Date:         Thu, 1 Jun 1995 14:47:07 -0700
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         wabbott@townshend.Corp.Megatest.COM (William Abbott)
Subject:      battery tray repair,  whom to deal with, old/new engine


	Eugene writes that he used a generic plastic tray from Kragen. 
The way these things work for me, if I did that, the battery would
fall out. I'm sure it'll be fine for most people, I just have no luck with
doing things the simple way. 

	But I do have *some* luck- the Bus Boys guy wrote me and said
they'll take my extra tray back for credit (done!) and I must say
that was really nice of them! An unaticipated advantage of being on this
list :-) I'll use the credit for those swell tach and gauge mounts that
Dave Black sent me the photocopy of the article on how to install. :-)


	Rachel, aka Ramona71 aka Sweetpea70 has a Bus Stop catalog and
wonders if they are ok to deal with. We've had one complaint here
about a headliner order with them. They and Bus Boys have more
or less the same prices, and I've had good, (recently excellent!) service
from both. (RMMW couldn't get me a brake resivior and sent me a Teeshirt
for free last month.

	West Coast Metric and Wolfsburg West are the other two catalogs
I keep handy, although I buy my WCM stuff from a local retail store- same
price, supporting my neighbor and all that.

	Rachel, if you're buying an engine, you might want to deal direct 
with GEX or ECI or whomever actually builds the engine. My brother
bought an engine from GEX and it was fine, worked good out of the box.
I just bought a turn-key stock engine with hydraulic lifters and new
everything from ECI, but I haven't run it yet (Waaaaa!) so I can't
tell you how good it is :-( GEX gets a generally good rap here, but
uses a barely-bikini-clad model in their ads and ECI doesn't.

	I decided to go pure stock for the same reason I wanted to
weld in new metal for the battery tray- stock keeps my life simple. 
Just my $0.02.

	Bus Boys - 1-800-792 BOYS
	ECI - 1-800-966-9988


	So, I got my ECI motor in early February, and I hope, HOPE,
to install it THIS month, having missed March, April and May. Its 
sat for 4 months, with no oil in the crank case. After filling with
oil, what should I do before starting it up? (I plan to call ECI too 
and ask them- they give me a 100,000 mile/3 year warranty and I don't
want to void it) I'll call them when I'm just about to install it
so I have a firm handle on how long it's really been :-} ECI have
instructions on what to do that came with it and I'll follow them, natch.

	But I'm interested in what this group thinks. I planned to
crank it for 15 seconds with the primary wire disconnected so that there 
was oil in the bearings, then connect the primary and see if she'd start. 
The carb will be empty for the beginning of that cranking, so there shouldn't 
be too much raw gas run all the way through.
	Of course, a fire extingusher will be handy, we'll be outdoors,
etc. 

	Should I pull the plugs and hand-turn it for a minute to get things
really in harmony? Other tips?

	Cheers!
	Bill