Date:         Tue, 28 Sep 2004 00:14:19 -0400
Reply-To:     "Kate Sumbler (ktpupp)" <ktpupp@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         "Kate Sumbler (ktpupp)" <ktpupp@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      A little more to the story of how we got our Vanagon...
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII

Thanks for all the warm "welcome to the list" messages!  I think I'm
gonna like it here!  :)

Here's another chapter in the story of our free 85 Westy:

After we decided to go back up to the UP to pick up the van, we made
plans with some friends of ours to make it a camping weekend - plus it
would give the guys some time to check out the engine before we tried
to drive it 300 miles home after it sat for a couple of years.  We
figured the trip could be easy or just as well could become a
nightmare, so we wanted to have a few drivers and a couple of
knowledgeable grease monkeys on hand just in case.

We drove up to the UP and played around in the van for a little while
but as it was getting late we knew we had to head out to the
campground to set up camp for the night. We did learn that we would
need to buy a battery to get the van started and planned to drive to
Marquette in the morning to hit the closest Wal-Mart.  The next
morning we got the battery and drove the 2 hours back to Grand Marais.
Once we installed the battery, we fired her up and the engine ran
about a minute and a half before we saw some smoke from the rear. Rob
cut the engine and poked around to discover a leaky valve cover was
the culprit, the gasket looked to be the original and was in need of
replacing...

Grand Marais is a town that doesn't even have a stop-light, so a well
stocked auto parts store is not available. We bought a tube of gasket
goop from the old fashioned hardware store to see if it would work,
but with limited optimism. Our friend David changed the flat front
driver's tire while Rob was gasketing (yes, I know that is not a word,
but what else should I call it?!?!?!) and discovered that the time
spent in the UP elements had rusted the brake components enough that
(at least) the front driver's side brakes were seized. With this
knowledge, we realized we would not be driving the VW home that day
because even if we could free up the brakes, they would not be in safe
driving condition. Add to the that the fact that the gasket goop
didn't seal, and we started making plans to come back with a truck and
trailer to bring her downstate.

The weekend of Sept 18th, we drove back up to the UP with a truck and
tow dolly to bring home the van.  It took a bit of effort to get it on
the tow dolly (we had to remove the frozen caliper assembly and
literally tow the van up the ramps onto the trailer!) but we got it
home in one piece!

Here's a link to a page with some pics from our adventure thusfar:
http://www.sumbler.com/vw/VW.html

 -=kt=-