Date: Mon, 10 Dec 2007 20:23:41 -0800
Reply-To: Jake de Villiers <crescentbeachguitar@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Jake de Villiers <crescentbeachguitar@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Coolant leak diagnosis tip
In-Reply-To: <20071211032743.982C61E82AE@tc2.main.nc.us>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Sounds like a great store!
On Dec 10, 2007 7:27 PM, Edward Maglott <emaglott@buncombe.main.nc.us>
wrote:
> I reached my destination the other day to find a pretty good trickle
> of coolant coming from the area of the coolant distributor on my
> '86. I drove back home and parked until I could work on it the next
> day. When I went to work on it, the engine was cold and not leaking
> and I couldn't really tell exactly where the leak was from. I
> thought about running the engine until it leaked, but then it would
> be too hot to work on. I needed to pressurize the cooling system and
> didn't have the gadget to do that. Got the old noggin working and
> realized I could push air into the expansion tank cap through the
> tube that goes to the overflow. I took out the little compressor I
> carry which has some attachments (for inflating rafts and such) that
> are cone shaped. I put one on the pump and hooked a spare piece of
> hose to the cap. Now I ran the pump and put the cone gently into the
> hose leading to the cap on the expansion tank. You have to be
> careful because the pump could put way too much pressure into the
> system . I just pushed it in briefly a couple times and let excess
> pressure come back out of the cap. Coolant immediately began
> squirting from the leak. So there's your tip and keep reading below
> if you want to hear some FLAPS rambles.
>
> I found that I needed a new hose "H" on
> here: http://www.loam.org/vw/Vanagon/VWtoNapaHoses/ and called my
> local NAPA to see if they had a hose 7990. They didn't, it would
> have to come several hundred miles and I'd have to pay shipping and
> it is 13 inches long. The hose I need is only about 6" long. Maybe
> you lop the extra off the 7990 and it is what you need? Anyway, I
> decided to try a FLAPS that is real old timey. They have no
> computer, to look things up they use the enormous horizontal stack of
> mysterious books all combined in one big rack so that it is like a
> single 6' thick book. There are 2 dogs and a cat roaming
> around. Various stock that appears to date back a couple
> decades. Only one older woman has the key to the register, and only
> opens it when there is a sale. The younger woman looks through all
> the books for a while then takes my hose and disappears. While she
> is gone, I notice all these cabinets of drawers in front of the
> counter. The drawers are about 18" square and 3 or 4" deep with
> little dividers holding small parts. They are labeled things
> like: brass fittings, fuel line fittings, wheel studs, snap rings,
> cotter pins, etc. While I'm waiting I count and do math and see that
> there are 240 of these drawers. The woman finally returns with a
> hose that has a section that pretty much matches what I need. I can
> cut off the extra part. I take it for about $10.
>
> Edward
>
--
Jake
1984 Vanagon GL
1986 Westy Weekender "Dixie"
Crescent Beach, BC
www.crescentbeachguitar.com
http://subyjake.googlepages.com/
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