Date: Fri, 4 Apr 1997 03:04:05 -0500 (EST)
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: No1UKn0@aol.com
Subject: Hey!
Hey!
Well Netcom has royally screwed my account so I'm having to go through my AOL
acct. and since they are the "King of Junk Mail" I will not be subscribing to
this list through AOL because it could be several weeks before I can get
online again.
Anyway, it looks like my '87 Vanagon is ready to hit the road!!:
New motor (Fast German Auto - just got my 1st 500 mi. service and everything
turned out great!)
New tires (Michelin MXT's 205-70-14)
New brakes
Front and rear end alignment
Will have it completely detailed inside and out tomorrow
Middle seats are now in the garage
So I feel I now basically have a brand new Vanagon (the white body is in good
shape, only looks 2 or 3 years old)
Sometimes around next Wed. I hope to be leaving Los Angeles and driving to
New Orleans where I'll be working for the next 5 months. I'll be making a
detour through my hometown of Nashville along the way.
I'm now furiously going through preparations (have to buy a jack, a lug
wrench, some floor mats, put new fuel tank vent lines in, replace that piece
of carpet in the center part of the floor where the PO (among other things)
had cut up to facilitate the removal of the center piece (found some gray
carpet that will do the job for the time being at the local hardware store).
This'll be my 2nd long distance trip in a VW van. About 3 years ago, I drove
a rusted out '78 Westy (hey it was $1000!!!) from Los Angeles to Nashville to
Beaufort, SC (right there on the Atlantic) back to Nashville then to Los
Angeles then to Humbolt Co., CA (Arcata, CA - ton of VW busses up there) then
to Eugene, OR (was told it had the highest concentration of registered VW
vans in the USA and I believe it) then to Bend, OR back to Los Angeles and
then back to Bend where it was finally retired to a junkyard (I almost cried
- I think I did - when they put it on the flat bed - but I still have the
fold up bed in my garage with some of the tables) During that trip, I
constantly had to crawl up underneath it to mess with the solenoid to get it
to start, sucked a valve in AZ in 125 degree heat experienced very rare but
quite disconcerting fuel injection stumbles (I think I now know the cause)
blew the CV joints 40 miles outside of Bend, OR and managed to nurse it
(quite loudly I might add) all the way into town, stretched a clutch cable on
a deserted old state highway (trying to avoid the climb over that mountain
outside of Chatanooga, TN) at 2 o'clock in the morning (pedal went to the
floor with a loud "SPROING" and suddenly I had no clutch, nursed it to an all
night gas station with a bright street light and with my flashlight managed
to adjust out all the new found slack - when I was finally able to replace
the cable about a month later I saw that I was literally on the last several
threads of the cable). Even with all these annoyances, the Westy never left
me stranded. I learned the value of carrying 3 feet of fuel line, a
comprehensive CRAFTSMAN tool kit (in the blow-molded case with a few extra
tools), duct tape, plenty of water (for myself, the VW was air-cooled), tons
of white fuses, the HAYNES manual, an old VW booklet that has the addresses
of all their dealers in N. America (with a huge "DO NOT SELL" written on it
(one good thing the PO did), a big MAG-LITE and other stuff.
Well, 3 years after the Westy's demise, I finally found her replacement and
let me tell you - that old feeling is back!!
Sorry,
Got a little misty-eyed there,
Thanks for all your great advice!!
I'll try to look into the archives every once in a while.
Perry
'87 Vanagon
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