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Date:         Thu, 14 Dec 1995 14:27:36 -0700
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         plima@indirect.com (Peter J. Lima)
Subject:      '79 Bus. . .grounded again (sigh)

Hope I don't look silly replying to my own post. . .it's the simplest way for me to update y'all on the continuing saga of "Scarecrow" (so named because 1. It needed a "brain" for a long time and 2. It's spent most of it's time sitting in fields immobile.)

>Well, I feel better now. It's runs pretty decent, actually (I've only had >it a few hours, and just went home with it and spent an hour crawling all >around inside with Windex and towels spiffing everything up -- hasn't > been washed in a year I bet.) The garage wants me to come back after 500 >miles or so to flush (?) the fuel tank, some gunk in it I guess

"Gunk" which, while on the freeway at 60mph, created a bluish smoke from the exhaust. Is it just cleaning itself out, or is the carb maladjusted? I.e., burning too rich? (if it was oil it'd be black, not blue.) Should I be slightly perturbed since I just spent $1313.16 (on credit) to fix it? I would expect the mechanic would make sure this sucker will pass emissions or at least warn me.

Anyway I'm grounded again. . .the blue smoke attracted a smokey on the freeway who, upon doing a computer check of my (previous owner's) California plate, discovered it to have expired a year ago. So I was cited for "fictitious plate" and a couple of other things. The cops took the plate off and forbade me to drive the thing until I got the problem squared away. Oh well.

>I may have messed up the emergency brake -- drove it for a while and >forgot to release it. Then again, if it was working properly it should have >killed the engine in 1st gear, yes? It still seems to work though.

It still seems to work. . .maybe when I'm back for the 500-mile check I'll have 'em adjust the brakes again (rear.) I always use the 1st gear as a back-up brake anyway, since Phoenix is mostly flat. (I'm sure someone will reply with reasons why the 1st gear alone is _not_ a reliable emergency brake! But heck, this ain't San Fran.)

More exciting stuff later, I'm sure. . . PJL '79 Bus '58 Bug


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