Date:         Sat, 14 Jan 2006 22:25:47 -0800
Reply-To:     Keith Ovregaard <kovregaard@COMCAST.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Keith Ovregaard <kovregaard@COMCAST.NET>
Subject:      Vanagon Sighting
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Hi all,


Down in Baja I ran into 6 Vanagons at Guadalupe Canyon the first day I
arrived there. Three passenger vans (1 was a Syncro) were on their way
out and 3 Westies were scattered amongst the palms with popped tops. A
few minutes after setting up I got a surprise visit from Ben & Bev in
their 84 westy whom I had met last fall camping on the central
California coast. No idea they were going to be there, so it was a big
surprise. One night the wind was howling so we packed 7 of us westy
folk into one of the campers to eat dinner and share some wine. There
were 2 kids in the way back, 2 adults up front, 2 more adults on the
bench and 1 on the floor!

Bens 84 lost 2 shock bolts and Charles 85 would not start unless
pushed. Then Ben got stuck in the sand and so did a jeep that came to
his rescue. A 4x4 pickup yanked them both out. Another compadre lost
his steering rod on his Jimmy. We got out the Bentley and some tools to
get them all up and running but was not able to fix Charles 85. The
battery was fine. Starter kicked over. Running way too rich. Since it
would run once we pushed it, Charles decided to keep it going all the
way back to Ventura! Hope he made it OK.

The Syncro ran great the whole trip with the exception of a few hickups
up at high elevation. I checked the throttle switch and it was out of
adjustment at idle. It ran fine after being tweaked. It handled the
sand, dirt and snow with ease and climbed up and down nasty washes full
of rocks. However, It did not do too well in the wet adobe mud. The
sticky stuff packed into the tire tread and wheel wells to the point
the the engine started bogging down and the van was slipping sideways.
Nasty! Had to carefully back down and turn around. Even several fast
runs through foot deep wash was not enough to get the sticky mud off
and I had to find a stick to scrape off the mud jam.

All in all it was a good trip and fun to meet other vanagon folks out
there.

Keith O
84 Westy "Brownie"
90 Westy Syncro