Date: Fri, 23 Sep 2011 08:59:33 -0600
Reply-To: Buese Thomas <tombuese@COMCAST.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Buese Thomas <tombuese@COMCAST.NET>
Subject: Re: saved by the flashing led, long, boring....
In-Reply-To: <8115051E-2991-4167-AE8F-97F826D6480B@q.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed; delsp=yes
Yep, I enjoyed Mark's writeup alot!
YMMV,
Mr. BZ-gud writin is hurd to du!
On Sep 23, 2011, at 6:50 AM, Karl Wolz wrote:
> Not boring. But kind a "slice of life"
>
> Sent from my electronic umbilicus
>
> Karl Wolz
>
> On Sep 22, 2011, at 8:40 PM, mark drillock <mdrillock@COX.NET> wrote:
>
>> This very morning I left home before 5:00 am to head into the belly
>> of
>> the beast known as Los Angeles, intent on a couple of Vanagon related
>> missions. An hour and a half later I was on the 110 freeway headed
>> toward the harbor from the downtown direction. The beast was well
>> awake
>> but not completely roaring yet. As I neared my exit swept up in the
>> flow
>> of other cars also trying desperately to get where they were going
>> before the full madness of the beast was upon them, I tried to assess
>> the best way to get over and through the dense right lane of slower
>> semis hauling containers. I made it into my exit lane with a sense of
>> relief, and then my heart skipped a beat when I noticed a flashing
>> led
>> on the dash. The coolant temp gauge was reading normal but the led
>> was
>> blinking. I looked in my mirror to see what looked like a cloud of
>> dust
>> trailing me, back-lit by the traffic behind me. Uh oh.
>>
>> After exiting as planned I pulled over on a nearby street to check
>> things out. Steam was billowing and coolant was dripping off the
>> bottom
>> of the engine but it all slowly stopped after I shut off the key. I
>> let
>> things cool a little and then started slowly pouring in water from
>> some
>> jugs I was carrying. It took about a half gallon and nothing was
>> dripping. I started the engine and immediately a small stream was
>> flowing onto the ground from somewhere near the thermostat housing. I
>> shut it down and slid under to try and spot the leak. I could see a
>> small split in a hose. I decided to try to nurse it the rest of the
>> way
>> to my friend Leon's place, where I hoped I could fix it. He does
>> Subaru
>> conversions as a business and as a result has leftover wbx pieces. It
>> was my main destination to begin with so the early hour would not
>> be a
>> big problem though I had intended to get something to eat first. Oh
>> well.
>>
>> Leon was outside near his shop, and only a little surprised to see
>> me so
>> early. I told him my problem and he seemed to snicker as he saw the
>> trail I had left as I turned to park on the street in front of his
>> place. He led me to a recently pulled wbx and it's various bits
>> that he
>> did not need for the conversion. The hose I needed was right there,
>> loose in a pile of stuff. It was the hose that runs from the plastic
>> coolant tower over the tranny to the thermostat housing. I grabbed it
>> and went to my van to root around under the rear seat for gloves and
>> tools. There I spotted a new one of the same hose, still in a clear
>> plastic wrapper. I knew I had bought a couple of them lately but
>> did not
>> exactly remember that I had put that one under there.
>>
>> The engine was too hot to touch right away and since the sidewalk
>> was a
>> little busy with mothers walking their kids to school I did not feel
>> like it was a good time to possibly make a big mess on a public
>> street.
>> We decided to use Leon's van to go on our mission of salvaging
>> Vanagon
>> parts from a late model Westy that was in a pick-a-part not too far
>> away. I had brought my van there to carry home the Westy Poptop that
>> Leon spotted on the van and in decent shape a few days prior. It was
>> still there when we arrived so I worked on removing it while Leon
>> worked
>> on gathering other parts for his own purposes. The canvas was shot
>> but
>> everything else was good, even the stock seals. It took a couple
>> hours
>> to carefully undo everything but when I was ready Leon helped lift it
>> down and load it onto a huge cart that the yard provided for such
>> purposes. We grabbed a few other items too, naturally. The kitchen
>> was
>> already gone, as were the engine, tranny, power mirrors, etc.
>>
>> We checked out, loaded up Leon's van, and headed back to his place
>> so I
>> could fix my van and move my stuff into it. A complete Westy poptop
>> fairly easily fits inside of a passenger van when the back seat is
>> laid
>> flat. It takes 2 people of course. With 86+ A/C it is a bit of a
>> squeeze
>> to load the top through the rear hatch past the A/C support pillars
>> but
>> it goes ok.
>>
>> I installed my new hose, added coolant, warmed up the engine, and
>> bled
>> the radiator. With my top and other items transferred into it, I
>> headed
>> off on the second Vanagon related mission, over on the other side
>> of the
>> beast.
>>
>> Mark
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