Date: Sat, 8 Aug 2015 19:10:58 -0700
Reply-To: Stuart MacMillan <stuartmacm@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Stuart MacMillan <stuartmacm@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Never attempt a simple fix right before leaving on a trip
(long)
In-Reply-To: <15598BC51B5C4A9D816217F35673BFE7@ZoltanHP>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Zoltan,
Thanks for your wishes! You have a good point. The 2 liter aircooled is only
10 hp less that the 1.9 water cooled, and far simpler. My old 1.9 is
probably about 10 hp less than the aircooled right now! The only advantage I
have is that I can put a Subaru in much more easily.
I've dealt with this water pump system before on my previous '84, but I was
25 years younger. But now I've devised a way to flush out all the old two
year lifetime crappy coolant and replace it with modern long life coolant
like Zerex G-05. You do need the Libby Bong (see www.thesamba.com), a
garden hose with a shutoff on the end, and compressed air.
Bleeding is easy with the Libby Bong, and it's the only way to completely
flush a 4 1/2 gallon cooling system without disconnecting the hoses at the
radiator or removing the case drain plugs. The compressed air assures that
you can get enough flushing water out to add 9 quarts of full-strength
coolant for the refill.
Mr. Libby is a genius, I can post my refinements if anyone is interested.
Stuart
-----Original Message-----
From: thewestyman [mailto:zolo@foxinternet.net]
Sent: Saturday, August 08, 2015 5:57 PM
To: Stuart MacMillan; vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: Never attempt a simple fix right before leaving on a trip
(long)
You could have added; if a shop did the job. But since you have done it,
now you can be more confident all will be well. Hopefully, you got all the
air out of the system.
Fix or not, I wish you good luck on the trip.
But when I was going on my long trips with my family, I used an air-cooled
van. Checked nothing, and went on that 8k mile trip without thinking.
Several times in years. Now, with the water cooled one and all the
experience I have gained in the years, I am still leaning to use my old
air-cooled van rather. And I only let my kids go on vacation with that,
because it's more simple and much less to break, blow up, leak, etc.
So Stuart, you will need good luck, which I wish you will have. And a safe
return.
Zoltan
-----Original Message-----
From: Stuart MacMillan
Sent: Saturday, August 08, 2015 3:06 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Never attempt a simple fix right before leaving on a trip (long)
What can go wrong will go wrong. Why do I keep forgetting that?
So, I finally found my '85's intermittent coolant leak that had been bugging
me since last winter, which I thought was the water pump.
It wasn't. Wednesday I spotted the leak at the T-stat housing. Easy-peasy I
thought, I'll fix that before I leave on Sunday! I picked up a new O-ring
from the dealer ($7!) and immediately broke one of the 6mm T-stat cover
bolts off trying to remove it. L
Of course, I could not now get the bottom cap off because it was
inaccessible, and the corroded bolt basically welded it on.
So, let's just remove the entire T-stat housing, also easy-peasy.
Immediately broke one of the two long bolts holding that on to the water
pump, and it's corrosion-welded to the pump. L L L
So, off comes the water pump (about two hours later after removing the
alternator, distributor, and power steering pump).
I could not separate the two because the long bolt was completely
corrosion-welded inside the T-stat housing, so I had to twist it off the
pump. Of course, the bolt snapped of at the pump. Oh well, I had a new pump
anyway thinking that was my problem in the first place (along with all the
gaskets, O-rings and the two short hoses that should always be replaced).
After getting the repaired housing back from the machine shop two hours
later ($50, a deal) I installed the pump and started to connect the
crossover pipe that goes on it, and it was so inaccessible behind the pulley
that I cross threaded the cap screw. This is the screw that you need a
shortened 6mm Allen wrench for because it's so tight.
Off comes the pump, and after cleaning out the threads I loosely assembled
the pipe to the pump and was just able to get it installed so I didn't have
to start those cap screws in such an inaccessible place.
I was able to get the complete pump, pipe, and T-stat assembly (minus the
lower hose heat shield) installed as one piece, much to my relief.
For those of you who have not done a 1.9 water pump, consider yourself
lucky. Shops around here charge $500 to $650 for this job, and I understand
why.
I'm three days and about 15 hours into this job, including the trip to the
machine shop to drill out the corroded bolts, and the store tour to find the
replacement bolts. Finished it at 8 PM Friday, and went ahead and flushed
out the cooling system and refilled with Zerex G-05 long life coolant.
Leaving on Sunday, and so far all is holding together!
Wish me luck.
Stuart
