Date: Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:50:33 -0800
Reply-To: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Subject: Re: what to do? (part out or what)...
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Well,
I'd sure want to keep it for parts for your 89 Carat.
Depending on how energetic you are and how much of the work you do
yourself...
as time goes by you can save a lot of money harvesting useful items off the
90 GL.
Some people don't 'appreciate' parts vans and cars I suppose.
But I see nothing but a wonderful resource there, for a long time to go yet.
Depends on your situation I suppose. If you could just hide the parts van
behind the barn ...
Removing the automatic trans isn't so hard, if one sees vanagon transmission
removal as 'not that big a deal.'
it's a bit heavier than a manual trans, Slightly awkwardly shaped - I think
I use a 2X 10 board between the trans and a common floor jack.
Removing the engine almost might be as easy/productive.
Slightly easier to work on the rear main seal with engine out of van as
opposed to being under there, get to change the coolant if you remove the
engine ......something you can not do too often on a 20 year old vanagon ..
and nice time to replace water pump or work on exhaust...
and it's kind of a neater or easier job .....removing the engine rather than
the auto trans.
Be sure to shoot spray lube at the ball pivot way up in there on top of
the trans lever ..where the throttle cable connects - don't want that pivot
to rust, and no one is ever lubing that spot normally. Yeah, I think I
would remove the engine, sort of restoring things on it as I go.
Why heck, with your parts GL you've got possibly two good 2.1 wbxr engines
..
meaning you could do things like a careful cylinder head job on one slowly
and carefully while you drive the other.
Having two air flow meters, two fuel pumps, two ecru's, two of everything
..
man, that's handy sometimes !!
I don't part them out myself, unless they are really messed up badly, and
then I keep the van anyway ...I have one ...a burnt out shell from an
interior major fire. I have been mining small parts off that van for about 6
years now. - using them to bring other vanagons back to full health.
I don't care how many parts you pull off a shell before sending it to the
scrap yard.....there are *always* little parts or 'whatever' that will be
needed on other vans.
We're not going to get any more vanagons and the new parts supply is
slowly dwindling, and quality is going down on a lot of aftermarket parts.
If there is any way ....I'd sure keep it.
They are such great vehicles. I'm preserving every one I can. And using
the left over ones for parts - even sections of body, like for crash repair.
Of some 50 + vanagons I have ever bought , I have actually only sent one
body to the scrap yard. All the rest have either gone onto new owners, or I
have them and am restoring them, and I have 3 1/2 parts vans.
They're special I say, save 'em ! Particularly the late model ones.
Scott
www.turbovans.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Grungy" <grungy@GRUNGY.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Wednesday, March 10, 2010 9:30 AM
Subject: what to do? (part out or what)...
> Have to do something with our '90 GL - my bride is getting impatient.
> We bought an '89 Carat last Thanksgiving and the '90 has been superceded.
> She would push it off a cliff, if there were any around here.
> I'm reluctant to surrender.
> They're getting so rare and it's fixable.
>
> Two major problems...
>
> 1) The clutch doesn't work.
> It's likely that the arm that moves the throwout bearing has died
> inside the bell housing.
> It's a new clutch and pressure plate (relatively) and the arm moves
> on the outside.
> Yes, I could fix this (as I've replaced the clutch twice before; and
> the flywheel seal, and the mainshaft seal on the tranny).
> But I'm tired, and not going to invest that much energy in something
> that I can't keep.
>
> 2) There's a big dent.
> A pine tree that fell during Hurricane Ike landed on an 8' concrete
> wall next to the van, but slapped the roof over the front passenger
> seat, leaving a long dent and knocking the longitudinal AC ducts
> loose. The dent is 4" to 6" deep at the deepest point.
>
> 214K indicated (at least two broken speedo cables that I can recall,
> so it's really more)
> Original engine with replaced heads (a long time ago).
> Slow coolant drip from left head.
> Original exhaust system, except for final tail-pipe.
> Original transmission.
> Original allow wheels with one Woosung (correct rating) and three
> incorrect tires (all new).
> There are lots of other little things that aren't right, but they're,
> well, little things IMHO.
>
> It turns out that the Carat has a main seal leak, so I'm going to
> have to get that fixed, and I've never pulled an automatic
> transmission before, which makes me procrastinate. The Carat also
> has windows tinted dark enough that I can't see behind me at night.
> The tint has to go.
>
> The '90 has so much invested in parts and time that just giving it
> away is unappealing.
>
> I could part it out, saving the good stuff for the Carat - like the
> non-tinted windows.
> I like the allow wheels, but it's so hard to find tires for them (205).
> The Carat has the steel rims with light truck tires (102-rating).
>
> There is no rust where it isn't dented - the seams look good
> Aside from the roof, there are a variety of little dings.
>
> If anyone is looking for a Project, this might be the one.
> What does the collected wisdom of the list think?
> --
>
> bcnu - Grungy (John Gladu) (Baytown, TX) Opinions are just that
> INTERNET: g r u n g y AT g r u n g y DOT c o m
> '60 dddPanel walk-thru (The Bozobus)-------in storage (engineless)-----
> '69 Bug--(Bertha)-------------------------in storage (engineless)-----
> '89 Vanagon Carat-------------------------the working van-----------
> '90 Vanagon GL----------------------clutch no work, Ike-dented roof---
> '07 Camry Hybrid-------------------------40mpg-on-regular---------
> '04 Jetta TDI-----------------------------daughter's ride------------
> '05 Jetta Wagon TDI GL--------------------my first "new" car--------
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