Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Mideast II

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Amskeptic
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Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Mideast II

Post by Amskeptic » Tue May 28, 2019 7:53 am

Pulled a fast u-turn and meekly found my way back to the clot of road numbers and blasted down some expressway that sure as heck doesn't have any "exit 118", wth? At the last instant, my Bic Napkin GPS system triggered my brain, heyy ..... I bet that is an "11B" and I rocketed down the exit under firm braking on an equally firm descent that demanded more firm braking still. Now what? Another US 17? Oh sure, we gots your US 17 North, we have US 17 South, but we also have US 17 Byp North and of course US 17 Byp South, but I was looking for US 17 Bus, I'm driving one, I can remember this, and eventually, I found greybok & son. I marveled at the beneficence of *giving your kid a VW camper for a graduation present*. Why wasn't greybok my dad??

We started the day with Concepts With Colin Over Coffee®. Greybok Son gave me that slightly startled alert look of realization that there would be a lot coming at him today, and there was. A lovely tutorial on solid lifter valve clearance adjustments was rendered moot when we discovered that the engine actually has hydraulic lifters with the solid lifter rocker springs instead of spacers.

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We attacked the sliding door and discovered that it was truly a traumatized mess. Somebody had decided to attack the front edge of the sliding door panel with visegrips to make it "look more flush". So much for adjusting door strikers. We could not get the door to align what with the thoroughly destroyed door latch assembly at the front of the door preventing the rubber buffers from even being present. Every year, I see something new. New door recommended. At some point in the afternoon, his SO came home from school just before she went to work, and both of these kids just bristle with promise and talent. Who am I to talk like some mouldy uncle?

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We adjusted the right rear brakes, but could not get the left adjusters to move. I don't even remember half of what we did, some fuel injection (help me out here greybok and jaw21477!) and we did a test drive to go over some of the finer points of double-clutching. I was too enthralled with the art that Greybok Son showed me, and I was like a fanboy when I heard how greybok spouse was an Aerosmith fan and had a picture of her sitting in Steven Tyler's lap. Man, everyone has stories.

Drove up and over to Aldie VA to visit Honeybus and his deeply customized bus chock full of little engineering details, like this passenger side rear vent window:

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I have just run out of time. Two New Jersey appointments coming up. Will get back to this and cheesehead visit!

We're back! Six hours later and thirteen trillion gallons of rain and dangerously opaque fog that somehow gave a trucker the idea to pull into the interstate 80 traffic at 15 mph so he wouldn't have to wait for all of us to get by. I could not believe what was coming up in my windshield, and took a serious lane change without even bothering to look. Really, I had two choices:
A) Slam into the back of the slow truck with the front of NaranjaWesty
(sixteen inches of crush space in front of me)
or
B) Get slammed in the back of NaranjaWesty
(fourteen feet of crush space behind me)
Choice B, so why even look?

Honeybus has been the apple of Barry's eye for some time, and it shows:

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We ended up NOT getting to the fuel gauge because he miscommunicated and I misapprehended the behavior of the gauge. I launched into ponderous explanations of the re-configured variable resistor board wrecking our quadratic progression from full to empty. He was trying to tell me that the needle disappears entirely below half tank. After a sender comparison test:

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... we moved on to other interesting projects like replacing the alternator and enduring a blasting thunderstorm. The test drive yielded an oil light at every stop. No more 10-30w oil! we'll see if 20-50w helps the oil pressure at hot idle.
New battery, Barry, no fooling around!

Dreaded the drive to and through the Washington DC beltway with my genteel little orange marnier surrounded by bloated beer. US 1 through Washington to Baltimore has been under repair/repave since I have known cheesehead. I am proud to announce that now that the repaving job is finally finally done, it needs to be re-repaved. Nice new drainage grates and manhole covers and the fresh pavement has just caved around each due to what, loose soil, lousy drainage, heavy trucks, winter frost heaves?
"HEY BUDDY! HEY YEAH YOU, YOU!"
"What?"
"Nice van."
Arrived at cheesehead's house at a very respectable 20 minutes late to find big things happening there:

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Not ONLY do we have permanent shade/mild rain resistance, we have a houseful of electricity and a 10% overcapacity that gets bought back by the electric utility. I was giddy with the possibilities ...
"Hello, Baltimore Electric?"
"Yes, this is Baltimore Electric."
"Hi, you are late with your payment and we will be required to shut off your access unless arrangements are made immediately. Have you $13.65 to remit today?"
"Oh, our accounts payable doesn't cut checks until the middle of the month."
"I am afraid that will not be acceptable. We will forward your account to collections."

Today's visit was to figure out the vexing reasons why Clementine the 1977 orangish yellow Westfalia would not start. I wrote out our troubleshooting sequence, "spark, fuel, air, it has to start." Tested for spark. Yes, we have spark. Tested for fuel, yes, we have pump and flow through the hoses. Air filter was clear. "It shall start."

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It did start.
Then we test-drove as I patiently heard out vexed cheesehead's descriptions of how her last right turn performed just died the bus dead a month ago until this morning.
I chuckled patronizingly, "runs good now though, huh?"
Until our left turn. Clementine just died dead done dead dead dead.
Quickly scoped the landscape behind us (gravity said, "go backwards if you want a chance to get off the road"). Spied a parking lot to our left on the other side of the Dead Intersection and coasted back through the intersection hoping to build up some speed, then hooked hard into this parking lot-I-wonder-if-the-gate-is-closed. Well? Not too bad, shade, even:

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Troubleshoot, cheesehead, now is the time. We jumped the power wire at the double relay to the blue/red wire that powers the fuel pump. Sparks! no action. Dead pump. Took down the Hastings fuel filter (same one that stalled the BobD's pump, but found no loose foam like the BobD had ingested:
And so, for the second time in my career, we had to walk home. Nice day for a walk. Good reminder that cars eat up distance far more effortlessly than our little bipedal sneakers do. We found a spare fuel pump on the cheesehead VW swapmeet dining room table, and hied on back to Clementine. Cheesehead has very good dexterity when she is in the middle of the emergency. She just got that hose and hose clamp off the old pump and onto the new pump no drama and even plugged in the ground spade past all efforts of the boot to fight and feint:

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Clementine started right up and I followed her back to the Solar Panel Shade Palace:

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Cuts a handsome German Industrial Chic ambience, but really, that panel runs the house plus:

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And the roof slope gathered and funneled the wind for a nice breeze while we checked the rear brakes ... which were fine. I was ready to buy the entire table inventory right out of the dining room.

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Cheesehead and I, we've been doing this VW thing for years:

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Had a frightful drive on I-80 through Pennsylvania, rain and fog, and now must go have a frightful joust with New Jersey drivers ... appointment with appetite tomorrow.
Colin

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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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BusBassist
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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Mideast II

Post by BusBassist » Tue May 28, 2019 6:00 pm

A very enjoyable and informative write up. And glad you were able to find the cause of the no-start that stymied Clementine. I'm curious, since the fuel pump needed replacing, is there a preferred type/manufacturer best suited for our buses?

Hopefully, you'll miss the rains and enjoy pleasant, non-inclement conditions as you travel north (and throughout the rest of the lap). Am very glad to see your adventures unfold and glad to learn along with your IAC patrons.

Jeff
Late 73 Bay w/a transplanted 914 Engine.

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asiab3
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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Mideast II

Post by asiab3 » Wed May 29, 2019 1:42 pm

Clementine Fuel Pump didn't get a polarity-reversing defibrillation attempt?

I have witnessed so many aftermarket attempts at fuel pumps I couldn't possibly remember them all. The pumps with the spade connectors are louder than the Type 4 engine, but the quiet ones have ring terminals. The long-lasting pumps are super expensive, except when they're not, and the cheap pumps don't last, except when they do. Anybody else? :bootyshake:

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

TrollFromDownBelow
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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Mideast II

Post by TrollFromDownBelow » Wed May 29, 2019 3:40 pm

I have a mid-grade after market pump designed for a late 80's early 90's ford ranger 2.0 liter engine - got the spec's off the samba. It's been in my bus for about 4 years. Seems fairly quiet (but then I have/had leaky exhaust) Probably have only put on about 4k miles during that time though, so can't speak to longevity. Back then an OEM Bosch was running about $240, I paid $60 IIRC at the time. I think the Bosch ones have come down to the mid to high $100's .... FWIW, If it had been that price back then, would probably have sucked it up and bought Bosch.

Although the one advantage of switching to the Ford pump, is I no longer needed the hard-to-find wide diameter fuel hose (bonus, so I switched to a ford fuel filter. It probably has twice to three times the filtering area.
1976 VW Bus aka tripod
FI ...not leaky, and not so noisy...and she runs awesome!
hambone wrote: There are those out there with no other aim but to bunch panties. It's like arguing with a pretzel.
::troll2::

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airkooledchris
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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Mideast II

Post by airkooledchris » Thu May 30, 2019 11:35 am

So many things to comment on, but I can't get past the psychedelic jalousie windows on that bus. That's beautiful!
1979 California Transporter

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Amskeptic
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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Mideast II

Post by Amskeptic » Fri May 31, 2019 5:39 am

asiab3 wrote:
Wed May 29, 2019 1:42 pm
Clementine Fuel Pump didn't get a polarity-reversing defibrillation attempt?

I have witnessed so many aftermarket attempts at fuel pumps I couldn't possibly remember them all. The pumps with the spade connectors are louder than the Type 4 engine, but the quiet ones have ring terminals. The long-lasting pumps are super expensive, except when they're not, and the cheap pumps don't last, except when they do. Anybody else? :bootyshake:

Robbie

Oh, Clementine fuel pump most certainly did get the defib treatment, but the pump was stalled without any concurrent evidence of obstruction (like the BobD's foam chunks from the Hastings filter). I was ready to pounce on that fuel filter, but it had no rattle. The pump just threw sparks at our +-/-+/+- with nary a jerk.

Hey thanks for your definitive concision on fuel pump choices. Except when you're not.
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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Amskeptic
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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Mideast II

Post by Amskeptic » Fri May 31, 2019 5:41 am

airkooledchris wrote:
Thu May 30, 2019 11:35 am
So many things to comment on, but I can't get past the psychedelic jalousie windows on that bus. That's beautiful!
Honeybus has so many details through-out. It is like a pampered purse poodle with matching socks and vest.
Colin :compress:
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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