Hey all,
Haven't been on here in awhile. Colin, glad the muffler worked out for you. Nice to be able to recycle.
The extractor exhaust from Bus Depot does not have the classic sound, but for what I have seen people getting for crossover pipes in such crappy condition.... (if I had a collection of them I would be swapping them out bianually) it's nice to have an intact exhaust. Now I can focus on engine noises.
So, the rocker arm bolt came in from German Supply a couple of days after my visit from Colin. Got that all buttoned up and had it running smoothly. Shifted great too. Ran like a champ out to the Granny Grose campout about 250 mi away. On the way back we started stalling at idle. Vacuum leak? Seemed to be running well at highway speeds. Gave the vacuum hoses the once over when I got home.
Everything looked fine. S boot- check. Upped the idle screw on the throttle to keep from stalling at stops, and off to Westies in the Woods 2 weeks later. Hopefully the aircooled gurus there could help me with my stumbling idle. Going out the shifter started sticking again, but not nearly as bad as before. At Westies in the Woods a friend of mine provided me with a stock shifter. Installed, what?!? Shift pattern is worse!?!! Couldn't get it adjusted no matter where we placed it. I still don't think it was as bad as it orriginally was pre Colin visit.
Until 2 weeks ago coming home and pop! No 1st 2nd or reverse. After several minutes of panic I managed to find 1st in the abyss that had become my shift pattern, and limped home holding the shifter in it's precarious position.
So whats a bus owner to do? Ok, time to man up and commit myself to my 1st engine drop.
A little inside info: When I bought the bus to go across country in '92 I ran it for 2 weeks and the engine blew. I was led to believe it had 40,000 miles on it. It must have been 140,000. So one engine rebuild later and I basically had a new car that I have only needed to tune up untill recently. I guess thats what you call paying up front.
So the engine and the tranny are out. Slept in a tent last weekend at the Litchfield Bug In. (stiff neck. People have westies so they don't have to stay in tents!
)
I found the culprit. The bracket holding the gear selector mechanism snapped. The bolt securring it may have been holding the piece in place allowing me some difficult, but possible shifting for awhile. I also pulled the shift rod out and inspected it front to back. It looked good. I will be replacing the rear rod bushing, and the cage coupler.
Also getting some new injector seals and intake manifold gaskets. The injector seals were pretty dried out. Hopefully, that is where the vacuum leak lies.
So, thats where the Bus is at. I have been hesitant to do any major repairs on this in the past, but thanks to Colin, this site and the Samba, I have managed to get up the nerve, and I am thoroughly enjoying it.
I just got to keep reminding myself that this is a repair and not a restoration. otherwise I will never finish!
Soon to be cruisin on a highway or byway near you,
Joe