Date:         Sun, 13 Feb 2000 16:19:05 -0500
Reply-To:     ed <edevinney@BIGFOOT.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         ed <edevinney@BIGFOOT.COM>
Organization: Pismo Beach Institute for Advanced Leisure Studies
Subject:      New Syncro Owner :-)
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; x-mac-type="54455854";
              x-mac-creator="4D4F5353"

With thanks to all who have provided valuable insights here (knowingly
or not), Chrissie and I sallied forth this weekend to look at an 86
Syncro we found on epages (www.ep.com) in Quakertown PA.  We arrived
late enough to miss the PA Vanagon breakfast at the Pennsville Diner (I
think we arrived as the last party left - brown Westy?), but had an
adequate meal there anyway.

Drove over to see Joe, the man with the van.  Joe collects old VWs, and
drives a Syncro pickup.  The 86 GL was his 'backup', and it needed to
move out to make $$ for a 57 Beetle Convertible.  Carfax showed that the
108,000 miles were correct, and the van passed the usual tests - trans
not noisy, vc worked, engine doesn't leak, mechanical maintenance
appeared to be sufficiently fanatical in the 4 years he's owned it.
Heads done by previous owner and trans replaced with good used box & new
clutch 15000 miles ago.  Body is clean, paint original.  Tires are Conti
reinforced, correct AFAIK and matched in wear.

Besides the generally solid nature of the van, it also had the (Carat?
Multivan?) interior with table and rear-facing middle seats.  For those
who are keeping track, we paid him 6k.  I'm looking at this as a
long-term project, and having been burned in the past building from
trash, I thought I'd try for the best I could find.  I would have liked
to have paid a few hundred less, but didn't see that happening - he was
pretty wed to his price, and that seems to be the going rate - anything
Syncro and running seems to be 3500-4k.

I probably should have waited and bid on the 87 on ebay, but don't have
the time to keep shopping when a good candidate is in front of me...

So we picked up transit tags and drove 50 miles to my folks' house to
pick up the kids, and to remove the &*^*^%@! aftermarket cruise control
bracket that  hung the throttle up full-on if you floored it - I did it
2x on the test drive and I think Joe nearly lost his mind - he had
clearly never pressed the pedal all the way down!

After dinner we packed the kids and me in the Subaru and Chrissie drove
her new mom-mobile the 200 miles to Virginia.  Van seems to run really
well, has no problem at 70mph, responded well to my wifes solid-lead
foot.

Now my flood of newbie questions:

1) The oil light & buzzer went off twice, Joe claimed that it was a bad
wire, and I believe that - the rearmost sensor lead is sitting on the
engine case and the insulation has almost completely broken down.  No
noises indicated low pressure (I would expect the lifters to start
ticking), and it happened at odd times.   I'm not happy that he never
had this fixed, but so it goes - I'm sure I'll find more DPO items...
In addition to replacing the wire, I'd like to fit a real guage - what
thread size T should I use?

2) The middle jump seats have no belts, but looking at the frame I see
lugs that look like they should take a clip-on lap belt.  Anyone have a
spare set or two?  Are there shoulder belts for these seats?  Should I
not, say, have my local race shop fit Schroth harnesses :-) ?

3) In the same vein, I'm judging from the tech bulletins on Helmut's
section of Tom's/Relitech that the 90-91 vanagon had 3rd row shoulder
belts.  I see there are p/n's for the retrofit kit, but figured I'd
check here to see if anyone had the later belts lying around, assuming I
can use them.

4) Shocks are needed.  This will be a street vehicle, very little
offroad.  I'm probably too late to get in on the OME deal, so should I
go Boge or Bilstein?  KYB doesn't seem to have a good rep for longevity
here.  I don't feel that the van is undersprung (ie, don't need the
extra oomph of gas shocks, although there are surely other
advantages)...

5) Joe got about 10k from a set of plugs - is this normal?
Recommendations for plugs?

6) The first person to build a shortened, widened Subaru-conversion oil
pan can count me in as customer #1 :-)  The engine in this one seems
solid, but we could use another 35 horsepower and the lack of $400 hose
sets.

7) Excellent advice was given by phone, for free, from Weddle and Ken
Wilfy - I shall be ordering from you both this week.  Thank you.

More to come as it happens -

ed devinney, Purcellville VA

72 Plymouth 'cuda 340     (running real soon now, yeah, that's it)
85 Dodge p/u                    (mondo beater)
86 Vanagon Syncro          (uber-mom-mobile)
96 Porsche 911                 (Chrissie said I could have my mid-life
crisis early)
97 Subaru Legacy wagon  (beloved wife's beloved car)