Date:         2 May 1996 13:25:52 -0700
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         "Kevin Nugent" <Kevin.Nugent@uchsc.edu>
Subject:      Re:  EV oil change

                       Subject:                               Time:11:33 AM
  OFFICE MEMO          RE> EV oil change                      Date:5/2/96

Well I'm glad I'm not the only one that had a VERY hard time changing the oil
in my EV. I spent forever trying to get that filter off. Don't be afraid to 
get a socket on the end of the filter (and maybe a socket extension to give
yourself a little more room to work). It can handle a fair amount of torque.
Needless to say, I would replace the old filter with a similar one from VW.
There isn't a whole lot of room up there to stick many oil filter removing
gadgets.
The advice ends there, the rest is MY EV oil change story. The names have
been changed to protect the innocent......
The first time I changed the oil after I bought it I swear the filter was put
on by Hercules. I am in the United Way Big Brother program and I thought my
little "brother" would like to help me change the oil, kind of a good "guy
thing", so I am under the car just yanking and pulling on this filter.
Meanwhile Mike (the little brother) is waiting patiently for his job to come
up. I wanted him to be the one to pull the drain plug, you know how it goes,
as soon as it gets to a certain point the oil just gushes out, getting all
over your hand (at least mine : ) Thought he might get a kick out of it, I
know I think it's kind of funny. 

Anyway for me, during the course of a repair there reaches a point where, if
it is not going well, you (or at least I) suddenly lose all objectivity. I
was going to get that damn filter off it is was the last thing I ever did. So
here we are at Wal-Mart (all the FLAPS were closed) buying entire sets of
sockets to get the one size that we need. So, many braker bars, whiz bang
gadgets and alot of time later I finally got it off. The best part though was
when Mike pulled the drain plug (I didn't tell him what would happen) and he
got oil all over his hand (hee hee).
Now, after my brief bought with man versus machine induced insanity I own
every socket size and adaptor known to man, as well as enough breaker bars
and oil filter gadgets to fill a barn!! But I WON, I WON!!!! 
Until next time........

Kevin
'93 EV MV (with freshly changed oil)
Bikes-
'91 Gios (white, decked in Mavic)
'92 Karagoz, built by a guy, Armen Karagoz, who worked for Leonard Zinn. One
of three made (he has the other two). 
Yeah, I got one of those mountain bike thingy's too, a Bridgestone I think
STEEL IS REAL!!