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Date:         Fri, 14 Feb 1997 11:57:13 -0500 (EST)
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Cetin  Seren <cseren@fore.com>
Subject:      the '82 Diesel Westy Rolls again....

Well, sometimes things take a while to sink in... Last night, back from work, I was looking at the engine compartment of the '82 diesel in the garage, wondering why there was oil everywhere but not where the flange that connects the vacuum pump to the brake booster hose broke apart...

Then it hit me:

It's a vacuum pump!!! when there is a clear path for the air to be sucked in, the pump sucks air big time, and discharges it into the crankcase!!! I was getting oil pushed out the oil fill tube and everything else -- just like a bad case of piston blow-by..

O.K., with the mystery solved, I first tried to see if I could fit some kind of regular flange in there. I finally gave up, since the shape is real weird, and I would lose the check-valve functionality of the original flange. I was in the garage scratching my head, trying to convince myself that I could really glue this thing and it would hold...

Then it hit me again:

It's a vacuum hose+flange set!!! which meant, if I built a strong neck on the _outside_, from some decent material, the vacuum inside would actually help seal all the small air paths that may form in the material while it dries... A quick run down to WalMart, bought a marine epoxy stick (putty-like to the touch, when you mix the inner core with the outer material by kneading it, takes about 5-10 minutes to become reasonably firm, another hour, it is completely set). got the lid of the vacuum pump out, went upstairs and washed it in the kitchen sink (to my wife's horror :-) built a conical neck around the flange with the lid as the base, let it dry while watching tv, then went downstairs, first replaced two of the glow plugs that I had been procastinating on, then put the lid on the vacuum pump with my contraption on top of it. Topped off the oil, started her up... No problems... My commute (short one) this morning was uneventful....

Oh Well, had to tell about it to someone :-)

BTW, the vacuum pump +flange design is one of the worst flops I've seen done by VW engineers. I bet they were not thinking that this was a vacuum seal rather than a pressure one when they designed it -- it is definitely made to fail the wrong way, and looks like it was designed to keep the pressurised air inside, not vacuum.

In any case, anyone happen to know the part# for this flange????

One side question: To get at the two other glow plugs, looks like I'll have to remove the Diesel injector pump. any hints, insight there???

Thanks, Cetin

Cetin Seren Outbound Technology Group phone: 412-635-3479 FORE Systems, Inc. web: www.fore.com 5800 Corporate Drive fax: 412-635-3350 Pittsburgh, PA 15237 e-mail: cseren@fore.com


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