IAC Greetings From Tennessee Y'all

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Amskeptic
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IAC Greetings From Tennessee Y'all

Post by Amskeptic » Sat Oct 04, 2014 5:18 am

. . . and I have no time left here this morning. Stories and pictures at 11.
Colin
(yes, that was my arrival that dropped the temps 20* down here in Georgia)
(Energyturtle, you can post here in the meantime if you like, I'll jump in later)

(upd 10-14 > see, um "story and pictures at 11" means at "the 11th month", and here it is the 14th day of the 10th month, so, um, I'm actually early here . . . :blackeye: )
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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energyturtle
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Re: IAC Greetings From Tennessee Y'all

Post by energyturtle » Mon Oct 06, 2014 9:41 am

Hello all. This was my third visit for this lap of America. Every time Colin has came there has been a lot accomplished. Quick recap: 1st visit, get my fresh rebuild to RUN, 2nd visit, tuning, could not be tuned due to diagnosed blown head gasket on #2, the engine must come back out. At this point my patience was running thin, as was my wallet. I pulled the engine and as of now some 4000 miles later all is good. We fast forward to the 3rd. visit. A friend and I split a full day. I am a corporate chef by day , so I took the second half, as my vacation days have been exhausted. I awoke at 4:30 a.m. to go to work as usual and greeted Colin at my house at 1:40 P.M. When I arrived I heard the 1985 Vanagon GL running and stinking up the neighborhood with some rancid exhaust fumes. I had spent countless hours on the bus with no long term solutions. This is when I convinced my friend Kristi to enlist Colin's services. I will let Colin fill in the blank as to the final diagnosis and repair, if there ever was one. On to Energy turtle, the 78 Champagne Edition Westy that had eaten a canary the last time Colin was here, and had became a very sick turtle that spent a few weeks in ICU recovering. The task at hand this go around was fixing some major steering slop, checking my AFM adjustment, and fixing a less than acceptable sliding door. We climbed under the bus and found a shot drag link and possible center pin issue. Colin had brought the drag link from our undefeated champion, the Road Warrior. I say undefeated, because even when he took a cheap shot right hook he refused to die and kept running as usual. I felt a sense of solitude and pride, that can't be fully described when Colin pulled that drag link out of the BobD. After a few words of thanks we got to work on the transplant. I had read the center pin thread numerous times and compared it to the Bentley it looked like a real PITA. It proved to be just that. {insert Colin}. After the job was complete we went for a test drive with Colin at the wheel. I was nervous as hell, because this is the point where he has became the self proclaimed Itinerant-Grim-Reaper in my last 2 visits. To my surprise he was smiling, seemingly enjoying himself. We pulled over about 3 miles down the road and I took the wheel. Holy smokes this steering is tight, real tight. I was blown away by the sheer improvement in driveability. This is why I have not responded, I have been enjoying the interstate all weekend. We never made it to the AFM adjustment. I am assuming that after the test drive he was pleased with my dialing in. The sliding door only needed lubrication and the handle grommet turned around correctly. We cleaned up and was sitting on the porch chatting when Colin said "let's check out that throttle, I have a hunch", so away we go to the bus. Colin opens the engine lid and yells to open full throttle. I oblige, he says "O.K.". I hear the engine lid close. He comes around and greets me with "you're only opening to half throttle. I said "so I have governed myself?" "Yes," he replied. That was the end to our day. We had dinner, talked about numerous things, he showed me his incredible artistic ability, my daughter showed him some of her works. We exchanged thoughts on numerous political, economical, social, and racial issues. A cup of coffee was given for his journey to Atlanta, and he rode off into the night. This visit turned out to be much more than a mechanical endeavour. It was a lesson in overcoming adversity, sharing a part of you that is going away one piece at a time (the drag link), letting strangers become friends through a common love of vw buses and engineering, bringing someone else the joy these amazing vehicles give us (Kristi), sharing the values that lie at your core and finding out people from different walks of life are very similar in the lenses they look out of and the panorama they see. Colin, I cant thank you enough. I know this is a service you provide that I gladly pay for, but it was a lot more than that. There has been a bond forged, and if I can ever do anything to help or make your quality of life better all you have to do is ask. My door is always open anytime. My location is very central to many places on your tour. The spare bedroom is yours, coffee is brewing, and the wifi is full on wireless with Big Brother watching every key stroke. This is after all America. Cheers from THE DIRTY SOUTH. :drunken: :salute:
Scottie

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energyturtle
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Re: IAC Greetings From Tennessee Y'all

Post by energyturtle » Tue Oct 07, 2014 3:04 pm

Colin......its past 11 and I amstill awaiting the pics and write up........The suspense is terrible, and not very nice may I add.
Scottie

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Amskeptic
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Re: IAC Greetings From Tennessee Y'all

Post by Amskeptic » Thu Oct 16, 2014 9:22 am

energyturtle wrote: Quick recap:
1st visit, get my fresh rebuild to RUN,
2nd visit, could not be tuned due to diagnosed blown head gasket
3rd visit. friend and I split a full day.
Man, three visits in one year. I recall that February chill waaay back when the 2014 Itinerary was young and full of hope. I recall that May afternoon perched on the porch, pondering the predicament of having to plough past potential prevarications presented by passels of presumptuously proffered predictions of problems posed by the promise to pass on head sealing rings or sumpin', and most recently I recall the flinty faraway gaze of a man who has indeed risen to persevere, to prevail, to drive . . . .

energyturtle wrote: 1985 Vanagon GL running and stinking up the neighborhood with some rancid exhaust fumes. I had spent countless hours on the bus with no long term solutions. This is when I convinced my friend Kristi to enlist Colin's services. I will let Colin fill in the blank as to the final diagnosis and repair.
Yeah, so this Vanagon was sitting in the exact same spot as Energyturtle was in February (the Resurrection Spot I like to call it). I arrived at the house to Kristi, she offering a breakfast, me offering nervous prattle. I tried to scope out her overall knowledge and knowledge of what was ailing her Vanagon. I liked Kristi, a sprinkle of brass and loyalty towards her steed. Did I brag it up that I have never been stymied by a Volkswagen (for two more days, that would be true . . . . )? The only thing I was able to conclude after we did indeed get it running was that the intake tract was awash in gasoline from many failed starting attempts. We had to pull the plugs a la Hernnkind (no news is good news as far as his bus is concerned, I hope he has had a hard summer of traveling), and clean and dry them twice in a row. Heck, we had to pull the plugs a third time and blow out the intake manifold through the runners and out the spark plug holes. Gasoline vapor is a beautiful thing confined to a cylinder. Why did the engine get flooded in the first place? I have a guess, Scottie, and you might want to pass this on to Kristi (unless you are reading this, Kristi, don't be shy and say hi).

While VW Bosch fuel injection strives to prevent flooding in many ways, like with a short sharp cold start squirt constrained by a thermo-time switch, IF the damn thing doesn't start, you may inadvertently give the thermo-time switch too much time to cool off and it will inject again. Now we have a puddle of fuel. This can splash the plugs with liquid gas and they short right out. We have to have all supporting parts playing well together to prevent this:
fresh battery charge
good slightly smaller plug gaps .024" is fine on clean plugs
fresh volatile gasoline
The starting tip here is:
if your fuel injected VW does not start, your next starting attempt must include a serious application of accelerator. This does not "add fuel" half so much as "add air". Try it. Release the instant the engine is running on its own.
energyturtle wrote: On to Energy turtle, the 78 Champagne Edition Westy that had eaten a canary the last time Colin was here, this go around was fixing some major steering slop,
checking my AFM adjustment, and fixing a less than acceptable sliding door.
We climbed under the bus and found a shot drag link and possible center pin issue. I had read the center pin thread numerous times and compared it to the Bentley it looked like a real PITA.
It proved to be just that. {insert Colin}.
Now Scotty really, it was a walk in the park. I remember just laying under the bus and watching those old bushings fly up out of the bore, then I watched the new bushings get tapped in nicely and it was DONE! I didn't have to do a thing!
energyturtle wrote: Holy smokes this steering is tight, real tight. I was blown away by the sheer improvement in driveability.
That is my mission right there. These cars are beautiful drivers once their needs have been met.
energyturtle wrote: We cleaned up and was sitting on the porch chatting when Colin said "let's check out that throttle, I have a hunch", so away we go to the bus. Colin opens the engine lid and yells to open full throttle. I oblige, he says "O.K.". I hear the engine lid close. He comes around and greets me with "you're only opening to half throttle. I said "so I have governed myself?" "Yes," he replied. That was the end to our day.
So, quit governnin yerself.
energyturtle wrote: We had dinner, talked about numerous things, he showed me his incredible artistic ability, my daughter showed him some of her works. We exchanged thoughts on numerous political, economical, social, and racial issues. A cup of coffee was given for his journey to Atlanta, and he rode off into the night. This visit turned out to be much more than a mechanical endeavour. It was a lesson in overcoming adversity, sharing a part of you that is going away one piece at a time (the drag link), letting strangers become friends through a common love of vw buses and engineering, bringing someone else the joy these amazing vehicles give us (Kristi), sharing the values that lie at your core and finding out people from different walks of life are very similar in the lenses they look out of and the panorama they see. Colin, I cant thank you enough. I know this is a service you provide that I gladly pay for, but it was a lot more than that. There has been a bond forged, and if I can ever do anything to help or make your quality of life better all you have to do is ask. My door is always open anytime. My location is very central to many places on your tour. The spare bedroom is yours, coffee is brewing, and the wifi is full on wireless with Big Brother watching every key stroke. This is after all America. Cheers from THE DIRTY SOUTH. :drunken: :salute:
Scottie
I *enjoyed* hanging out with you all. It was making me awfully homesick for all the times I have set on the porch and drank beer and jawed with good people. Your daughter's art and her artistic inspirations was a joy to see, and though I was warned to not accept candy from children, tell her I am down to the last almond and milk chocolate bar. The excellent dinner with your family made me want to dawdle and stall from taking my leave to Bishop GA.

This whole last leg of the Itinerary has been jerking at my heart and I hide from it by staying on the move, too many good people, too little time.

You got pictures of our day? I'll stay up only til 11.
Colin :bom:
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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