Date:         Sun, 21 Jul 1996 23:51:00 -0300
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Roy Nicholl <rnicholl@asg.unb.ca>
Subject:      New lawn ornament


Volks:

	This week's episode of the further adventures of Ras Bulli
Split has been pre-empted, not for Olympic coverage, but for something
much more ...;)

The Thing has landed...actually it sort of limped (a little), but it
is home none-the-less.

Liz. my mother and I drove up to Halifax on Saturday to pick up the
'74 Thing I had purchased a few weeks back.  After giving Barry [the
fellow kind enough to sell the Thing to I], the rest of his cash and
loading the new top and other misc. parts onto the back of the pickup,
I fired it up and off we went.

Down the road about a mile or so, I pulled off into a filler station
and proceeded to change the oil, grease the appropriate suspension
spots, check tyres, octane boost the year-old gas and check all
cables.  Satisfied with the mechanics, I decided to remove the side
curtains for the drive to my parents house [about 150 miles] as they
were too hazy to see through clearly.

We set off, the Thing and I in front, Mother and Liz in the 3/4 tonne
pickup behind...and and ever growing string of vehicles behind them
;).  I kept the speed limited to 50mph as I did not want to stress the
engine too much [it had been rebuilt less than 5k miles ago, but had
sat for over a year].  About an hour down the road, the little red
light of death came on...I immediately pulled off and shut it down.  I
had noticed that the engine compartment seal was well past the
semi-useless stage of life when I first looked at it, so I figured
that it has just gotten too hot and the oil pressure dropped as a
result.   As I walked around behind the Thing, I could see Mother and
Liz making pointing gestures from the cab of the truck.  I looked
underneath and there was oil dripping from the skid-plate...great :(

After waiting about ten minutes the oil drip had totally subsided, I
checked the dipstick and it was down a pint...I topped it up and
decided to continue.  Another 45 minutes down the road and the light
stated to flicker again.  Since I was also in need of petrol, I pulled
off at another filler station, flipped the rear hatch to let it cool
down, watched as another cup of oil ran out the back of the
skid-plate.  Once the oil-flow had subsided, checked the stick and it
was down a pint.  I topped up the oil, added fresh petrol, jumped in,
turned the key...nothing :(

I checked the battery, it was fine.  Checked the starter...no power.
Checked the fuse box...all fuses fine.  Lights worked, hazards
worked...Hmm.  As Mother was in a hurry to get home, I pushed it to
one side, told the station attendant that I would be back with a
tow-rope and drove the last 45 minutes home contemplating what was
wrong ....

My step father and I returned a couple of hours later with a length of
chain, a couple of shackles, and the spare bow-line from the family's
dragger [1-1/4" braided nylon...lotsa strength].  We hooked the chain
around the front axle and tired the line to it.  I then went for the
longest 30 mile ride of my life...being towed at dusk with no
lights [the hazards quite halfway home] ...at 50 miles an hour no less.

Finally reaching my parents driveway, I hooked a charger up to the
battery and gave up for the day.

This morning, I was up early and under the Thing.  I quickly found the
problem with the hazards and lights...I was standing on the brakes so
hard going down a couple of the hills while being towed that the extra
pedal travel had caught a wire hanging from the dash and parted it.
After correcting this, I put the key in and turned it...the starter
turned, but that was it.  I new I was getting fuel as I had now
flooded the carb, I pulled a plug wire...nothing, bridged the
points...nothing, nothing coming from the coil either...Hmm!  I went
to the other end and started tracing from the ignition...and voila!
The PO had decided to install a kill switch in the ignition up under
the dash...flicked the switch and it started right away!  I must have
hit this while I was climbing out at the filler station yesterday.

So we were back on the road, Liz and I took the ferry from NS to NB
and then started the hilly last 60 miles home.  The red light of death
didn't come on until we were idling at a stop light two blocks from
home.  However, I noticed on a couple of the long grades that the
clutch slipped a little, but only in 4th gear [or at least it felt
like the clutch].  The car is also next to impossible to get into
first gear without *some* clunk-n-grind...and then the fact that I am
loosing a pint of oil every 100 kms...yet another lawn ornament.

For those of you who made it this far...

I haven't pulled the skid plate and all the tin yet, but it looks as
though the main seal has given out [the year of sitting no doubt].  I
am going to adjust the clutch tomorrow to see if the problem is the
cable or the clutch itself [I noticed that the car creeps when in gear
with the clutch fully depressed]...this lead me to hope that an
adjustment will fix this.  

How close are these diagnostics?  Any input into other sources [my
second guess for the oil leak is the cooler...I will check the inside
of the fan housing tomorrow as well.

Bugs & Things [with Saudi-friendly oil habit] & Bricks...Oh, my!

Roy

-- 
Roy Nicholl
Atlantic Systems Group		Phone:	(506) 453-3505
Incutech Centre			Fax:	(506) 453-5004
B/S 69000			E-Mail:	Roy.Nicholl@ASG.unb.ca
Fredericton, NB			Canada	E3B 6C2