Date: Sun, 6 Nov 94 15:45:20 PST
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: David Schwarze <schwarze@superc.nosc.mil>
Subject: Re: buses for sale: 71 p/u, 81 camper
J. Walker writes:
>
> in this week's Auto Trader:
> 1971 Volkswagen P/U <single-cab>, rebuilt eng., etc., needs brake work,
> some rust on rockers, drives good. $1550.
> (205) 855-9029.
>
> yeah, i called about this one. :( he said he'd take a "couple of hundred
> less" than that price. no hubcaps. engine runs good, non-vw carb (2-bbl).
> brake problem is leaking fluid somewhere ... doesn't know where ... keeps
> having to add fluid every couple of weeks or so.
Not leaking anywhere obvious, eh? I bet I know where it's going. I had
a car once that had a bad seal at the rear of the master cylinder. The
fluid leaked into the power booster until one day I was going up a hill,
and the engine started to run a little rough. I looked behind me and my
car was spitting out the thickest, whitest smoke I have ever seen! Like
something from a James bond movie. It quit when I leveled out, but
started every time I went up a hill, and sometimes during hard turns.
It had a really distinctive smell, too. It obviously wasn't burning oil.
Turns out that the level of fluid in the power booster had risen so
high that at times it was getting sucked into the intake manifold via
the little vacuum line that supplied the power booster. Ever since then
I have wanted to hook something like that up that I can activate via a
cockpit switch to take care of those pesky tailgaters. Haven't done it
yet, though, heh heh.
When I changed the master cylinder on the bus, there was fluid in the
power booster also. Must not be that uncommon...
-David
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David Schwarze '73 VW Safare Custom Camper (Da Boat)
SAIC Comsystems, San Diego '73 Capri GT 2800 (Da Beast)
schwarze@nosc.mil '87 Mustang Lx 5.0 (Da Bruiser? Soon...)
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