Date: Wed, 24 Apr 2013 19:40:12 -0700
Reply-To: Stuart MacMillan <stuartmacm@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Stuart MacMillan <stuartmacm@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Possible...Overheating-Rebuilding engines. Car experiences!
In-Reply-To: <BAY152-ds19FEBC4D8089C3407DB54EA0B60@phx.gbl>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Your dad and I are the same age. He learned his lesson, but I did not. I
learned how to be a mechanic with a 1965 MBG that I still have, and now have
chronic Vanagon syndrome too. I had my son in law re-do that graphic that
was on the list that said "Get off your computer, your car needs you" with
an MGB.
Stuart
-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
Dennis Haynes
This may be a story more for Friday but here goes.
Both of my parents grew up in Brooklyn, my Father was the first the learn
to drive. I was in kindergarten and I can still remember him taking driving
lessons. This was in 1965. His first cars was 1961 Ford Falcon. I recall it
regularly breaking down in the city. In 1966 my parents bought a home in
Islip NY. That car was now required transportation. My mom learned to drive
a short time after, got a job and the car was used for both to get to work.
The engine in that car went and since my dad had so much bad experience he
traded it for a brand new Mercury Comet. Three years later the transmission
went. They couldn't afford to have it fixed so traded up again for the
Torino wagon. My dad awful proud of that car with the V8 and disc brakes.
This from someone that couldn't change a tire! I remember we were on a trip
in New Jersey and the rear axle had something go so wrong you could feel the
heat inside the car. After that my mom fell asleep behind the wheel and ran
the car into a telephone pole. So with little money and no mechanical skills
my dad decided to get a Beetle. The next year the now family of six did a
trip to lake George in that Beetle. A few weeks later my dad came home with
a 67 bus as our 2nd and the travel van. That beetle was passed to my sister
and then to her brother in law. That $1,800 car served the family until
1996. The Bus became mine in 1978. I sold it in 1981 as it was just too far
gone with Rust. I started working on both those cars at around 13 and did my
first engine in the bus. The Beetle threw a rod at ~ 120k. I rebuilt the
replacement engine many years later. The bus seemed to need engine work
about every 40-50K. it liked to burn valves. Those two VW's were my early
training vehicles. My mom placed a lot of trust in me. That bus was replaced
by 70, then a 72, then I moved onto Vanagons. With the Vanagons I had to
make the transition from engine rebuilding to transmission rebuilding. Of
the Vanagons I have owned I bought one that needed an engine but otherwise
the worst I have had to do was heads on my current passenger Syncro. I am
now driving FUN BUS after a long hiatus for it to get body work and paint. I
have been driving it to-from work for almost two weeks. It now has over 255K
and the engine has never been opened. It has traveled up and down the East
Coast countless times. In 1993 it went from New to California and in 1993 it
went to Alaska. Somehow I just cannot knock this engine. If only the
transmission was as robust.
Dennis
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