Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Idaho

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Amskeptic
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Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Idaho

Post by Amskeptic » Fri Jul 06, 2018 8:24 pm

This, immediately after the whc03grady visit:

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Montana said good-bye with an exquisitely gorgeous evening:

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.. .. .. and an insistent headwind coming directly from the sunset:

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Made it to I-15 southbound where the winds changed from westerly to southerly so I could enjoy my 12-13 mpg a little while longer.
Camped in a truck pull-off "no services" and enjoyed a chilly starry night so very briefly before I passed out. Woke up to find that the winds were all ready to go, too. Made it to Boise, ID by afternoon. My customer was in a nice part of town, shady trees and older houses. My customer also reminded me of why I like this career so much. How lucky am I to work with such a diverse and bright bunch of people? It has something to do with these cars. I know that it would not be the same if I was traveling the country to work on Camaros or Mustangs or Barracudas or BMWs. Here is a 1972 bus and a 1966 1300 Beetle:

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The quintessential air-cooled VW, you must drive one:

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Yeah, so we had some pretty shocking bills to pore over before launching into Itinerant Maintenance 101.
Then we addressed the valves. .067"? .055"?
"The engine seemed kind of noisy coming back from the shop."
"Ya THINK?" as I sprayed coffee out of my nose.
We addressed a casually indexed distributor drive gear, I think it was at 73* clockwise from the longitudinal axis. Now it is 12*CCW. As it should be. Rmr2122 had no problem re-clocking the spark plug wires.

We then timed it to 28* BTDC @3,400 rpm. Look, look. A factory white scale . . .

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Re-installed with cherry delite metallic fingernail polish for "0" and "28": Look at that stupid carburetor! All the screws face the firewall. Factory dual carbs would be so nice . . . .

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Now the engine will not idle. Without monkeying with the throttle stop screw, we had changed the parameters enough to render a running engine to a non-running engine. How? Well, the Weber centermount carburetor apparently had been providing almost full vacuum advance at idle! So when we stuck the vacuum hose on the distributor, the idle was restored with an idle timing at 22* No no no. Whoever charged rmr2122 for a "tune-up" was clearly lost. Even after I turned the throttle plate stop screw all the way back, that carburetor was providing vacuum at idle. So, we had to make an executive decision to just not use vacuum advance. We tore out the accelerator cable and lubricated it and the sheath, and we bent the accelerator pedal link to crisp 90* bends and added thrust washers and greased the heck out of the whole shebang. Upshot, accelerator pedal is mildly smoother.

We shut off the heat that would not shut off in the off position, but hey mechanics who charge a lot of money, thanks for trying. The last test drive of the day included double-clutching lessons and a newly required count before shifting into 1st:

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I flinch even with customers not named "Gypsie":

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It is a good car, rmr2122, and I enjoyed meeting you and yours.

Then it was off to Salt Lake City via I-84 from Boise. But Princess Itinerator was not pleased. The headwinds meant lousy fuel economy and a hot engine. A hot engine meant opened up bearing clearances in my middle-aged chariot. Opened up clearances meant that my post-engine-pull thrumming and gearshift rattling were getting on my princessy nerves. I remember this car as being the very most civilized VW I have driven, and now it was coarse and common, like all the commoners' VWs. I could not bear to say good-bye to manners.

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Thus, I was to be found at dusk, in the wind, at a certain truck stop, blocking the scales because the ground was perfectly level, with every single bolt or nut that had anything to do with holding the engine and transaxle in the car completely loosened.
"Hey, you're blocking the scale, what's the matter with you?"
"I am so sorry, but the engine and transmission are completely loose."
"Whaddyamean, 'completely loose'?"
And I got in my Naranja Chariot and dumped the clutch in 1st, and the engine dutifully dropped and clunked. Then I shifted in reverse and dumped the clutch. The engine raised up off the mounts and came back down with a thud.
"Yeah, you got a problem, how much time do you need? Do you need a tow?"
"Ten minutes, tops."
"How do you know?"
"Cuz I made the engine and transmission completely loose, and now I am going to tighten them up."
A baffled disgusted stare, and the trucker went back to his truck. Me? Not disgusted at all. Back on the road, the thumping in the floor was much less, and the gear shifter rattle was more a little buzz and I knew exactly why that was.

Drove another couple of hours and zonked out totally unexpectedly in Bliss:

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Woke up to a new statue installation at the rest stop.
Stowed the table, snapped the curtains back, brushed my teeth, shaved, watered the cactus, checked the oil, got in the driver's seat, pulled out my camera and took a picture of this statue aka The Cell Phone Zombie:

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THIS is what I had to do to get rid of the buzz in the gearshifter. I hate doing this, and you should too. You punch out the spring-loaded locator pin in the bottom of the gearshifter. You file it smooth smooth smooth. You file the spring smooth. You file the hole in the shifter smooth.

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All of this to help make installation damn close to impossible. See, the pin does double-duty. It prevents the shifter from spinning in circles, duh, by keeping it stationed in the front shift rod slot, BUT, it is also supposed to keep a good preload between the shifter and the shift rod. The pin always gets stuck after a few (or 41) years, and most of us prefer to let it stay stuck because you cannot believe how odious a job it is to shove that shifter down against the spring, under the lip of the floor, and get the pin in the slot when the pin just wants to leave the entire area. All smooth and well-lubricated makes it a lot worse. I finally had to poke a screwdriver down between the spring coils and hold the pin against the shifter as my other hand tried to push down the shifter past the spring but without binding the coils against the screwdriver shank while trying to find the slot for the locating pin, ask aopisa, he'll tell you.
BUT . . . NaranjaWesty is now civil once more.

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(back off the reverse cut-out adjustment up to 2mm if you have an older 091 with spring-loaded shift gate)

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Made some new and improved Itinerant Air-Cooled Monogrammed Floormats, and drove to Utah:

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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 From Idaho

Post by wcfvw69 » Fri Jul 06, 2018 9:29 pm

Great write up as always Colin.

A couple of comments-

1) When I saw your customers first engine photo with that center mounted 'carb', I shuddered.. I hope he takes your advice and reinstalls the correct dual Solex's.

2) Thanks for bringing back my night terrors. When I pulled my shifter out of my bus for the first time, it's was a disaster. The lubricant was a mixture of decades old grease and dirt. That pin was loose in mine as well. After a thorough cleaning and re lubrication, it was a tender slice of hell to try to get it seated in there with all the grease and the pin not staying in place. I liken it to installing the bottom brush spring in a generator on a bus with the engine and generator in place.
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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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Idaho

Post by BusBassist » Fri Jul 06, 2018 9:43 pm

Very informative and enjoyable write up Colin.

Say hello to my home state of Utah and my people (two brothers and parents: former owners of a 63 Beetle, 65 & 67 Squarebacks, and 70 Bus.)

I wish you well once you depart and head up Parley's Canyon on I-80 East, it's quite a climb.

Regards,

Jeff
Late 73 Bay w/a transplanted 914 Engine.

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rallybug
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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Idaho

Post by rallybug » Sat Jul 07, 2018 6:52 am

Next stop after me is in WI, I think - better to drive north and take I-84 than Parley’s...
Harvee the Wonder Bus - a 1979 CA-spec 7-seater bus

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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Idaho

Post by Jivermo » Sat Jul 07, 2018 3:33 pm

Great writeup! I was reminded of helping a friend who owned a bus, doing that same shifter pin installation back in 1992. It was a madness that I had forgotten all about, until I saw those photographs.

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tommu
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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Idaho

Post by tommu » Sat Jul 07, 2018 7:40 pm

Utah is the first state we explored when visited America in 2006. It is staggeringly beautiful. America's best kept secret.

Colin - would you advise us all to balance our engine mounting with this technique?

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Amskeptic
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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Idaho

Post by Amskeptic » Mon Jul 09, 2018 8:44 pm

tommu wrote:
Sat Jul 07, 2018 7:40 pm
Utah is the first state we explored when visited America in 2006. It is staggeringly beautiful. America's best kept secret.

Colin - would you advise us all to balance our engine mounting with this technique?
Nope. Truckers apparently don't like it one bit. I only did it because I was crazed.

If you follow the Bentley Manual engine mount adjustment procedure, that takes care of most mount/vibration issues. THEN you track down engine not running right, damaged shift rod/bushings, missing heater ducts, parts contacting the undercarriage, and unleashing that horrid little pin in the shifter, etc.
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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