Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings ToFrom Jacksonville

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Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings ToFrom Jacksonville

Post by Amskeptic » Sun Apr 08, 2018 7:31 pm

. . . I drove to Jacksonville FL to visit with our good Filthy Dub who has to read this very post because I have a Very Serious Suggestion for him other than to re-check the brake fluid reservoir leak for any new leaking . . . . get the breather squared away! It is jamming against the right fresh air hose. Why? Because the alternator stand doesn't know what to do with a generator-designed breather.

Now you all know I was a bit crushed that my sweetie BobD factory fresh bus died flat dead-on-the-road. I was supposed to drive to Jacksonville FL in the morning! I had a dead no-pump beautiful BobD sitting dead there in the parking space. This was messing with my psychic feng shui. It was parked facing the wall, dead. I could not leave it so abject. So, before I left for Jacksonville 365 miles away, I WD-40d the BobD's pump inlet and outlet, shook the pump vigorously to get the WD40 into the pump rollers, then used NaranjaWesty's battery to reverse-polarity-energize the pump ( +/- -/+ and switched back to correct +/+ -/-, until the pump's subtle little jerking turned into a lush spray of gasoline over the battery and my sparking wires. Wiped down NaranjaWesty's battery and engine compartment thinking to myself, "it is so nice that it is not on fire."
Installed the BobD's resurrected fuel pump into the BobD with a new filter, and the BobD started right up, right UP.
"You get to stay in the garage", I told the BobD. Left a note for Rodney The Pilot on the kitchen counter.
"Keys are in it. Feeling lucky? Take 'er for a spin."

Now, I did bad things on the way to Jacksonville in my hurry to get there after spending half the day with BobD.
a) 65-75 mph
b) maximum 434* CHT on hills "ah too bad, hey be sure to clean the carbon out of the exhaust back there"
c) huge honking Blu-Blocker clip-on sunglasses over my driving glasses
d) noise-cancelling ear buds (see where we're going here?)
e) silver socket pressed into service charging the dumbowner/smartphone
f) 18 mpg at 65-70, see "b" (not acceptable of course, richened mixture > max 413* CHT @ 14.7 mpg)
g) enjoyed very much my yellow blue-blocked experience out the windshield listening to:
Jethro Tull - Aqualung
Yes - Time and a Word, Fragile, The Yes Album, Close To The Edge, Going For The One

I kept the volume down enough to just catch horns blaring. Here's what you do, drive into other people's lanes while keeping a finger on the volume button and reduce volume of your music until you can just make out their horn. If you can hear them screaming at you, the volume is a tad too low.

With gratifyingly unstressed eyeballs, I pulled into Jacksonville at 10:00PM (two hour-long phone calls required two long rest stops) and passed out in a rest stop. Had a brief consultation with exoticdvm in New Mexico, and showed up at Filthy Dub and his brand new wife's soon-to-be-vacated home. Reason I am there:
(am I allowed to dish?)
Uncle X was driving newlyweds and the bus died. Had to tow. Melted Pertronix during diagnosis due to crossed wires on the coil. Won't run. Hasn't run since wedding day, actually. We got into our best diagnostic focus and replaced the melted Pertronix with a brand new not-yet-melted Pertronix. Here is Filthy Dub installing his new Pertronix:

Image


As I looked around, I saw what I saw.
"What did you see?"
"I saw why your bus won't run."
"What is it?"
"I can't say."
Well, I do that so people will settle in and observe and train their hopping minds to focus. This was subtle, though.

The pivot pin in the #@!&^ cheap-a$$ Brosol brazilian fuel pump had backed completely out of the fuel pump, rendering the pushrod and lever completely useless. Now why on EARTH would they sell a fuel pump with a pivot pin that had no circlips? No circlips to hold it in place as it gets hammered by a lever going back and forth 25 times a second at 55 mph.
No circlips.

The new spare Brosol fuel pump had a pivot pin with two grooves at the ends and two nice little circlips like all the original VW pumps have had since 1949. Uh duh, come on. We must warn our suppliers who sell 1600 fuel pumps to NOT SELL any WITHOUT CIRCLIPS! Don't roll the dice. Here, print this banner:
"YES, I UNDERSTAND THAT YOU'VE 'NEVER HAD THAT SORT OF PROBLEM BEFORE' BUT YOU AREN'T SELLING ME A PUMP WITHOUT CIRCLIPS ON THE PIVOT PIN." (optional > UH DUH).

Pulled the old pump, found the old pin laying there, stuck in the new pump, primed the engine with a genuine Mechanics Tool Bag Real Glass Shot Glass of gas, and she started right up and held a pretty good idle.

All this by 11:00AM. Drove around. Steering still has that nasty steering box "catch" on either side of what must be a badly dented-in worm gear at direct center. Got back to the house. Here is Filthy Dub backing up with a reverse light out:

Image


Now what? Glad you asked. I managed to get in all sorts of trouble snooping around in the Rat's Nest® of wires under the dash. By the time I had managed to get the dangling fuse box sort of where it is supposed to reside, we had lost:
a) the other reverse light
b) right brake/turn signal light
c) all idiot lights including the turn indicator lights in instrument cluster
d) high beam indicator

But, we found a most interesting anomaly, the parking light indicator lamp was not only on, it was always on.
"It has done that since I have owned the car."
"That is why your battery dies after a few days."
I just turned the bulb in the socket and let that shut it off. No way I am tracking that down after seeing the Rat's Nest®.
After a few referrals to the Bentley manual, we got most everything back AND (this is where my smartness reely shines through) we decided to mount the fuse box where it was dangling instead of where it belonged. We used a brilliant bit of plastic busted clean off his socket set and a cardboard protector between the fuse box and the intake plenum. Here, we note the two-year-old $$.$$ chrome trim rings from Wolfsburg West are looking . . . . dodgy. Come ON!

RIGHT
Image


LEFT
Image


Some time around, what was it 4:10PM? Yeah, "one hour fifty minutes to go," I brightly suggested that we
"let's put in your new brake booster!"
(to be cont)
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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sped372
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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings ToFrom Jacksonville

Post by sped372 » Mon Apr 09, 2018 4:59 am

Ugh, the fuel pump pivot pin. Same thing happened to us on the road one time. Had a friend lathe some grooves into the pin after that and put my own clips on it. Also, those taillight trim pieces are really disappointing.
1971 Karmann Ghia - 1600 DP
1984 Westfalia - 1.9 WBX

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Amskeptic
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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings ToFrom Jacksonville

Post by Amskeptic » Tue Apr 10, 2018 8:57 am

sped372 wrote:
Mon Apr 09, 2018 4:59 am
Ugh, the fuel pump pivot pin. Same thing happened to us on the road one time. Had a friend lathe some grooves into the pin after that and put my own clips on it. Also, those taillight trim pieces are really disappointing.
Your pin stuck out enough to do that? This pump had a pin that was flush front and back. Phooey, I say.
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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sped372
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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings ToFrom Jacksonville

Post by sped372 » Tue Apr 10, 2018 9:28 am

You know, now I'm not sure and my memory fails me. Must be getting old. Either it did or else I sourced a slightly-longer hardened dowel pin for the job. I do remember your exact sentiment though, just sitting there dumbfounded - that this was an 'acceptable' solution to the problem (no clips and what must have been a slight peen around the pump body?).

I am forever grateful that the pin didn't completely fall out and become roadside debris leaving us completely stranded. We made it the remaining couple hundred miles home with a couple band clamps and curtain-snap button caps for insurance.

DSCN2696a.JPG
DSCN2684a.JPG
1971 Karmann Ghia - 1600 DP
1984 Westfalia - 1.9 WBX

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Amskeptic
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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings ToFrom Jacksonville

Post by Amskeptic » Tue Apr 10, 2018 10:25 am

Yeah, 4:50PM and I said, "hey, let's put on your new brake booster!" During our test drive, I was definitely on Chloe Brake Mode and did not find his brake pedal effort all that extraordinary. I say this because.

What I did not take into account was the fact that this poor bus spent its life in Boston, rustsaltrustsaltrainsaltsnowrust.
I said to Filthy Dub, I shall not endeavor to complete this job if all fasteners do not loosen. Brake line fittings, check! Master cylinder-to-booster nuts, check! Vacuum line clamps (well, we ate them up and cut them off), check! Brake reservoir hose clamp, check! Stop light switch wires, check! Push rod nuts and clevis and clevis pin and cotter pin holding clevis pin to push rod, check! Not bad! All four nuts holding booster to front beam "loosened agreeably."
Job is a "go." Ya ha right.

Two of the four nuts holding the booster to the torsion beam had just spun stupidly because the rusty studs had ripped loose of the booster mount. There was nothing to do about that. Got out the Dremel, the big cutting wheel, and dodged brake pushrods ebrake cable, frame rail, booster can, air line, rubber bellows and gingerly attempted to bisect the nut on the stud, and quickly went to full on decapitation with sparks a flying and less than a millimeter between productive cutting or inadvertently hitting some surrounding item and exploding the cutting disc. What fun, especially on a coffee high. Getting the booster out from under the bus involved some fancy compressing of the push rod whilst disentangling the loose brake lines:

Image


Bad little booster:

Image


We convinced each other that we were still fresh and installed the new booster, the old master cylinder, the lubricated push rod adjusted to BobD precision, ran new vacuum line all the way to the intake manifold and the rain spattered upon us. The reservoir on the master cylinder was leaking as the light fell and the rain leaked harder yet. Your VW Master Mechanic here folded up some of the same plastic used to mount the fuse box ( you should post a photograph of the fuse box here, Zach) to put an upward pressure on the reservoir to hold it's barbs against the edges of the rubber donut grommets on the master cylinder. A proud moment.
"Is it still leaking?"
"Yeah."
"Now?"
Maybe not . . . oh, yeah it is."
"Now?"
"Maybe not."

So we went on a test drive. Good lord! The booster is vicious. A delicate tap on the brake rouses the booster,
"Ya wanna stop HERE??"
"Geeze, no just slow a little."
"NO, WE'RE STOPPING HERE."
Then when we get to the stop sign and want to stop,
"30-0 in three feet, THAT'S HOW WE DO IT! WE ARE BOOSTED BRAKES NOW, PAL"
And that . . . . is where we ended the day and my reputation at 10:00PM or so.
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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JLT
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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings ToFrom Jacksonville

Post by JLT » Tue Apr 10, 2018 11:34 am

sped372 wrote:
Mon Apr 09, 2018 4:59 am
Ugh, the fuel pump pivot pin. Same thing happened to us on the road one time. Had a friend lathe some grooves into the pin after that and put my own clips on it. Also, those taillight trim pieces are really disappointing.
When that happened to me as I was driving cross-country, I found that I had an AN bolt the right length and diameter, with its matching locknut, in my box o' hardware. (I had lots of AN hardware, since my job at the time was managing a hang glider factory.) Got me home and then some.
-- JLT
Sacramento CA

Present bus: '71 Dormobile Westie "George"
(sometimes towing a '65 Allstate single-wheel trailer)
Former buses: '61 17-window Deluxe "Pink Bus"
'70 Frankenwestie "Blunder Bus"
'71 Frankenwestie "Thunder Bus"

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Amskeptic
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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings ToFrom Jacksonville

Post by Amskeptic » Tue Apr 10, 2018 8:00 pm

JLT wrote:
Tue Apr 10, 2018 11:34 am
sped372 wrote:
Mon Apr 09, 2018 4:59 am
Ugh, the fuel pump pivot pin. Same thing happened to us on the road one time. Had a friend lathe some grooves into the pin after that and put my own clips on it. Also, those taillight trim pieces are really disappointing.
When that happened to me as I was driving cross-country, I found that I had an AN bolt the right length and diameter, with its matching locknut, in my box o' hardware. (I had lots of AN hardware, since my job at the time was managing a hang glider factory.) Got me home and then some.

I wonder if I would have thought of that say, with Chloe, on my way from Portland OR to Atlanta GA in 2011. Here is my first shot of Chloe's engine. It is a weird looking pump and I do not see circlip when I zoom in:

Image


I am happy with my vintage Pierburg with the reassuring circlips.
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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wcfvw69
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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings ToFrom Jacksonville

Post by wcfvw69 » Wed Apr 11, 2018 5:35 am

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds ... id=2127440

Shameless plug. :)

For anyone not wanting to deal with those craptastic "new" generator style fuel pumps that have no securing "C" clips on the rocker pin, inlet/outlet tubes that fall out and way too high fuel pressure, I do sell restored German Pierburg fuel pumps with the proper Effbe rebuild kits. These pumps put out 3psi.

I run them on all three of my VW's as does Colin, Robbie and many others.
1970 Westfalia bus. Stock 1776 dual port type 1 engine. Restored German Solex 34-3. Restored 205Q distributor, restored to factory appearance engine.

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Amskeptic
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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings ToFrom Jacksonville

Post by Amskeptic » Wed Apr 11, 2018 7:48 am

wcfvw69 wrote:
Wed Apr 11, 2018 5:35 am
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds ... id=2127440

Shameless plug. :)
Shameless. Utterly shameless. Where were you when I blew $200.00 for mine from that guy in Utah (where the brass outlet nipple did indeed pop out? I have a nice spare diaphragm for the main pump and a nice cut-off valve spare diaphragm for the upper part, mine are green. Yours are red. Discuss.
Colin
(you offer just diaphragms?)
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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wcfvw69
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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings ToFrom Jacksonville

Post by wcfvw69 » Wed Apr 11, 2018 7:21 pm

Amskeptic wrote:
Wed Apr 11, 2018 7:48 am
wcfvw69 wrote:
Wed Apr 11, 2018 5:35 am
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds ... id=2127440

Shameless plug. :)
Shameless. Utterly shameless. Where were you when I blew $200.00 for mine from that guy in Utah (where the brass outlet nipple did indeed pop out? I have a nice spare diaphragm for the main pump and a nice cut-off valve spare diaphragm for the upper part, mine are green. Yours are red. Discuss.
Colin
(you offer just diaphragms?)
Green diaphragms huh? Interesting. I've never seen those before. I've used the NOS VW of Mexico diaphragm kits, NOS German Pierburg or Effbe rebuild kits and Wolfsburg West's new lower diaphragm's.

To Wolfsburg West's credit, they had Effbe make a run of the lower diaphragm assemblies complete with the spring. It's an exact copy and is perfect in all regards. The big concern I had when I inspected it was the main diaphragm spring compression as it controls the fuel pressure. It was right on as well when I compared it to a NOS Pierburg diaphragm. Their square top rebuild kit is a mix of this new, excellent lower diaphragm assembly and the lousy aftermarket parts. None of the hard parts in the square top rebuild kit are correct with the exception of the new rocker pin. The outlet valve retainer, it's valve and the rocker spring are wrong and can't be used. I spoke to WW and they know this and are trying to get those parts reproduced correctly as well. The upper diaphragm is close and usable.

I installed this new WW lower diaphragm assembly in a German Pierburg dome top pump I restored. I installed only one gasket between the fuel pump and the fuel pump stand. I "T'd" a fuel pressure gauge between the pump and carb. The picture shows the fuel pressure result.

Image

Image

Plus, the correct, restored German Pierburg fuel pumps just look correct on a bus engine or bug engine vs. the craptastic aftermarket junk. I see so many pictures of beautifully restored VW engines with cheap fuel pumps mounted.. I also re zinc plate ALL the hard parts on these pumps when I restore them. The orginal rocker, pin, screws, springs, front plate, etc. The goal is for the pump to not only work like a new one but look like it too.

Image

To your point about what you paid for your fuel pump from Utah, yea, I'm not sure how they sell any pumps at that price point. Another company also is selling them for $250.
1970 Westfalia bus. Stock 1776 dual port type 1 engine. Restored German Solex 34-3. Restored 205Q distributor, restored to factory appearance engine.

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