Date:         Fri, 14 Jul 95  17:57:45 EDT
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         "Timothy D.F. Maddox" <TDMADD01@ulkyvm.louisville.edu>
Subject:      Liquid wrench and me made it back!!



Sorry for not getting back about that bolt for the shock. Thought I had a
message out before I took of on the maiden voyage two weeks ago. Well I did
get that sucker of, me and old butane--went out and got a torch. Well after I
got it off that bolt was shot. I new I would have to rustle up some new ones
so I went on to the other rear shock and put a temporary bolt in the shock I
was putting on.
        Now I new I should have said something when those boys at Sam's
sprayed WD40 on my lug bolts, as well as the hubs and into wear the rear brake
shoes are, but I just let it go. Well those guys had gotten the lugs on so
tight I ended up with two broken lug wrenches, two broken torque wrench (I
know--stupid-) and my favorite 1/2 ratchet bit the dust. We needed to get on
the road that day, so off I went. First I traveled the county in search of
those 12mm bolt--ended up costing me $5 for two at an industrial park that had
a minimum order amount. One I had the bolts, as well as some replacement
tools, I went to--and I hate to say it--K-Mart (oh please forgive me for my
sin). It sacred them at first but one cocky mechanic stated, "no sweat, 20
min. max." Well I have to admit, he came close but not without bringing out
the torch and a friend. I never would have made my deadline of leaven that
day. Well I have to admit we fudged a bit, we didn't leave town till 10:30 pm,
but man we wanted out of town and to begin the vacation.

I have to admit I left town with some fear and trembling, I questioned whether
we could make it across three states and on down into Arkansas, and I sure
thought leaving at 10:30 at night was one of the stupider things I have done.
We seemed to do alright, doing about 60 out of town, but soon noticed when the
Semis went by it seemed they were trying to turn this camper into a
convertible, as my seven yr. old boy pointed out. I now had a functioning head
temp gauge and new I didn't want to go any faster than 60 any way, so we hit
the back highways, my intimal plan all along. I noticed though that I couldn't
hold at 60 with out the temp starting to rise, especially on the hills--there
is a lot of climbing to get out of the Ohio valley. Headed West through
Kentucky, not much to see though at that time at night--and not a single Dairy
Queen open after 11. Made it to the camp ground and asleep by 2am. So far so
good, but the next day, while my wife and son swam in the lake, I decided I
wanted to go ahead an try those cooler Bosch plugs, and see how the old
Woodstock would run. Crap, man I couldn't get any power, and it just got
worse. And to add to it, I tore upthe sender ring on the spark plug, thus I
couldn't tell how hot see was getting, man did life such. So In our journey to
visit the Walmarts of America, we stopped And I pulled out the timing light,
et. al., to see What else I might have screwed up. Of course I got visitor in
the parking lot that were previous VW owners, so my timing light and were
sympathetic to my plight. As one said. "yea, every time I lost power it was
the timing." Fortunately they all left before I found the problem. Then I was
pretty empress, the bus had been running pretty darn well for only three
cylinders. In all my angst about the torn sending ring I had not put the #3
plug wire back on--put it on and off I went, still nervous at not being able
nd moniter the heat though.
        Well just the otherside of Clarksville TN, heading to the Land Between
the Lakes area on Hwy 79, we passed up a yard with a mess of busses on it. Had
to turn around and check it out. They belonged to one Carl Feldhaus and his
VW-Club-Haus. The son of a genuine VW mechanic, he caught the bug-so to speak.
He had his first 59 bus, had just obtained both a 71 camper and an old spit
screen that had double doors on both sides. He is trying to start a VW club in
the area and had a few bugs and two three wheelers in the yard. Wish I had
more time to talk. His preferred setup was the dual solex setup found on type
three. Now that I think of it, the cooling shroud was rather like a porche
style. One thing he did suggest that I found interesting is the use of
expansion plugs in place of the paper hoses running from the regular fan
shroud and the heater box--that is he suggested using the plugs during the
warmer part of the year and replacing the paper tubes for winter use.

Well off we went. I did hook up the oil temp warning light dip stick I had
purched from Berg. Man was I disappointed to find I couldn't even hold at
55mph before that little read light would begin a flickering. I figure its
because the compression is just to high on that little puppy. I was running
premium gas, but man would she get hot fast. So headed on, taken it easy,
having a great time--except the nervous mechanic in me. Things got a bit
better in the flat lands, could hold 55mph pretty well. Especially after
passing by Graceland, and the traffic heading down to toward Tunica
Misssissipp and the casinos there was terrible, but didn't mind the slower
traffic. The re st of the trip down and back went pretty well without a hitch,
cept it sure seemed to get hot easy. Called RMMW to see about gettin a new
headtemp sender but they don't carry them. . The technician suggest soldering
the ring back together. Well it just so happened I had this brand new torch,
and with the propane from the cooking stove, and a tolerent wife--dispite her
getting burned a bit from the solder, it worked, or at least somewhat. It
shows it runing cooled by 75 degees--don't know if any of that may be from the
cooler plugs--but I could see when she was heating up.
       Not many VWs on the road. Did see on blue and white camper, 71?,
sitting in a salvage yard just North of Blytheville ARk. Made me think of Carl
from Tenn. He couldn't stand to see a Bus decaying away. Told of a neighbor
who was using a 70 for storage. Carl couldn't stand it and asked to by it. The
guy wouldn't go for it, said he liked it for storage. A few weeks later Carl
offered to build the guy a shed for it, still no luck--but I bet Carls not
through trying.
    I know this is long--but this is a long winded group. I thought that I
hadturnned off the mail but when I got back there were 66 pages of 8 messages
each from the vanagon list alone, all morning I waded through, and loved it.
    I was exciting to make it on a trip and actually get home. A lot of
questions have come up, expecially on what to do about thishot engine. That
was disappointing--what is the expected speed for a dual port with at least a
1600 minimum in the back? Oh, and just a side not, I got a fire extinguisher
for the car. Almost got to use it yesterday. During the trip I rand a wire
unde the bus to the battery. It was to hook up a new 12volt plug I installed
in the seat behind the driver. Had a fuse in the line, but wasn't careful
enough, On eht way home yesterday from work, with my son, smoke started to
billow in. It was that wire that had shorted out and burned of all the
insulation. Well, all is will but seems this heat wave ain't over yet.

Tim and his 69campmobile woodstock.