Itinerant Air-Cooled

Reid wrote:I have one that I bought from a guy on ebay with the username sell2ship. The guy typically sells lots of Unimog parts, but he had several new S boots with the valve stuffed down inside the boot. The boot looks like the mold was made from a cracked S tube, but the valve looks like a clean copy.

When you say "valve" you mean rubber diaphragm, right? There are two. Late 78-79 are large, '76-77 are small.
Colin

I contacted the seller and he confirmed that he has more of the diaphragms - they are $12.95 each with free shipping.

I'll try and get a confirmation on what size they are....

Yes. Diaphragm. 1978.

With all the new injection molding and printing processes around, it would seem we could contract for someone to knock off a bunch of these things. Anyone have any contacts in that arena? Can we get the contact info on the guy who has them for 12.95?

Just a suggestion, and not to offend any purists, but Vanagon part number 049 133 517 is a standalone EEC valve that could probably be plumbed into the late Bay airbox with a bit of hacktivity.

This item was used on the water-cooled Vanagons. I have a couple of photos here of one that I've bodged onto my air-cooled engine (Yes, that's a re-purposed AAR elbow). For some reason, VW retrograded on the aircooled Vanagons and didn't have any valve in the EVAP system at all.

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Interestingly, if you perform a Google search on that part number, every hit that recognizes it as a VW part identifies it as an EGR valve. So much for the Collective Wisdom of the Internet.

Finally! I've kept in touch with this fellow who sold the diaphragms on EBay, and he notified me last night that he had located them, and they have been relisted. I ordered a couple. They are 14.95 now, shipped. He has a small quantity left. Here is the link: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 1049563293

Just received my new EEC diaphragms from the Ebay seller. It looks to be a well molded piece, and it smells like its made of real rubber. I'm eager to see how the bus performs with this thing hooked back up.

Jivermo wrote:Just received my new EEC diaphragms from the Ebay seller. It looks to be a well molded piece, and it smells like its made of real rubber. I'm eager to see how the bus performs with this thing hooked back up.

Real rubber has low resistance to gasoline.
Nitrile has better resistance , but is less flexible.

VW coated their diaphragms with what looked like glycerin.
Colin

No coating on these. We'll see how many miles I get outta one.

I installed the new diaphragm last week, and the bus seems to run better than it did with the vacuum hose plugged. The replacement piece is a perfect fit. I think it's a worthwhile and economical effort.

Jivermo wrote:I installed the new diaphragm last week, and the bus seems to run better than it did with the vacuum hose plugged. The replacement piece is a perfect fit. I think it's a worthwhile and economical effort.

Update!
It is December 2014 fresh off another Itinerary, and the hacktastic Permatex Ultrablack RTV-repaired diaphragm soldiers on, working fine . . . .
Colin

Looks like I am in for this repair. The Westy was running really crappy off idle with slight bucking until the rpm's were up. Put a new hose from the throttle body to the vac advance can and voila-magic happened. So I will try the repair method first on the EEC diaphragm to see how that works.

Bleyseng wrote:Looks like I am in for this repair.
A) The Westy was running really crappy off idle with slight bucking until the rpm's were up.
B) Put a new hose from the throttle body to the vac advance can and voila-magic happened.
C) I will try the repair method first on the EEC diaphragm to see how that works.

A) Like an 009 . . .

B) Like a properly engineered Volkswagen.

C) Like, improvisation is good.

airkooledchris wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 27, 2012 2:37 pm

thank you for this excellent write up!
was this unit put into use after this repair? If so, did it hold up?

Well Chris . . . it only lasted seven years. It just began to leak here in April 2018.
The repaired portion was still good, but a new section of the diaphragm let go in the "suspension gutter".
I just stuck in a new diaphragm this time.
Colin

I would call that a damn fine result, esp given that mine lasted all of a few hours. The replacements seem to be quite well made.
I have one in each of my AFM air boxes and both are still happily holding vacuum.