeptic » Thu Jul 07, 2016 6:59 am

SlowLane wrote:Miz might be interested in GoWesty's printed circuit board instrument cluster kit. They claim that it works for all Vanagons 1980 through 1991. Not sure how they did that, since the pinout for the connector changed somewhere around when they went watercooled. Maybe it's as simple as re-pinning the connector.

The kit is a bit pricey, close to $300, but if it solves the problem once and for all...

Update: I just viewed GoWesty's installation video for the cluster kit. I'm now of the opinion that the $300 price tag is a bargain. The R&D that went into it is quite impressive. And yes, they do show how to re-pin the aircooled connector to work with their kit.
Should we move this to Electrical Forum or Type 2 Forum? If your response is all I earn of these photo/story epistles, it is sooo time . . . to not waste the time.
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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the miz
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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Minnesota 2

Post by the miz » Thu Jul 07, 2016 8:01 am

Amskeptic wrote: Should we move this to Electrical Forum or Type 2 Forum?


Good idea: viewtopic.php?f=48&t=13109
Amskeptic wrote: If your response is all I earn of these photo/story epistles, it is sooo time . . . to not waste the time.
...not sure I understand, sorry if I've offended you, you saved my camping trip!!!
Also, I love reading your recaps...thanks for taking pictures!


miz
1982 Westy- Vana White

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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Minnesota 2

Post by SlowLane » Thu Jul 07, 2016 10:38 am

Amskeptic wrote: Should we move this to Electrical Forum or Type 2 Forum? If your response is all I earn of these photo/story epistles, it is sooo time . . . to not waste the time.
Move it to whichever forum you desire, sir. This is your sandbox.

I do appreciate the photo-essays, as I'm sure most of your other followers do, even if we seldom express our appreciation.. I even noticed that you somehow managed to arrange the busses in prismatic order, (more or less) from red-orange-yellow-green. Most thoughtful and pleasing to the eye. :cyclopsani:
'81 Canadian Westfalia (2.0L, manual), now Californiated

"They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it is not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance."
- Terry Pratchett

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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Minnesota 2

Post by Amskeptic » Fri Jul 08, 2016 7:41 am

SlowLane wrote:
Amskeptic wrote: Should we move this to Electrical Forum or Type 2 Forum? If your response is all I earn of these photo/story epistles, it is sooo time . . . to not waste the time.
Move it to whichever forum you desire, sir. This is your sandbox.

I do appreciate the photo-essays, as I'm sure most of your other followers do, even if we seldom express our appreciation.. I even noticed that you somehow managed to arrange the busses in prismatic order, (more or less) from red-orange-yellow-green. Most thoughtful and pleasing to the eye. :cyclopsani:

Well, sometimes I act like I am in a sandbox, throwing a three-year-old's shovelful of sand out all over the grass. Your information is useful and I am moving those threads to Type 2 (edit- I mean "Electrical Forum") because (edit- the miz did a post there) they are Vanagon-specific and helpful to Vanagon owners whose plastic circuit tapes are sure to only become more problematic as they age.
Colin

(p.s. the prismatic order was actually happenstance)
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 Minnesota 2

Post by asiab3 » Fri Jul 08, 2016 9:02 am

Amskeptic wrote: (p.s. the prismatic order was actually happenstance)
When we learned about color waves in school, I never thought Volkswagen buses would adhere to the same conditions where "certain colors are faster."

Maybe I'll keep the orange paint now. It's certainly faster than blue paint.

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

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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Minnesota 2

Post by SlowLane » Fri Jul 08, 2016 10:38 am

Amskeptic wrote:Well, sometimes I act like I am in a sandbox, throwing a three-year-old's shovelful of sand out all over the grass.
Well, being a "cat-person", I certainly relish the opportunities to drop little "gems" into other peoples sandboxes from time to time.
It's simply a bonus if anyone finds them useful.
Amskeptic wrote:(p.s. the prismatic order was actually happenstance)
Aw, there you go wrecking the illusion.
Actually I gathered that was the case. I just happened to notice the order since I was grooving to Dark Side Of The Moon at the time.
asiab3 wrote:When we learned about color waves in school, ... "certain colors are faster."
Funny how things change. Way back when I was in school they taught us that the speed of light was a constant.
Education: go figure. :study:
'81 Canadian Westfalia (2.0L, manual), now Californiated

"They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it is not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance."
- Terry Pratchett

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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Minnesota 2

Post by the miz » Fri Jul 08, 2016 1:16 pm

asiab3 wrote: When we learned about color waves in school, I never thought Volkswagen buses would adhere to the same conditions where "certain colors are faster."

Maybe I'll keep the orange paint now. It's certainly faster than blue paint.

Robbie
I bet Buddy can make the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs...regardless of the wavelength he is reflecting :geek:

miz
1982 Westy- Vana White

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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Minnesota 2

Post by BellePlaine » Fri Jul 08, 2016 1:51 pm

the miz wrote:
asiab3 wrote: When we learned about color waves in school, I never thought Volkswagen buses would adhere to the same conditions where "certain colors are faster."

Maybe I'll keep the orange paint now. It's certainly faster than blue paint.

Robbie
I bet Buddy can make the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs...regardless of the wavelength he is reflecting :geek:

miz
Goof-ball.
1975 Riviera we call "Spider-Man"

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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Minnesota 2

Post by asiab3 » Tue Nov 22, 2016 8:32 pm

the miz wrote:
asiab3 wrote: When we learned about color waves in school, I never thought Volkswagen buses would adhere to the same conditions where "certain colors are faster."

Maybe I'll keep the orange paint now. It's certainly faster than blue paint.

Robbie
I bet Buddy can make the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs...regardless of the wavelength he is reflecting :geek:

miz
I don't know how I missed this one! A most excellent compliment, to which I thank you. Buddy made the "USA Run" in… Well we're 15,209 miles in right now and we're not done yet…………

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

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