Date:         Mon, 15 May 1995 04:33:05 -0700 (PDT)
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Eric Oster <ekoman@u.washington.edu>
Subject:      14 hours in a splittie...

Well, I took off from Everett, WA (for those looking at a map) at about
0730 on Wednesday. I picked up the gentleman I was transporting from
the University of WA district at about 0845. What brought about this trip
was that I was gong to do a whole lotta work on his `67 notchback (which
is in excellent condition, except...) including new pans, and a whole
new shifting linkage. (His has about 3" of play in gear!)
   Anyway, we meandered to Longview,WA in my bus (doing about 53mph! I
don't go much faster!) about 1430--on the way there, these are the problems
we encountered--
Both my rear wheeels almost fell off. (CHECK YOUR LUGNUTS!)
The copper tube leading into the fuel pump fell out. (????)
(I used clear 3000-degree blahblah sealant to stop this)
I lost my fanbelt (!!!)
Well, I limped my spare belt to Longview, and got a new one. (~6.00)
I drove about twentysomething miles, and got off at the nearest
rest stop. Checked the belt. All was good. About 100 yards out of the
rest stop, my NEW fan belt completely disintigrated! Put my spare
belt back on. Got to Oly, got a new belt from Al's auto supply. Went
to a local `VW-friendly' house. Attempted to put Al's belt on. Broke.
Got a German belt from friends. Works perfect. Drove the 80+ miles home.
No problem. About 470 miles, 13.5 hours. Bus no longer idles worth a
damn. Discover that there's no idling wire from the coil to the
carb (D`OH!). No replacement in sight, so I have to live with it.
   BTW,  for the GNATT people: the highway (Interstate 5) south of
Centralia is pretty much undrivable for splitties--too many grooves,
(which resemble wagon train ruts) and too much wind! I don't know
about bay-windows, or vanagons, or Euros, however!
   The really surprising thing was that I was fairly comfortable in
my bus (`66 camper) for all 13.5 hours! No horrible cramps, sore
neck, etc. (YMMV, of course!) I rarely exceeded 53 MPH (~78 KPH),
however.

Eric Oster (ekoman@u.washington.edu)