1990-1993 (FORMERLY 4 YEARS- NOW CONDENSED TO 3)
j-f:
Thansk Jim!
Jim Ratto:
Oil Screen Tells the Truth; 1970 Bus (late April 1991)
The weekend was a mixed bag. The Bug's motor was up and running again, no leaks or drips and a much quieter valvetrain. In the earlier posts I had blindly and stupidly exchanged the W125 Engle cam I had originally built the motor with an Engle VZ35. As the journey to Ventura and back proved, this was a ghastly mistake. So the engine ran, but I had found the wire to starter solenoid (from ign switch) was apt to falling off, as the female connector seemed to have issues. And again, in an act of immature stupidity, I just slid the connector back on it's terminal and moved to the no brake pressure issue. I found a small puddle of brake fluid under RR wheel and traced it up to the RH axle tube and back of spring plate. The metal brake line between tang on axle tube and wheel cylinder had been rubbing on RH KYB Gas A Just shock, and had been sawn apart. Luckily, it happened as I was idling into the garage. This one couldn't be short cut fixed, so I bought a new brake line at Pleasanton Auto Supply, massaged it into a close to correct shape and bled the brakes.
But the Bus was another long list of issues to wrestle. It now sat parked at the curb, in between my parents' house and our super friendly, loud VW-loving neighbors house. I almost felt the eyes on me as soon as I parked it there. Sure, it was a complete eyesore, but then again so was he and his wife was no better. A silent, dead Bus couldn't be any less harmless. But in short order, the complaints started. By Saturday night, he was at my parents' door, demanding "that thing" be moved out of his eyesight. My parents pleaded with me to move it but I flat refused. Instead, I started working on it, Sunday morning, while parked in situ. I crawled under its ass end and removed drain plug, allowed a thick metallic grey stream to flow. Removing the sump plate and screen told a bad story with a worse ending. This motor was done. The sump plate and strainer both had what looked like valve grinding paste piled on both. The drops of oil now dripping from open sump had a sandy feel between my index finger and thumb. New motor my ass. So in an effort to really twist the screws to my next door neighbor, I began the engine removal on the poor Bus. Just the sound of rolling a floor jack down the driveway, along the sidewalk and into the street I knew was probably enough to light him up. Maybe it was time to turn some music on too. Walk Among Us, the 1982 album, from Glenn Danzig and the Misfits seemed appropriate. And so I toiled away, working to unbolt the motor, strip it to its guts, and make sense of what I had to work with. By the time I was yanking on the rear carrier with the motor on the jack, the neighbor was standing quietly in his yard, watching the proceedings. I knew he was there, but I said nothing. I drug the motor (on the jack) into my garage and stripped it down to shortblock form, and hefted it onto my engine stand. What a contrast from the '67's engine. Where I was conscious to use at least all same 13mm nylock nuts to close case, this motor had a potpourri of hardware, obviously retrieved from greasy coffee cans in a desperate mad dash to make it run by some deadline (I later learned the motor was built on the side of some desert road in Arizona where the Bus was stranded, no surprise there). Once down to the crank I found badly scored number 2 main that was also very loose in the case saddles. I knew the score marks were bad but I wasn't well educated enough to understand the significance of the loose crush.
I forgot to mention in the last post, earlier in the week at work, I had found a blue Gene Berg 1990-91 catalog, along with yellow 1982 Gene Berg catalog at work. I asked the boss "mind if I read through these?" He didn't care. More on what this lead to, next time.
karl h:
reading a Berg cataolg (and later the tech and instruction book) changed my VW life forever
Martin S.:
“I personally” really enjoyed Gene’s writing! ;D
Cornpanzer:
My first read of the Berg books scared me to death. It I didn’t do everything exactly his way, my motor was going to self-destruct and the blow-by would fatally wound unsuspecting bystanders. With that said, there was a lot of really solid information there that helped me a lot.
Enjoying the story Jim. Keep it up
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