Itinerant Air-Cooled

Please note: the above photograph was taken in 85* temperatures under sunny skies with a pleasant breeze on NOVEMBER 6th, thank you.

It has actually been on the uncomfortable side of muggy around here, but you will not hear me complain. First appointment was with exoticdvm on November 3rd where I did linger in the air-conditioned house a bit.
We did the sort of productive little tasks that make a difference in day-to-day VW life. For example, we fixed both front door handle/locks. The left side had disassembled itself so the lever would not lock or unlock, the right side had only begun to disassemble itself enough to cause the spring that snaps the key back to horizontal to jam up and start eating the door handle pot metal. Now, exoticdvm gets to enter/exit his VW through those "door" thingys. Hot off the wiper motor refresh up in Valdosta, I jumped in and refreshed exoticdvm's wiper motor so it will move the blades across the glass with alacrity. We have the benchmark.
Slow speed 5 full passes in approximately 7-8 seconds
High speed 5 full passes in approximately 5-6 seconds.
I noted that the "new" motors and brushes (1976 on up) are totally dinkier than the substantial motor with big brushes found in Chloe photographed below:




I shall be returning to exoticdvm on Tuesday the 10th to tear apart his left side fuel injection so we can take off the upper engine tin. Why? Because his fresh local rebuild has flaps that stick before they are fully open . . . .

Next day, I repaired to Manny Diaz's Palm Tree Nursery, slightly south of Miami:




I had discovered that I set the parking position incorrectly. I had factored in a slight coast-down when the motor is de-energized by the park switch, but I factored it in the wrong direction, so had an annoying slight jerk upwards every time I shut off the wipers. But there was no way I was taking out the whole deal to access the gearbox/crank. Removed glove box and right defroster duct, then taped a piece of mirror:




There's the crank nut that I had to go all Ben Carson Mad Surgical Skillz on via remote mirror:




Loosened nut and pried crank off gear box splines, set the blades, and re-tightened just as Manny Diaz's favorite dutiful palm tree nurseryman was about to tell me to "move":



Next visit was VWTreasure, a Headflow Masters engine purchaser. We did not have an engine to work with, so we spent the day, you know, doing a little dash wiring? Unlike llarosa's All Green Kustom wiring, we had white paint overspray coated wiring. I will do the whole write-up with photographs after Sunday's Installation Day.
ColinOffToagaines513

Jealous of those blue skies. Atlanta has continued to be a sopping wet mess of rain and dead leaves.

I really need a garage...

zabo wrote:Jealous of those blue skies. Atlanta has continued to be a sopping wet mess of rain and dead leaves.

I really need a garage...

Lawdy lawdy, so do I . . . that Westy has a busted right vent window lock, and I weep to think what has happened to the Westy's interior sitting outside up there.
Colin

Valve adjustment gabfest between Colin and Againes513 in Miami.

A bit of under the dash wiring puzzlement, what with all sorts of air conditioning ductwork in Againes513 beautiful bus.

Yep, it's sweating time down here in Miami. Hot, humid and still buggy.

4 Miami Cubanos and 2 gringos install an Adrian rebuild. More to follow, I'm certain.

Spanglish interchange in the Florida heat, just before the noseeums struck.

How did it run or did you start it?
I miss the tropical heat as it's way better than the grey elfin cold heavy rain we have had in Seattle recently. My fingers stopped working days ago...Brrr

Caged Beast. She made it down to Miami, that's for sure.

Okay, I'll say it: what the hell is going on with these photos?

whc03grady wrote:Okay, I'll say it: what the hell is going on with these photos?

Agree. It looks like everyone is doing the John Boehner tan.

Tim

Yeah, I guess I better turn the HDR setting down on my photo app. Colin is not to blame...I thought it might help convey the heat we have in South Florida even approaching mid-November. I'll turn on the noseeum setting, that makes a million little dots on the pic.

John Boehner tan...I like that!

I can only offer an interim update because we are in the middle of it. VWTreasure's Headflow Masters engine has yet to start because we have both vehicle wiring issues and engine issues.

For example, as we were trying to get the spray-painted wiring straightened up front, the new engine had a defective oil pressure switch. I was leaning towards the vehicle's wiring being the cause of no oil pressure light but heckityheck, it became clear that the switch was no good. As we installed my last new Hella oil pressure switch, we were hands and arms and breaker bars piled into the engine compartment from the back and up top trying to clear the electrical spade terminal and still get purchase on the nut flats, and we had a two-man team tightening the switch when . . . . .
. . . . the tightening torque suddenly dropped. Kudos to VWTreasure's brother, Victor, for immediately stopping. We gingerly checked for stripped case threads (my assumption) and ended up with a broken switch whose threads were flush with the case. Truly a friggen nightmare scenario, but I was enjoying this gang of Cubans too much. Two of them peeled out into the night to go find a EZ Out at the Home Depot while VWTreasure and I enjoyed some mighty fine lasagna (the Victory Dinner in the midst of defeat), and I had visions of calling Adrian at Headflow Masters:

"Hey Adrian, it's me."
"Me who?"
"Me who sent back four of your engines this summer."
"I don't remember."
"Adrian? I broke off an oil pressure switch in your new engine here."
"That is not kind."
"No, I am sorry."

Fortunately, I was able to bash the busted oil pressure switch remnant stuck in the case with a diamond point chisel finely ground by a Dremel cutting wheel, and tickle the remnant out with a straight chisel used as a cheap screwdriver. F.o.r.t.u.n.a.t.e.l.y . . .

Today, we are going to try to get this engine running! It must! It must! This engine, no matter what, has been treated to a celebration of improvisation and banter, it must, it must, I just feel it must want to join in and contribute.
Stay tuned,
Colin

Notice the drop light...




...as we should have done as we lowered the bus. This is never a good idea.