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Date:         Sat, 1 Oct 2011 12:20:35 -0700
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: Think The Vanagon Battery Can Be A Pain To Get To?
Comments: To: mark drillock <mdrillock@COX.NET>
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="UTF-8"; reply-type=response

That's one of the Many Very Good things about vanagons .. mostly they are very straightforward and easy to work on. I have worked on nearly every kind of car here is in a near 50 year career.. and belie me.. Vanagons are nicer and easier to work on than almost any car..

look how easily the instrument cluster comes out ........just a couple of minutes and it's your hands. On most cars the dash is a horrible place to have to work on.

Vangons don't have McPherson strut suspension ..to change the shocks, you just unbolt them .. Engine access .......just wonderful, top and bottom. And with a 99 Outback DOHC 2.5 engine in a vanagon ..........it's a breeze to do the sparkplugs. In the Outback car.........I've had to loosen each front engine mount, one at a time, to jack up that side of the engine to get the spark plugs out. And those engines have shim valve clearance adjustment .. which would be extremely difficult in the car. I asked at my Subaru dealer what they do about that .. they only do that when the heads are off the engine for head gasket work.

That generous size engine compartment is sure a great feature about vanagons .. Even a monster SVX Subaru engine .........is not 'stuffed' in there badly at all.

About the worst part of a vanagon to work on is in the pedal area. The clutch master cylinder is a bit of a pain .. but the real worst thing I've found on them is ..........adjusting the clutch master cylinder push rod. Real nasty, trial and error too. That the clevis pin and hole are not lubed really ..just greased once at the factory and metal-to-metal ..that is a terrible cheapness of construction that is not fun to deal with 20 + years later. The sure could have had a bronze bushing or something, for pennies more in production costs.

Not much else is bad about them ..brakes are straight forward, axles come right out ( 2WD rear axles that is ) so many things to love about Vanagons .. sporty to drive.. nice size, great visibility out the front driving them, can sleep in 'em, haul lots of stuff... not to big to push start if you have to .. parts are not overly expensive mostly . fit into small spaces nicely all kinds of great things about them.. and mostly very nice to work on. and pretty well made too .. not bad at all.. I would even say .........overall, everything considered.. all the models and versions and 11 years of production ( beyond that in south Africa I believe ) .

it's VW's greatest model ever .. particularly counting the Syncro, and Syncro Westy . And they are real nice to work on too .. syncro's are their own special case of course . but 2WD vanagons are mostly just sweet to work on.

Scott www.turbovans.com

----- Original Message ----- From: "mark drillock" <mdrillock@COX.NET> To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM> Sent: Saturday, October 01, 2011 9:51 AM Subject: Re: Think The Vanagon Battery Can Be A Pain To Get To?

> It is not just VW. The newer the car the less room there is to do > anything to it. Try changing spark plugs on a 99 Subaru Outback with > DOHC 2.5 engine. I only work on cars for family and friends but plenty > of times what I think should be a simple job turns out to be a > nightmare, regardless of brand. When I hear people complain of the > difficulty of doing a lot of Vanagon repairs I wonder what they are > comparing it to. Older VWs? > > Mark > > J Stewart wrote: >> Try pulling the battery from a New Beetle! Just had to pull the (dead) >> battery out my daughter's New Beetle, every time I touch that car I lose >> a little more respect for Volkswagen. Then to top it off, the sliding >> door on my Vanagon (had to open it to get my tools) starts acting up, not >> closing, just bounces back open instead of latching. I think I may just >> go back to bed.... Jeff >> >> >> >> >> Jeff Stewart >>


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