Date:         Fri, 21 Jul 2006 21:38:51 -0700
Reply-To:     John Lane <westy_cruisin@YAHOO.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         John Lane <westy_cruisin@YAHOO.COM>
Subject:      Florida to Corpus Christi to PA Trip
In-Reply-To:  <6a6a4fad0607212004j333fbaeci6420466c1130d07f@mail.gmail.com>
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Hi Folks...thought I'd share my recent trip experiences.

This trip was originally planned to go to Mexico. My 83.5 Westy, Iron Butterfly was ready. New Vanco-8's, oil change, plugs..all the regular stuff. A couple of hundred miles into the trip I lost power right in th middle of the Appalachicola Forest in N. Florida. Turns out that 2 of the 4 new platinum plugs self destructed, the ceramic was totally shattered. The cap showed carbon arcing. In went the old plugs, cap cleaned and off we went. Later installed all new plugs and a new cap in Destin, FL. Off to Corpus Christi and about 50 miles east of Houston, IB started to 'miss'. I pulled off the road and checked everything, dragging everything out of the back, again! This time, no obvious cause. We made it to Houston and IB just died, luckily I was near an off ramp, and at the base was a motel....2 days later with a new ignition module installed I was on my way again....hit the on-ramp and the alternator went out !!!! Made it to Autozone, bought a new alternator and off we went
 again...this time we made it to Corpus, at this time the clutch master cylinder went south. New master cylinder installed and plans to head south were being made, then the next problem...IB refused to start when hot...jeez. After a few months if Corpus trying to make everything right, we changed course and headed to PA. This time with another new alternator, new battery, new temp 2 sensor, O2 sensor, valve lifter and on and on. Surpisingly we made it the first day, 834 miles to Tuscaloosa without incident. The next morning, all filled up with gas...hit the freeway and the temp gauge pegged and the red light came on !!! Pulled of at the next exit, found the two overflow tanks were empty!!! No leaks to be found anywhere. I refilled the system, bled it and hit the road again. For the next 600 miles, stopping every 200 miles for gas...I had to pour 1/4 gallon of coolant into the overflow tank...after the 600 miles the leak went away. The leak was traced to the rear heater
 under the couch. The nearly 1800 miles from Corpus to PA took a tad over 2 days....20 mpg the whole way and only 1 qt of oil.

This is the short version of the trip.

Through it all, I would not trade Iron Butterfly for anything.

John