Date:         Tue, 1 May 2007 00:53:12 -0500
Reply-To:     joel walker <jwalker17@EARTHLINK.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         joel walker <jwalker17@EARTHLINK.NET>
Subject:      Re: Repair Manuiel
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
              reply-type=original

> little can be applied to watercooled Vanagons.  It's a shame Muir
> died
> before the Vanagon came out. It would have been great if he could
> have
> applied his considerable abilities to writing a Vanagon manual.

question:

why can't WE (the list) write the Vanagon Manual??

what i've always wanted to do was to take the Muir book, and the
Bentley book
and put them together into a vanagon muir-book ... one for aircooled
vanagons,
one for the 1.9 engine and one for the 2.1 engine, and maybe
supplement for syncros,
campers, pickups, and so on.

and if someone knows how to put it all on a website, maybe as .pdf
files and/or html
for each 'chapter', then anybody could download it.

but then, nobody makes anything for all their hard work, and those
types of projects
ALWAYS involve tremendous work on someone's part. :( like the LiMBO
newsletter ...
or a catalog: it's a LOT of work. :(

but it would seem like there should be enough smarts out there almost
already, on
the web sites of the list members ... all it needs is someone to
arrange it and
get it together on a web site of its own.

or first, come up with A Plan! what chapters would be needed? which
sections within those
chapters? just how close to plagarism can we be with respect to stuff
that is already in muir and IS applicable to vanagons, both aircooled
and watercooled and syncro? like rear brakes, electrics involving tail
lights, turn signal light fixtures, brake hydraulics,
emergency/parking brakes, sliding door lubrication/maintenance, front
doors, window cranks, triangle vent windows, rearview mirror
removal/installation, Find-The-Battery!, Find the Windshield Wiper
Fluid Refiller Tank cap!, Care and Feeding of Fuse Boxes, wiper blade
replacement, wiper arm removal/tightening, and on and on and on. lots
of things that are 'simple' and 'obvious' to someon who's been driving
their bus for like five years or more, but to the Newbie who just
bought their first bus, it ain't always so easy to figure out. :)

and we'd have to find some goofy artist to draw all those diagrams and
pictures. :)

just throwing out Thoughts. :)
unca joel