Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Charlotte NC . . .

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Amskeptic
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Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Charlotte NC . . .

Post by Amskeptic » Fri Jun 01, 2012 7:39 am

Chloe is in the process of telling me if we're good for an entire summer. We fit well together. It was no problem at all to step out of a Lexus Hush-n-Go Quickmobile into a 48 net horsepower VW bus with drum brakes and shrieking generator. No problem.

Once you are sitting in a VW bus again (yay) the time/space continuum drops out of warp drive and back into the birds chirping, the wind rustling, the day lazily laid out before you, and the traffic becomes a different experience all together. From the Lexus participation with other hurrying souls where leaving or leading or slicing through the pack is an easy choice if the irritation moves you to do so, to a VW bus where you humbly step out onto the interstate and shamble along the guardrail looking at the tiger lilies while the raging pulse of the American Lifestyle races past you, your only choice is to be polite and demure. Just the way I like it.

While still suffering the confines of the Lexus, I visited Lance Haines in Vienna Virginia, a referral from Honeybus (who you all should be jealous of but I'll not tell you why).
Lance has my favorite Westy color of all, the dual carb '74 in orange!

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You just have to give yourself over to this orange, don't fight it, belt down a shot of Grand Marnier and rustle up tangerine Crepes Suzettes for breakfast and go with it.

But Lance had issues. And his issues became my issues real quick.
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We had weird symptoms with his engine where it ran better when we pulled off the wire to the right carburetor's cut-off jet, and ran poorly when we re-attached it. Flummoxed by cylinder #2's instant death with the wire on, we were swapping wires and plugs and fooling with fuel mixtures and carburetor rebuilds with exchanged pieces from another carburetor, and I am trying to bring to life the carburetor tuning write-up here on this forum? It was a mass of useless babble when his engine would not play by the rules.

Eventually . . . too eventually, we narrowed down the bizarreness to Yet Another Stupid Hack ShortCut from some Long Ago. The cut-off jet had been drilled out and was dumping so much fuel into the carburetor, that cutting off the solenoid was the only way to get the mixture halfway decent. After putting in a different cut-off, we pulled off a late day synchronization that led to a passably decent state of tune.

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I vicariously lived a moment of Road Warrior dual carb nirvana when the engine came into its own.
This is an excellent example, by the way, a fresh car with original paint and original interior.
Hope to see it and drive it again (<hint)
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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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Charlotte NC . . .

Post by luftvagon » Fri Jun 01, 2012 9:03 am

:compress:
1981 Volkswagen Vanagon Westfalia - air-cooled Type4 1970cc CV (hydraulic lifters, 42x36 valves, stock cam, microSquirt FI with wasted spark ignition)
1993 Ford F-250 XL LWB Extended Cab 7.3L IDI

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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Charlotte NC . . .

Post by ruckman101 » Fri Jun 01, 2012 11:01 pm

Ahhh, the Itinerant loop has begun, summer is upon us.


neal
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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Charlotte NC . . .

Post by Amskeptic » Mon Jun 04, 2012 8:46 am

ruckman101 wrote:Ahhh, the Itinerant loop has begun, summer is upon us.
neal
It has, and it is. I was almost upon this turtle/tortoise sunning in the middle of the road before I realized what it was:
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Chloe hauled down from 55 pretty well for four wheel drum brakes, I threw on the emergency flashers and blocked the road while waiting for this thing to clear the pavement:
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Went down the embankment and visited this turtle/tortoise. There is something about these creatures that makes me feel new and dumb:
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I am fortunate so far, post-Road Warrior, that I have not taken out any creatures with any of my other vehicles. Makes the Karma feel easier.
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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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Charlotte NC . . .

Post by Will » Mon Jun 04, 2012 9:41 am

I'll be sure to prep my turtles and let them know they'll have a visitor soon! :geek:
1972 Type 2 - Vivian - Wife's Bus

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RSorak 71Westy
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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Charlotte NC . . .

Post by RSorak 71Westy » Mon Jun 04, 2012 9:46 am

That's a water turtle probably a red eared slider, you see them on the roads this time of year because they are going to lay their eggs. You did the right thing helping waiting for her to cross.
Take care,
Rick
Stock 1600 w/dual Solex 34's and header. mildly ported heads and EMPI elephant's feet. SVDA W/pertronix. 73 Thing has been sold. BTW I am a pro wrench have been fixing cars for living for over 30 yrs.

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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Charlotte NC . . .

Post by Amskeptic » Tue Jun 05, 2012 8:43 am

RSorak 71Westy wrote:That's a water turtle probably a red eared slider, you see them on the roads this time of year because they are going to lay their eggs. You did the right thing helping waiting for her to cross.
It was very large, about the size of my laptop case. Do red eared sliders get that large?
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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RSorak 71Westy
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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Charlotte NC . . .

Post by RSorak 71Westy » Tue Jun 05, 2012 9:01 am

Oh yes those little turtles you had as a kid were capable of getting quite large.
Take care,
Rick
Stock 1600 w/dual Solex 34's and header. mildly ported heads and EMPI elephant's feet. SVDA W/pertronix. 73 Thing has been sold. BTW I am a pro wrench have been fixing cars for living for over 30 yrs.

Will
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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Charlotte NC . . .

Post by Will » Tue Jun 05, 2012 10:14 am

Amskeptic wrote:
It was very large, about the size of my laptop case. Do red eared sliders get that large?
Colin
Its possible, but it doesn't look like a red eared slider shell to me. :scratch: Im not turtle expert though, but I have had my red eared sliders for 15 years.
1972 Type 2 - Vivian - Wife's Bus

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