Date:         Sun, 22 May 2011 19:42:59 -0700
Reply-To:     Rocket J Squirrel <camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Rocket J Squirrel <camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Install of GoWesty ATF Cooler
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"

My son and I were able to install the kit into Mellow Yellow without too
much difficulty yesterday. But unlike others here who have reported an
hour or so for the job, we needed four hours. This may give insight into
my level of mechanical prowess vis a vis others here.

Overall, the instructions provided by GoWesty are probably more than
adequate for people used to working on these vans, but for the beginner,
they are sparse so we found we needed a lot more time to work through
steps not well-described.

For example, there are a couple ways to disconnect the front of the
trans from the frame. We chose not to pull the horizontal pin that goes
through the rubber mount, and unbolted its bracket from the frame
instead. Turned out that we would have been better off going the other
way as that mount needs to be removed to access the lower bolt on the
stock oil cooler. Pretty much all of the mounting bits need to be
removed. A note about this would have been helpful.

A typo had me stumped for a bit. The cooler was first referred to as the
"coil" cooler, then two sentences later, the "oil" cooler. I wondered if
these were two different parts.

There are three photos of the installation on the sheet. They are very
small and GW does not provide a link to more detailed photos on their
site, which would have been helpful.

The cooler itself has four mounting holes and GW provides four
self-tapping screws to mount the thing with. But the two hose fittings
at the one end of the cooler partially block straight-line access to the
screw heads, making mounting difficult. We chose to drill a new single
hole between the two fittings so we more easily mount the thing. Two
bolts at one end, one at the other, but the one-screw end is also
supported by the Adel clamps that hold the hoses up against the
underside of the van's flooring.

Not too impressed with their choice of fasterners. For the cooler and
clamp mounting GW supplied pan head phillips drive self-tapping screws.
We substituted hex-head self-tappers as they easier to work with using a
nut driver and a small open-end wrench than a screwdriver when working
upside down holding bits against the underside, especially at the hose
fitting end of the cooler since, as mentioned, one does not really have
a straight shot at the mounting holes.

Though the instructions only mentioned it at the last sentence ("top off
ATF and coolant"), there was no description of how much loss to expect.
I bought a couple quarts of ATF and a half-gallon of premix coolant and
had a big ol' tray handy.

There wasn't much loss of ATF, maybe 1/2 a cup, but a lot more would
have been lost if I hadn't been on hand to fetch a cable tie to secure
the first loosened hose while my son held it closed with a crimp.

Someone doing this alone under the van might have been in a pickle. A
mention of what to expect would have been helpful.

Once the two hoses that formerly went to the cooler were joined, they
just flopped around. A note about securing them would have been helpful,
too. We cable-tied them the to bail on the governor cover on the side of
the transaxle.

I had that tray on hand to catch spills, and even bought some little
corks to plug the end holes on the hose adapters that get threaded into
the transaxle, but those weren't really needed. A note about how much
drippage to expect would have been helpful.

Little things like this which would not faze most of you did slow us
down. Learning as we go along, yep, yep, yep.

We had to disassemble the accelerator linkage on the side of the trans
before we could get the trans lowered enough for access to its nose to
remove the oil cooler because as the transmission lowered the accel
cable began to haul down on the passenger side rear brake line.

What's the proper routing for the brake line vs the accelerator cable?
Gary Young, at Young's Ole Volks Home here said that Steve's Place had
them backwards. The brake line was above the cable so it rested on and
was being chafed by the cable, so he ran the brake cable under the
accelerator cable. But this caused the aforementioned interference when
lowering the trans.

Okay, enough whimpering. The cooler works: it was nice and warm after a
test drive.

--
Rocky J Squirrel
'84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
'74 Westrailia: (Ladybug Trailer company, San Juan Capistrano, Calif.)
Bend, OR
KG6RCR