Date:         Mon, 10 Jun 1996 10:21:48 -0700
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         dlytle@as.arizona.edu (Dyer Lytle)
Subject:      '66 progress, On the Road a-gin...



Hi all,

After 16 years without an engine, my '66 bus is on the road again!
Hooray!

There was a problem however.  After getting the engine in, haveing had to
clearance the bell-housing and all, when I put in oil and gas, I couldn't
get then engine to turn over.  There was a click, a little scraping and then
just more clicks.  This was last Tuesday.  I figgured I must not have quite
gotten the bell-housing completely clearanced so I loosened the engine mount
bolts, backed the engine out a little and tried again.  Click, still nothing.

Hmmm, very frustrating, what could be wrong?

So, this last Saturday, I disconnected everything again, got the bolts off
and pulled the engine back out.  Hey, what are these three big steel staple
shaped pieces of steel doing in the bell-housing???  And look, they've been
jamming the flywheel!  Took 'em out, put the engine back in and it turned
over freely even with the mounting bolts tight.

The only thing I can imagine is that these three big "staples" were some
sort of keepers that I didn't notice on the clutch pressure plate.  When I
got the engine in, the first time I depressed the clutch, they fell out
of the pressure plate into the bell-housing.  Now that I think about it,
it seemed quite easy to install the pressure plate, not much cranking down
slowly, bolt by bolt, till it was tight like on previous clutches.  These
'keepers' must have been there to make installation easier but sheesh, there
should have been an instruction sheet of some kind to warn me about this!
(The last new clutch plate I installed on my '72 didn't have these keepers.)

So, WARNING, WARNING, your new, German, pressure plate from Wolfsburg West
may very well have keepers to remove before using!  (this may not be a
problem with factory matched flywheels in bellhousings, there might be enough
stock clearance for the keepers to just sit on the bottom of the bell-housing
without interfereing with the flywheel, but with a 12V flywheel in a 6V
bell-housing, the clearance is very tight and they do cause problems.)

Anyway, once I got the engine back in, hooked up, oiled up, gased up,
etc. it started on the first try, idled perfectly, and during the 15
minutes I spent running it between 2000 and 3000 RPM and listening to
it intently, it seemed to run perfectly, and warmed up quickly.  (of
course the temperature outside was about 108F so the warm-up was specially
quick. :-)

Later, in the evening, after dark, Janice and I took it to a nearby park to
walk the dog (about 2 miles round trip) and it was fun to drive.  All the
12 volt conversion stuff is working fine and the engine ran very well.
Until I get the registration done (no smog inspection!) I can't drive
much but I hope to get the inspection sometime this week.

Initial impressions:  Previously, I have only driven my '72 and '73 buses
so that is what I compare to.  This bus is geared slightly lower, the
brakes aren't as easy to push, the ride seems a little more truck-like
and bouncy, I've got more headroom (!), it feels more "old fashioned"
perhaps because of the steel dash and proximity to the front windscreen,
and its more fun!  (its hard to describe this *fun* factor but it is
definitely there, at least for me.)

Well, thats all for now, gotta get back to work.  The only other thing
is that last Wednesday we had the organizational meeting of the Tucson
chapter of the Arizona Bus Club.  20 people turned up which I think was
surprisingly good for a first meeting (must be due to my my excellent
advertising campaign :-) ).  We're already planning stuff, the first thing
is this coming Saturday we are caravaning up to the "sock hop" and
bus show in Casa Grande, AZ.

Cheers,

 -Dyer

 '66 standard with some camping accesories (new engine!)
 '72 high roof camper/dirt road cruiser (needs some work)
 '87 Jetta (well, it gets 40 mph on the highway!)

------------------------------
Dyer Lytle              
dlytle@as.arizona.edu   
http://as.arizona.edu/~dlytle
HST NICMOS Project      
Steward Observatory     
University of Arizona   
------------------------------