Posted on Sunday, April 23, 2006
Well as it turns out, the motor needs to go... So it's time to decide on what kind of motor I want to get. I am thinking that stock is king, and I am in discussions with my mechanic about pricing. I am looking into powerdercoating the engine tin, I have found a place that does it, now i have to think of a color, any suggestions? I will let you know how the engine removal goes, wish me luck!
Posted on Sunday, February 26, 2006
Well, I have not written in a while. Mostly because I worked from August of 2005 through January 2006 on a film project that keep me very very busy. I decided that I would go ahead and let a mechanic do some of the big stuff, to get this thing on the road. Below you will find a list of upgrades and fixes (none performed by me):
New tires all the way around (including spare)
Resolved intermittent starter - tightened up all connections
Turn signal in front incorrectly wired - blowing fuses - fixed
Replaced turn signal switch (works better - still not perfect)
Installed correct heater Boxes - and Stock Muffler
Installed new oil pump - still did not resolve low oil pressure
Wired clock in dash
Installed new heater cable
Installed a new carburetor - modified by richard carey
34 Pict 3, new idle cut-off, new choke, 132.5 main, 50g pilot
Installed a new SVDA distributor
Mounted new digital gauges for CHT, RPM, & Volts
The motor reads really hot on the number three cylinder and still has low oil pressure when idle. Many of suggested that I do nothing until the motor blows. I guess that would be okay, just hope to take it on long trips soon.
I have in the past few weeks, installed the sink, with the correct drain tube and fixed the icebox drain line. I am hoping to get the water tank and sink pump working soon. I have also spent some time getting the little things working, for example, the heater vent cables have a small tab that holds them in place: found it at thesamba. The rubber bumpers that help the front seats stay in place: found at thesamba. Just got my new curtain material in the mail. I will (with the help of my better half) get those together hopefully by next week.
I have also started selling off all the little extra parts I have left over. Thesamba has been a great place for such activity. Hoping to hit the Pomona Swap Meet next weekend.
Questions?
Posted on 07/09/05
I found a couple of dismantlers here in LA that specialize in VW's. Leading up to today, I was beside myself looking forward to getting dirty wandering through junk yards. Something about a junk yard has always had a special place in my heart. I do not know why, or when it started but when I have an excuse to go to a junk yard, I get very excited. So finally Saturday morning comes, and I get up bright and early to head down to Long Beach to the junk yard.
I arrive just as they open, and I am saddened by the news that I am not allowed to wonder around inside. I have to have a mechanic with me, and of course the mechanic was late. So I chatted up the desk clerk, and after fifteen minutes he either realized that I knew what I was doing and wasn't going to hurt myself, or most likely he just got tired of me talking his ear off. He sent me back to look for my parts off the blue bus in back.
I wandered through a maze of doors, fenders, half disassembled bugs and beetles to see in the back of the shop a blue bus. It was a panel van, mostly complete and it would be perfect for what I needed. I got to work quickly pulling the side markers and taillight lenses off the car. I looked carefully for the wire loom I needed, but this bus had a 2.0 liter pancake motor in it, and was not going to be easy to pull the loom out. I looked around and found two more in the far corner of the lot, and didn't find anything real useful so I headed back to the clerk to buy my finds.
He took a look and said twenty bucks. Twenty bucks! That is a sweet deal. I asked if the mechanic had arrived yet, to which the clerk shook his head. Hmmm, I really wanted to get that wiring harness. I decided to take another look at the buses in the far corner to see how hard it would be to pull the rear engine harness out. After looking I figure it would be fairly simple and so I pulled the harness from behind the passenger side front wheel all the way back to the engine compartment.
As I am heading in, I decide to take another look at the first bus I found. Sure enough it had a turn signal switch, and it worked! I head back to the clerk to tell him I got one more part to get and I will be getting out of his hair. Pulling the switch was fairly easy, and I considered just cutting all the electrical but I figured with just another five minutes of work the switch would come out clean.
As I am heading back with my working switch, the intercom sparks up and I hear the clerk say, "which bus are you getting parts off of?" Stupidly I reply even though he can't hear me. I step into the office to find the clerk in a bit of a panic. He says, "are you taking parts off the bus up front, or the blue bus in back?" I point in the general direction of the blue bus and say, "do you mean the bus back over there, or the ones way over in the corner?" The clerk tells me that I pulled parts off of the mechanic's personal bus, and the mechanic is very upset. As best I could muster I sincerely said, "Wow, I had no idea. I thought that was the blue bus you sent me to look at. Geez, I am really sorry." Just then the mechanic storms in, "You pulled the turn signal off too!? What the hell where you thinking, that that bus was a junk!? It had a CD player in it for christ sakes, couldn't you tell some one was working on it?!" Before I could reply, the clerk says to the mechanic as he was storming back out of the office in a huff, "It's my fault, I told him he could back there." The clerk turns to me and says that this is exactly why the boss doesn't like people going into the yard, and I should take my twenty bucks back. I take the money, and apologize again. As I walk out, I point at the wiring loom sitting in a pile by the front door and say, "Can I take this?" The clerk just nods, and I hurry out the door with my wire loom and all my teeth intact. Rushing over to my car, and quickly starting up and getting on the road, all I can think to myself is to get the hell out of there before that mechanics comes after me with a crow bar!
So in the end, I got a wire loom for free, but I will never be able to go back there for parts. All I keep thinking to myself is, thank goodness I didn't destroy or damage anything when I was looking for parts on his bus. Everything was taken off nice and clean, and though it will take him about an hour to put everything back on, at least I didn't break anything. Nothing like the feeling you are about to get your teeth knocked in by an irate mechanic.
Questions?
Posted on 07/04/05
I planned on getting the bus over to the shop first thing in the morning on Friday before the holiday weekend. The plan was to get all the fluids drained, and the suspension lubed up. I had two purposes for this: to know exactly when the last time the lube was done, and get ready for the sixty mile trip down to San Onofre Beach.
Thursday night, I noticed that I left the key set in the "on" position the day before and the battery was dead. I wired up my drip charger and went to bed. I woke up Friday to find the battery still not charged. I had swapped the positive and negative cables! I switched them back and tried to start the bus. Nothing. I had just purchased jumper cables several days previous, so I pulled my Volvo up and wired up the bus and tried to turn it over. Nothing. I double checked my contacts and noticed that I had swapped the wires. Again! I put them right and tried to again. Nothing. Wow, I must have killed the battery when I put it on the charger backwards. I pulled the battery and set off to find a new one. I stopped by my parts place, he had batteries, but not the right one. I went over to the mechanic and he offered to put it on the charger. After a half hour, he says, "It's good." I went home, threw the battery in the bus and it fired right up. Yea! I drove it down to the mechanic and had him do the lube and fluids.
I planned on leaving work early and had made arrangements to caravan down to the beach with my friend Ryan. I figured at the very least I should have a car following me (after all I have no brake lights, no turn signals, and no idea if the bus will make it!) I get the bus from the shop and head on home. I finish packing all my camping gear, since it's a bus, I just threw everything in the back, more than enough room. I get a call from Ryan, he is running a little late. I figured I will go get gas now, and not slow Ryan down and we can get going. When I jump in the bus and start it up, it starts but it was not easy. I think to myself, I think that battery is dying, perhaps when I get gas, I should not shut the bus off. I head on down to the local gas station and against my better judgment, I turn off the car. After I fill the tank, I jump in and turn it over. Nothing. Well, this would not be first time I have had to jump start a bus, and I am sure it will not be the last. With the help of a gentleman waiting for the local bus, I was able to get the bus going and headed back to my place to await Ryan. I think to myself, just get the bus to San Onofre, you can figure out what to do when you get there, just get there.
Ryan shows up with a friend, Adison, in tow. Here we go, lets go camping! The boys follow me out of my neighborhood and onto Jefferson Blvd. The bus starts to act funny. It doesn't seem to want to give me any power. I step on the gas and nothing. It doesn't seem to have gas, or spark, or something. I drive about two hundred yards down Overland Blvd, when it is obvious this is not a hiccup in the system, I am losing power, and losing power fast. I decide to cancel the bus adventure and turn the bus around towards home. About have way through the u turn, the motor completely dies, and as I am rolling through the intersection, I can't get it started. I push the bus as far as I can, and away from the busy intersection that I just died in. Guess what? I have AAA, and my mechanic is open, and only two miles away!
I get my Volvo and with the help of Ryan and Adison put all my camping gear into my car. I give the mechanic a call and he sends two of his guys down to me to try and get it running, but can't get it to stay running. They throw a jumper on it, and drive it to the shop, and I jumped in my Volvo and headed towards the beach.
It turned out that all that was wrong was a dead battery. The mechanic tested the alternator and everything seems to be in order. Maybe next time I go camping I will take the bus, but for this trip the Volvo had to do.
Questions?
Posted on 02/28/05
I decided that pulling the Axle Nut off the rear of the bus was not a job for me. As Paul stated, it took about 350 ft lbs to put it on, its going to take about 600 ft lbs to get it off. So, I called the mechanic that was recommended to me by my co-workers, and he did not return my call. I knew of a small VW repair shop just a walk away from my house, and I had recently seen one of the mechanics from that shop in the parts store where I have found everything that I have needed. I figured what the hell, how much could it really cost me to have them install the E Brake cables. I spent some time in the shop, and got to talk to the owner for a while. He seemed to be very knowledgeable and reasonably priced. He was going to charge me $140 for the job; $60 for the cables and $80 for the labor. The cables run about $20 each online, so I thought it was a fairly reasonable deal. But I am getting a little ahead of myself...
Once the brake cables where installed, I got a call telling me that one of the brake shoes was cracked, and it was advised that I get new ones. I was quoted $70; $30 for the shoes, and $40 labor. Even though in the past I have been _told_ I needed brakes when I didn't need them, I was very skeptical. I asked about the condition of the fronts, they said the pads where at about 50%, and where fine. So, I went for it, but I asked to have them save me the shoes. I wanted to see these shoes for myself. It was after this phone call that I got to meet the owner and see the bus being worked on, and even the new shoes. I felt good about this guy and his crew, and when he told me that a bearing was shot, I believed him. From what I understand, after getting the shoes and the cables on, on the test drive, the left rear was making a lot of noise. Upon further inspection the axle bearing and the axle bearing "holders" were shot. So for another $60 and no labor charge, he had a new bearing installed.
While the car was in the shop, I mentioned that I had just completed a tune-up the night before and though I thought I had done everything correctly, I was concerned because the car still ran a little funny, and the carb seemed way to lean. At this point in the story I would like to interrupt and mention that I had recently picked up 6 feet of fuel line, filters, and hose clamps and left all of this on the passenger seat in the car when I brought it to the shop. Well, they took a look at my tune up and determined that my gaps where set wrong, the timing was off, and carb was indeed in need of adjustment. The guys also took my fuel line and installed it for me. Pretty cool for not asking them.
So I think that I found a local mechanic to assist me in the process. I will have him do all the things that I am not tooled for, or if I am too nervous, anything I don't think that I can tackle.
Next: Road trip to San Onofre for a beach camping adventure!
Oh yeah almost forgot, for the first time in my 18 years of driving, I got a AAA membership, lets hope that I won't ever have to use it!
Questions?
Posted on 06/26/05
Well I think I am a total retard at this moment. I forgot to adjust the valves. Can you believe that? It is certainly not a big deal, all I have to do is wait until later and do it then. But I was so excited. I gaped and installed the new spark plugs. I put in the new wires (and routed them correctly). I pulled the distributor out, cleaned it, replaced the points and condenser, adjusted the gap (which was a serious pain). I installed a new cap and rotor, and fired the beast up! Oops. Forgot to adjust the valves... Ugh. Oh well, I needed to take a brake anyway.
I checked out a few other things as well, most of the dangling wires under the dash were for the stereo, and it was not even close to connected. I grabbed the thing to see if I could get it out, well, it pulled right out into my hand, not a single wire was attached. I have found a set of wires (one red and one black) that are disconnected, they go into a loom that disappears under the car. My guess is they are for the horn, but I am sure I am wrong, then there was one other thin tan wire that was also unattached. So for wiring in the dash, it doesn't look like its as big a mess as I first expected. The engine compartment is a totally different matter.
As I may have mentioned the wiring in the engine compartment is a little toasted. So far I found a "test network" box (listed on the wiring diagram) in the engine compartment that has about 8-14 wires running to it and they are mostly melted together. From there wires are crispy around to the tail lights. There is also toasty wires running to the coil, to the alternator, and back towards the starter. Under the car I found several wires disconnected. I think that because this car has a different tranny, the reverse sensor is in a different location. The wires I found seem to be trying to reach the reverse, but are no longer long enough. And there are several wires coming off the starter that are unplugged. I also found one stray wire leading into the engine compartment, and it looks just long enough to reach the condenser side of the coil. Would there be any reason why something else is attached to the coil?
Questions?
Posted on 06/23/05
After a few pep talks from Paul (step dad) and Drew (good friend) I am feeling better about the 'hard to start' issue and the 'fried electrical' issue. They both suggested to start with a full tuneup, and tackle the electrical problem later. So after Wednesday night on the phone with Drew giving him my impression of how it starts (literally my impression: chugada chugada chugada) he advised, and Paul concurred that a cold compression test was in order. I poped over to my local VW parts dealer (about a block away) and picked up cap/rotor/codensor/wires/points/plugs and while I was there a set of valve cover gaskets. I also figured out that the my 'compression' gauge was actually a vacuum guage, and so a quick trip over to Kragen auto solved the "oops I have the wrong guage" problem. I ran the compression check with the help of a co-worker, Darin, and found the following:
In order 107 - 110 - 95 - 107
I also pulled the old spark plugs out (of course) and they would be described as:
In order lighter black slightly wet ( slipped out of my hand and hit the side of the engine) - dry black - dry gray with black - dry black
Then I put my tools away, had a beer, and was glad to know that my rings and my valves were in decent shape. I am need of some more specialty tools to finish what I started; feeler gauge, spark plug spacer, test light, and a crimping tool with a "tit" ( you would have to ask Paul about that one)
Questions? |
- New Motor for Chester
- Keep on keeping on!
- Dismantler yard
- Camping July 4
- Mechanic (different) puts in E Brake cables
- Time for the tune up
- Cold compression check
- The mechanic looks at it
- I finally found one
- Entries 1 - 7
- Entries 8 - 9
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