Date: Sat, 16 Mar 1996 18:45:21 PST
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: Clay_Perry@we.xerox.com (Perry,Clay)
Subject: Lima Bean rolls under its own power (78) long
The Lima Bean (working name "the incredible piece of sh*t") rolled out
of the garage under its own motivation today. I spent the entire day
rapping up loose ends and tracking down bugs before she finally fired
up. This project has been comprised of a new engine, new trans,
removal of AC unit, VDO gauge installation and rebuilding a butchered
electrical system.
The PO (or FPO) considered using those cheesy squeeze on electrical
taps, you know the kind that the acne poster boy at U-Haul wants to
tie into your lighting system with , as the cure for any ailment. This
wiener had bypassed sections of wire using these taps to go around a
blown fuse, a pinched wire and any time he thought having 12 volts
right at that point would be a good idea. I removed all this and fired
up the soldering iron and the shrink tube and went to work, in about
two hours I re-fixed everything that Mr. Electron had "fixed" before.
I also mounted the gauges and wired them to the instrument lights and
the fuse box. One good thing about removing the AC is that I know have
an extra fuse block just for accessories with both key on and constant
voltage lines.
With gauges working I attempted to fire up the motor the first time.
Crank crank crank build the oil pressure up, connect the coil to the
distributor, crank crank crank, wait this should go boom boom boom
now. I check for spark-- yup got spark, I pull a injector line --no
gas . I run through the Bentley check on the double relay and show all
the volts are correct, I then climb down and check the voltage at the
fuel pump, nada, back track and find one more &@%%$#^!%& splice on
this line. For some reason the end of the wire is cut off next to the
fuel pump but this rocket scientist taps into the wire back in the
engine compartment and runs a parallel line to the pump leaving the
original end of the wire exposed to the elements. I pull that mess
out, solder the wires together, seal it up and the pump works fine
Yeah!. Remove an hour and half of my day for all this trouble shooting.
I try to start it again get some pops and barks. I think, wow must be
timing or something so I drag out my dwell meter and crank it over-
pow -bark - pop -pop I look at the meter, sure enough showing about 70
degrees of dwell no wonder it doesn't work. So I pull the distributor
and check the points that's funny their a little tight but not bad .
Chuck the distributor back in and check the dwell again --- still 70
degrees what the hell , a moment of head scratching and sobbing takes
place before I realize the dwell meter is set on "tach" DOH! Waste
another hour on stupidity. Flip the switch to dwell and 45 degrees is
mine, but it still wont run so I static time it, I didn't move the
distributor in its clamp when I took it off the old engine so it
shouldn't be too bad I theorize, I roll the engine over and it shows
about 40 degrees too advanced, oh well so much for my theory. After
setting the advance the engine catches sputters and dies, I try again
and It starts but wont run down low, that's OK this is the first time
it has been started so I run it up and down the revs a bit until it is
getting warm and shut it down. I repeat this for a bit all the while
watching my new VDO's for any problems. After a few cycles the engine
begins to run smoother so its time for the first ride around the
block. Everything works fine but the motor will not run off throttle
and dies at stop signs and if I let off the gas and push in the
clutch, I drive it home and park in the driveway.
QUESTION: This bus hasn't ran for about 8 months, could I have a gummed
up injector problem or may be I missed something during assembly. I am
going to let it sit tomorrow and take a day off from the bus and think
about it. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
I want to thank everyone that has sent me advice during this project,
the depth of knowledge in this list always amazes me. I want to thank
Gary Shea for moral support and quality control. I also want to thank
Bob Hoover for being Bob Hoover.
My suppliers were-
Mark Stephens
Rebuilt 2.0 motor, very professional and a pleasure to do business with
Transform
Rebuilt tranny with a lower ring and pinion for climbing all these
hills, they changed the 4th gear ratio to allow me to speed on the
freeway. They responded to my urgent cries and delivered the tranny to
my door within 4 days wow!
RMMW
A bunch of parts including clutch stuff. This organization sets the
bench mark for customer service.
Chirco
Gauges. They shipped the wrong sending unit for the oil temp gauge, so
I shipped it back with a request for the engine sump model. They don't
stock that unit so they credited my account immediately for the
returned stuff.
I felt great working with everybody involved, I have had problems in
the past with mailorder and have heard horror stories, but I had no
problems at all with these people recommend all of the above.
Now to clean the garage :-(
I'm bussin
Clay