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Date:         Fri, 5 Aug 2011 17:34:26 -0500
Reply-To:     Isaac Weathersbee <isaacweathersbee@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Isaac Weathersbee <isaacweathersbee@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Introduction, Interesting Project, and Inquiry
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252

Hello List,

I am Isaac, and I have been a reader since February but now feels like time to begin contributing. I am a 20 year old college student and have been an avid Vanagon owner since January of this year.

My entrance into the Vanagon community is certainly unorothodox.

In January I purchased 2 1984 passenger vans off of craigslist. The first was blue with a running engine, automatic transmission, and non-functioning brakes. The second a gray 4-speed in rough shape missing the engine. My intent from initial purchase was to create a stretched Vanagon.

For the past 7 months or so I have been slowly cutting, welding, splicing, and connecting the front 2/3s of the gray van to the rear 2/3 of the blue one. Talking notes from Otmar's stretch (http://evcl.com/vw/) and Lynn and Gerry's Vanalong (http://www.vanalong.com) I have created a functioning vehicle. I ventured somewhat from their processes by using thicker walled tubing to sit inside the underfloor channels and using composites to reinforce the seams over the welds, hopefully yielding an incredibly strong structure.

As it sits today I have a seven seater van with the original driver and passenger seats, the original rear 3 seats were left in place and a reversed middle 2 bench was moved just forward to make a booth in the rear. The area between the rear facing 2 and the far front seats of the vehicle is currently undecided but ample room was left to have the spare 3 seat bench mounted against the wall on the driver's side should friends and I choose to do so. Luckily both vans hat matching blue interiors! I still have some cosmetic bodywork to complete before paint and the interior is largely unfinished but the vehicle is taking shape well. It'll probably be comically slow with the 1.9 engine and automatic, but who cares; I'll be driving a vehicle that I can haul whatever and whoever, while knowing that brought it into fruition! To me that's way better than the passing lane.

Yesterday was its maiden voyage. Three friends and I tackled a lengthy checklist to make sure any forseeable faults were mitigated and the van was ready to roll. We all loaded up, copilot beside me, two others lounging in the rear booth, and began first drive. It handled surprising well for being the frankenstein vehicle that it is. Even the turning radius was better than I had expected for an exactly 20' vehicle. This was the first time I had ever driven a Vanagon. We made it a full mile and a half before our hearts sunk with the sound of a revving engine and a non moving van. I tried to restart the engine in hopes that it had accicentally popped itself into neutral, but only the whirring of the starter motor was heard. Terrible thoughts of a shredded transaxle and a destroyed engine flooded our minds. Seven months of work and thousands of dollars invested to drive less than two miles! I was on edge.

After consolation from friends and a long, slow tow back to the workshop I was able to diagnose the seemingly catastrophic failure.

Since the torque converter turned with the starter and the engine didn't I was able to put the problem between the engine and transmission. The engine turned by hand and still had good compression so, after consulting Haynes and Bentley, I had obviously sheared the three bolts that hold the torque converter to the engine's flex plate. Recalling the previous owner's description of the Vanagon, "recent transmission work," It would seem plausible that the mechanic may have used low grade bolts after misplacing the originals when servicing the transmission.

Regardless of what someone previously may or may not have done, I have a stretched Vanagon in ready to drive condition with the exception of three bolts. The anticipation of getting to drive it again is killing me and the fact that I'm going out of state to school in 11 days isn't helping with the pressure to get it back on the road.

If any of you have any helpful tips, tricks, or pointers of how to replace the sheared bolts; I'm all ears…eyes. I'm pretty sure the transmission has to come out and any guidance would be immensely apprecieated.

I'm also happy to field any suggestions or questions about my project as well. I've taken a few pictures of the process and will take some current ones tomorrow and post them for you all to see.

Thanks!

-Isaac

isaacweathersbee@gmail.com -1984 Stretched Vanagon 1.9 A/T "Vinnie"


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