Date: Sat, 18 Jan 1997 13:06:46 -0800
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: Ron Lussier <coyote@zuni.chaco.com>
Subject: Re: alternators & CBs
At 02:45 PM 1/18/97 -0600, Sean Bartnik wrote:
>Hey all,
>I'm posting this to both lists because these are relatively general
>questions.
>
>First: A few days ago I noticed a screeching sound (low-pitched, like a
>metal on metal sound) coming from the engine somewhere when I first
>started it up. This is an '81 Vanagon, 2000cc air-cooled engine. Today
>I investigated further and I've isolated the sound as coming from the
>alternator. I can't tell if it's the pulley rubbing on the housing or
>if it's inside the alternator. The sound disappears when the engine
>warms up. So is it alt. bearings or something? Is my alternator on the
>way out or is the very cold weather lately (single digits last night)
>having an effect on the grease (or whatever lube) in the alternator?
>The alternator has been charging normally, no red light on or anything
>like that. Any ideas?
>
>Next, I need to get a real CB antenna. I had one of those clip-on rain
>gutter mount jobbies from Wal-Mart because I couldn't find a place to
>mount a real one. Well, the Wal-Mart jobby is rusting all to hell
>already (only been on there a couple months) so i removed it before the
>rust spread to my raingutter. The problem is that I still haven't been
>able to think of a good place to mount a CB antenna. If this were a
>regular Vanagon I'd just use a magnet-mount antenna on the roof but this
>is a Westy. No magnet mount here. I was looking at mounting it on the
>rear bumper but there's no way to mount it so that it doesn't interfere
>with the rear hatch. I would have to mount it on the plastic end cap if
>I wanted to get in the back of the van without removing the antenna.
>
>In short, I'm out of ideas. I know a lot of you Westy drivers have CBs
>so where did you mount the antenna?
I put a permanent mount on the exterior right read panel of my van. I have
a quick-release mount screwed into the permanent mount. The antenna runs
up about 4" from the rear of the pop-top, and sticks about a foot over the
top of the van. Since it's a top-loaded antenna, that works pretty well.
I had to think a bit about adding a permanent hole to my van, but this was
the cleanest solution I could come up with. And it does look pretty good.
Ron
--
Ron 'Coyote' Lussier /\_/\ ____ Chaco Communications
(408) 865-0657 ( ) \ _/__ 10164 Parkwood Drive #8
coyote@chaco.com \ / \X / Cupertino, CA 95014-1533
(1990 VW Westfalia Camper) \_/ \/ http://www.chaco.com/~coyote
|