Wyoming And Colorado

Moderators: Sluggo, Amskeptic

User avatar
Amskeptic
IAC "Help Desk"
IAC "Help Desk"
Status: Offline

Wyoming And Colorado

Post by Amskeptic » Sat Aug 26, 2017 10:35 pm

When I felt stupid driving all up the western United States to catch a two-minute eclipse, I reminded myself,
"This is a business call to upsimba." Yes, my next call was only 263 miles from where I caught the eclipse.

When I arrived in his town on the evening before the appointment, I just kept driving . . . to Nebraska.
Yes, I did.
I drove to Nebraska to get away from the local cow concern that had stunk up the air with an especially odious aroma of too much BS.
Nebraska, you see, was only seven miles from his house.

Nebraska celebrated my visit with an unbelievable noise party.
First, as I was dropping off to a badly needed sleep, a loud obnoxious pick-up truck with a multi-colored running board neon light show skidded into MY Rest Area. An especially obnoxious loud female cackle filled the air, something about, "in your dreams! you think I would? Oh HA! No WAY. No WAAAAAY. You can just forget it!" And a mirthless laugh bitterly broke the crickets song. Eventually, they tore out of there.

As I was dropping off to sleep yet again, a proud BNSF diesel locomotive came thundering through, blaring its dual horns in an almost constant blast as it crossed Highway 26. This occurred with five more trains carefully scheduled to disrupt any chance of REM sleep. But wait, there's more.
At 7:00AM, a turbo-diesel pick-up woke me up as it impatiently accelerated from having to wait through the last blaring train horn crossing that had blocked the road after trying out its eight hundred squealy brakes. As I tried to orient myself, I heard yet ANOTHER engine coming in like a truck or a train directly overhead, geeze, the onslaught, the onslaught of internal combustion, but what/where/why is this latest torment? Oh. It was a bright yellow biplane crop-duster doing bombing runs right over my head where it dispatched its ordnance just across the road on some noise crazed corn crops.

Upsimba and I had missed an appointment last summer up in Washington, so it was a pleasure to be able to visit him this year and deduct the entire fuel expense. He got to just walk out of his front door to see the eclipse. And he did, as did his spouse and daughter (lucky girl, on this planet barely eight months and shazaam look at THAT) My picture of his family was a FAIL due to sudden onset myopia in the Kodak EZ Share 612 Can't Shoot At Dusk camera.
(Upsimba, post yours)

We enjoined his wife to a couple of valve adjustments, timing, and a couple of no-start diagnoses. She accounted for herself well. The day evaporated too quickly of course as always, but we are hopeful that we addressed the main points on his list, namely:
a) hot running engine seems cooler with the timing dialed back
b) no-start issue may be controlled now by a judicious leaning of the fuel mixture, but we might have a leaky injector as it seems to flood during heat soak
c) horrendous sliding door action has been tamed to latch fully open and engage the front receiver without a terrible crash with the front latch, by virtue of shimming the door and the horizontal lower roller

Upsimba and spouse have owned this bus for fourteen years, and it is a daily driver, which I love, because you can just tell when driving it that it is fully alive.

Image


Drove south on US 85 after the appointment. Camped on a beautiful overlook while a thunderstorm picked on Torrington WY in the distance. I was so happy to see the moon again, a little crescent on the western horizon. I have been missing my eclipse, my moon, my celestial muse.

I thought we now had a three week lull before my next appointment in Los Alamos with pmaggiore and jtauxe in mid-September, yet Denver is only 176 miles away, and Greg73 is on the list for September 17th. Why not move him to August 28th? Why not? said Greg73.

Project #1 Clean The Interior
I took everything out of the car and wiped down every surface with Dash Away! interior cleaner. Then I put everything back in the car. That took a day:

Image


No more dust and dead leaves under the seats:

Image


Project #2 Eradicate Ghost In The Electrical System Here:

Image


Hambone said it was the voltage regulator, and it was:

Image


See the toasty contacts (fourth red coil up to the right):

Image


Sanded all three of the contacts (cut-out, field/voltage, and B+/current):

Image


Image


Image


Used a razor blade to give only a targeted application of dielectric grease to each contact:

Image


Put a dab of orange RTV on the cap hold-down screw and a little grease on the cork perimeter gasket:

Image


Now the ghosty weird intermittent two second brightening of all the lights is gone. No, now we have a noticeable dimming of the lights at idle than progressively get brighter as the revs climb. I attribute this to the grease. The grease is not letting the contacts lift off cleanly. You know the voltage regulator contacts vibrate rapidly in operation, right? So why would we grease them? I am asking myself the same question.

Tomorrow. I post the door latch spring/window felt replacement photos.
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

User avatar
Amskeptic
IAC "Help Desk"
IAC "Help Desk"
Status: Offline

Re: Wyoming And Colorado

Post by Amskeptic » Sun Aug 27, 2017 9:57 am

This is "tomorrow". Started the day before yesterday with my first "attitude" property owner of the 2017 Itinerary. Like the day before, I found a lovely spot at dusk overlooking US 85 up a dirt path to an irrigation pump. Was awakened with a sharp rap on the sliding door glass at 6:10AM.

"You are trespassing! You need to leave! And pick up this mess you left! We've had people stealing stuff up here, now don't make me call the sheriff." All of this in one breath.
"Gee, OK, I didn't see a gate or any no-trespassing signs or anything."
"Don't tell me what I need to do, this is my property and you need to leave."

Then he peeled out down the path with the weeds thrashing under his truck. I got out of the car and noticed a bunch of plastic bag sort of litter all over the place and three or four empty lubricant containers and some smashed beer cans. So I wrote a note and stuck it to the irrigation pump housing.
"You need to clean up your mess. Don't forget to pick up some 'no trespassing' signs" . . .

After a groggy drive to Pierce CO in the early morning, I removed those beautiful new old stock door panels with great trepidation to resolve an "issue" that cropped up recently, the doors were not unlocking with the key if you inadvertently squeezed the handle first. This is that ol' weak door spring deal that generated a TSB, ask kreemoweet.

Back in June 2015 somewhere, I had pressed into service an old fresh air link retainer spring in the confines of the door latch mechanism:

viewtopic.php?f=69&t=12605

This Hideously Tortured Fresh Air Link Retainer spring finally lost just enough juice to keep me out of my own car. I had bought two new ones from Wolfsburg West way back on August 14th, and decided to do a proper repair here:

Image


You know, where I could concentrate . . . :

Image


Used my new Motel Room Card Door Clip Removal Technique:

Image


The old original masonite panels are sufficiently rigid to pretty much pull the clips out as you pull the panel away from the door. I loctited each air duct screw on both panels as they had loosened up since January 2015:

Image


There's the new spring. Noted that my violently fashioned upper spring of September 23, 2013 is still working fine:

viewtopic.php?f=67&t=1166

Image


It is an annoying bunch of fiddling to get that new spring installed, and I am not sure if I did it correctly. Was I supposed to have bent the end up vertical like a nice little eyelet? We shall see:

Image


Here is the Hideously Tortured Fresh Air Link Retainer spring finally relieved of duty:

Image


Took the occasion to rip out the old window felts that I had recently painted to look more presentable, and installed new ones from the August 14th visit to Wolfsburg West. Two paint sticks allowed me to support the glass grooves as I bent the felts to match the rear window opening radius:

Image


Then I waxed the roof here:

Image


Image


I am driving down to Boulder CO today, and will let you know if the wind whistles have died down, and I will do a car wash and let you know if the little trickles of water between the vent window and the door glass have subsided.
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

User avatar
wcfvw69
Old School!
Status: Offline

Re: Wyoming And Colorado

Post by wcfvw69 » Sun Aug 27, 2017 10:18 am

https://www.harborfreight.com/Nylon-Pry ... 69668.html

Colin,

I bought these for installing rubber lens seals, door panel removal, etc.. Best $8 bucks I've spent. No more scratches.
1970 Westfalia bus. Stock 1776 dual port type 1 engine. Restored German Solex 34-3. Restored 205Q distributor, restored to factory appearance engine.

User avatar
asiab3
IAC Addict!
Location: San Diego, CA
Contact:
Status: Offline

Re: Wyoming And Wyoming And Colorado

Post by asiab3 » Sun Aug 27, 2017 5:56 pm

wcfvw69 wrote:
Sun Aug 27, 2017 10:18 am
https://www.harborfreight.com/Nylon-Pry ... 69668.html

Colin,

I bought these for installing rubber lens seals, door panel removal, etc.. Best $8 bucks I've spent. No more scratches.
I was given one by 70crew last year… It has graced over a dozen cars already, and even finished off two 1967 Westfalia doors this morning… They're nice, but I think the Motel 6 keycard technique actually gives MORE surface area. Plus, in the case of the roadside repair enthusiasts, the best tools are the ones we have with us… :geek:

…Though after being treated to a garage with shop air, impact wrenches, die grinders, and running water, I'm starting to see your point Bill. :pirate:

Colin, is that some kind of speaker wire running into Chloe's door???

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

User avatar
Amskeptic
IAC "Help Desk"
IAC "Help Desk"
Status: Offline

Re: Wyoming And Colorado

Post by Amskeptic » Sun Aug 27, 2017 6:05 pm

asiab3 wrote:
Sun Aug 27, 2017 5:56 pm
They're nice, but I think the Motel 6 keycard technique actually gives MORE surface area.

Colin, is that some kind of speaker wire running into Chloe's door???

Robbie
My door clip remover system is rated to 1,964 lbs/sq in.

Mike had the front reflectors illuminated when I first bought the bus. With low-light turnsignals, I thought that was too much. I might turn them into side turn indicator lights.

Image

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

User avatar
asiab3
IAC Addict!
Location: San Diego, CA
Contact:
Status: Offline

Re: Wyoming And Colorado

Post by asiab3 » Sun Aug 27, 2017 7:00 pm

Ah, yes, that is a lot of concentrated illumination… And is this the spot where you waxed roofs in prior itineraries?

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

User avatar
Amskeptic
IAC "Help Desk"
IAC "Help Desk"
Status: Offline

Re: Wyoming And Colorado

Post by Amskeptic » Wed Aug 30, 2017 8:53 am

asiab3 wrote:
Sun Aug 27, 2017 7:00 pm
Ah, yes, that is a lot of concentrated illumination… And is this the spot where you waxed roofs in prior itineraries?

Image

First time here in Cheyenne WY. The BobD was done at a Dalton GA carpet factory loading dock where the building itself had conveniently burned down:

Image


Many other roof waxes have occurred behind shopping centers . . . mad little gnome industriously buffing precariously perched on A/C units and dumpsters.
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

User avatar
Amskeptic
IAC "Help Desk"
IAC "Help Desk"
Status: Offline

Re: Wyoming And Colorado

Post by Amskeptic » Wed Aug 30, 2017 9:47 am

Colorado and I have a very uneasy relationship when it comes to Colorado drivers, roads, and my little VW trundling along. Colorado tried to pander to its libertarian streak by increasing speed limits well past the ability of their road engineering to handle 75 mph with the heavy traffic. Lots of testosterone-steeped pick-up trucks just bellowing at 80 with construction trailers flapping behind them. Ramps, grades, signs, curves, road condition, all are taxed to the limit with the river of hurrying Coloradians, and here comes Chloe. This is the road to Boulder CO. I have just peeled off I-25 with great relief:

Image


Boulder is "nestled" against the Rocky Mountains, and once was pretty about thirty five years ago. It is now as bloated and crowded as any other American city served by corporate big boxes and stymied by the architectural strait-jackets of "development-du-jour" sub-divisions:

Image


But here is a 1978 Champagne Westy in a garage in downtown Boulder:

Image


It belongs to a sharp smart German, greg73, who wanted a tune-up symposeum and an analysis of the engine's current state of health even as I wanted to pick his brain about the German experience of U.S.

We fixed his car so good it wouldn't start. I am representing the United States poorly, but then I remembered our current inhabitant of the White House and cheered up considerably.
"It will start so good, really the best really, when we figure out why it used to be running but now it isn't."

Well, as it happened, the little vacuum leak issues that were resolved left the engine richer than it could handle. We installed new clean plugs, leaned out the mixture, got it running and timed it. Then it died. As we diagnosed, I noted that the fuel pump would not turn on with the AFM wiper. Discovered that no one had re-installed the plug when we took the air filter out. So now the question became how did it run so long with the plug off, and it only decided to die several minutes later? Unable to answer, we took off on a joy ride of Boulder's residential streets and practiced very mild emergency stops and one "dog swerve" test. It is a solid unmolested VW with maybe 154,000 miles, and I look forward to helping it resist, resist, resist the deplorable advance of stupidit. . . rust.

Enjoyed meeting you greg73 and your family. Declined their invitation to dinner because I wanted so much to Get Out Of Colorado's Urban Beehive. Turned out to be a gorgeous exit driving down the back road to Colorado Springs. I could see little bits of Denver to my left, big mountains to my right, and a succession of valley floors with farms dotting the landscape. 60 mph downhill followed by barely 40 uphill, I was slaloming the shoulders and intersections to let the hurrying Coloradians hurry to their destinations. Came across I-70 way overhead as it left Denver to tackle the mountains. I could see anew why Chloe could only do 2nd gear out of Denver several years ago. Took the CO-475 (?) to I-25 and headed south past Colorado Springs towards Trinidad. Chloe has been running so well. It is nothing less than any new car. Get in. Drive. Get there.

Like here, my camping spot. Colorado, seriously, you can do better with your bridges. Just concentrate. Make the approaches level. Get the road bed level. Just get the supports vertical. Tie them together NEATLY.
Trim off the excess:

Image


It was a joy to be out in the country again. Oh, but there are hills all right:

Image


Ahead, there is a warning to "slow down" to 60 mph for the curve ahead. Yeah, sure . . . I am in 2nd gear at 3,600 rpm barely hitting 27 mph. Hazards on, yes. Eagle eye in the mirrors, yes. Shoulder dives, yes. Close calls? No:

Image


I did not realize that we were at 7,834 feet. That is Chloe's proudly polished VW emblem glinting sun reflections off the weigh station sign:

Image


And this is where we are this morning:

Image


Image


Raton, New Mexico, where the wifi is surprisingly quick:

Image


Meanwhile, I am keeping an eye on the unfolding calamity in Houston Texas. House republicans from Texas had made an all but unanimous point of not wanting to help when Hurricane Sandy devastated New York City area on October 29, 2012.
Guess what they are asking for now? Yeah, I'm talking to YOU, Ted Cruz.
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

User avatar
dingo
IAC Addict!
Location: oregon - calif
Status: Offline

Re: Wyoming And Colorado

Post by dingo » Wed Aug 30, 2017 11:32 am

The Houston 'calamity' is largely a result of the rampant suburban expansion and short-sighted development that you referenced as having killed off Boulder, CO. New Orleans was the same...exposed by decades of quick profit development and industry..with the plan to be long gone by the time mother Nature came calling...
'71 Kombi, 1600 dp

';78 Tranzporter 2L

" Fill what's empty, empty what's full, and scratch where it itches."

User avatar
greg73
I'm New!
Location: Boulder, CO
Status: Offline

Re: Wyoming And Colorado

Post by greg73 » Wed Aug 30, 2017 12:12 pm

Amskeptic wrote:
Wed Aug 30, 2017 9:47 am
"It will start so good, really the best really, when we figure out why it used to be running but now it isn't."
Well I took it out for a longer drive today and it really is running nicely. Also feels a bit more powerful on the uphill. We will know this weekend when taking it out to the trail ridge road (12,183 ft).

Amskeptic wrote:
Wed Aug 30, 2017 9:47 am
Enjoyed meeting you greg73 and your family. Declined their invitation to dinner because I wanted so much to Get Out Of Colorado's Urban Beehive.
Likewise, I enjoyed the day tremendously and am highly motivated to get going on my long to-do list. I also vow to keep the rust in check by executing on the long overdue window rubber replacement project. Next time you will be here, I promise to be a better host and have at least some lunch options ready. You will have a harder time getting out of Dinner obligations, though.

IMG_7869.jpg

User avatar
wcfvw69
Old School!
Status: Offline

Re: Wyoming And Colorado

Post by wcfvw69 » Wed Aug 30, 2017 2:30 pm

I always enjoyed the drive between Denver and El Paso down I-25. Once past Pueblo, it opens up and the countryside is beautiful, especially as you close in on Santa Fe. Wide open expanses of scenery.

It's nice reading your issue free travels this year w/Chloe. How's the valve adjustments? Have they settled in?
1970 Westfalia bus. Stock 1776 dual port type 1 engine. Restored German Solex 34-3. Restored 205Q distributor, restored to factory appearance engine.

User avatar
Amskeptic
IAC "Help Desk"
IAC "Help Desk"
Status: Offline

Re: Wyoming And Colorado

Post by Amskeptic » Wed Aug 30, 2017 9:01 pm

wcfvw69 wrote:
Wed Aug 30, 2017 2:30 pm
Once past Pueblo, it opens up and the countryside is beautiful, especially as you close in on Santa Fe. Wide open expanses of scenery.
Image



Image



Image


Yeah, we let 'er rip down the hill after the 7,834 ft Raton Summit, 67 mph engine braking, generator/fan screaming like a well-tuned jet.

Found a lovely fixer-upper in a charming neighborhood of older homes:

Image


Quality double-thickness walls help to keep your summers cool:

Image


I had no idea that these mud houses were utterly bereft of any sort of wood in the walls save for door and window frames. These houses had two layers of mud patties fashioned somewhat like bricks, and that was it:

Image


The rafters sit on a header that is haphazardly placed in the mud:

Image


Here, the wall was caved in. I don't think the roof was happy about that. Who knows what was smeared on the mud patties to give you that fresh gypsum look, but the powerful color choices I think were an effort to cheer up the place:

Image


I was going to do my Big Tire Rotation/Re-Undercoat here, but New Mexico apparently has been beset by rains all summer. Mosquitoes and standing water all through this fine neighborhood. I was eaten alive and gave up and went to a high dry exit off I-25 to install my Tommu Commemorative Genuine VW-like Sliding Door Header Trim, instead:

Image

Tomorrow, I go to pine forest outside of Santa Fe for Big Tire Rotation/Re-Undercoat.
wcfvw69 wrote:
Wed Aug 30, 2017 2:30 pm
It's nice reading your issue free travels this year w/Chloe. How's the valve adjustments? Have they settled in?
The exhausts have been losing about an hour every time I check. That used to be every 400 miles. Then it was every 1,000 miles. Last check was after 2,000 miles, so the interval suggests things are stabilizing. What is too weird is that the engine is now substantially quieter than it has ever been, and now sounds mostly like generator/fan at cruise.
Colin
(if the photographs make no sense, it is because Photobucket can't straighten out its thumbnails/images. 62 errors on the page! bunch of hacks!!)
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

User avatar
asiab3
IAC Addict!
Location: San Diego, CA
Contact:
Status: Offline

Re: Wyoming And Colorado

Post by asiab3 » Wed Aug 30, 2017 11:01 pm

The photos are loading beautifully.

My roommate is sitting here asking "what kind of camera does he use?"

When I responded with the Kodak EZ-Share, he scoffed and asked me again "No, seriously, what kind?"

The travel updates never get old. Thank you.
Robbie
1969 bus, "Buddy."
145k miles with me.
322k miles on Earth.

User avatar
drober23
Addicted!
Location: Metro Detroit
Status: Offline

Re: Wyoming And Colorado

Post by drober23 » Thu Aug 31, 2017 7:56 am

That's a beautiful bus greg73. You'll be fine on Trail Ridge Road.
DJ

'75 Westfalia, '79 Deluxe
(plus more busses than sense)

In a time of chimpanzees I was a monkey

Jivermo
IAC Addict!
Status: Offline

Re: Wyoming And Colorado

Post by Jivermo » Thu Aug 31, 2017 8:37 am

Love the mud house report! Guess you'll be at that great Los Alamos campsite, Camp May, with its gorgeous views, soon. Pics, please.

Post Reply