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Date:         Fri, 30 Jul 2010 23:04:11 -0400
Reply-To:     David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Subject:      Re: second newby question
Comments: To: B Feddish <uprightbassghost@HOTMAIL.COM>
In-Reply-To:  <BAY113-W3383AE80C100290C2BBE32CEAA0@phx.gbl>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

At 04:44 PM 7/30/2010 Friday, B Feddish wrote: >Lots of people poo poo the 83.5's to 85's

I don't see any reason for that. I drove an '84 Westy as a daily driver from '92 until I lost it a few years ago, put over 160,000 mi on it (total about 250k) and became rather intimately familiar with it. I now have an '89 non-Westy. They're certainly much more similar than different. The handbrake lever is the "must-replace" that I can think of*; the '85-up are much easier and more effective. If it's a non-power-steering one definitely stay with the skinny tires as low-speed steering effort rises drastically with tire width. The '85+ sliding door is lighter and some nicer but not a big deal in my opinion; I lived very nicely with the older door even after owning an '85 7-pass and learning the difference. The 2.1l engine has a little more power on top but maybe a little less torque at the bottom.

Oh yes -- the '85-up plug wires are much easier to deal with; the older ones have a nasty tendency to leave the terminal in the distributor cap when you try be it ever so carefully to remove them. That means new cap and coil as well, so the nice terminals fit.

Yours, David


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