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Date:         02 Jun 97 13:56:04 PDT
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         CARVER_JEFFREY@aphub.aerojetpd.com (Jeff Carver)
Subject:      Weekend of VW Work (long)

Well, here's to report that last weekend's worth of work went well. I just have to counter the horror stories one usually reads about.

My '80 Westi was in need of several things. A speedo cable broke 16 miles from home. The oil temp guage that was held in place by string, fell and needed a better mounting. The right head, recently welded up by AVP, needed to be re-torqued. Fuel pump beginning to make noises, replacement needed.

I spent Friday evening fabricating a housing fro the oil tem out of 2" black ABS plumbing tubing. Perfect fit for the VDO guage. I cut the tube at a real shallow angle so that while the bottom of the tube (cut edge) sits on the main dash surface where the now removed ash tray once was. The guage faces me and the bottom of the tube rest on the angle of the dash goin to the rear. Weird to describe.

Made three of these, screwed them together, painted them black. Almost covers the entire ash tray hole! All wired up and works great. Now I still have to figure out how to hold the trio to the dash. Looks good to me. Rest of activity took place on Sunday.

Removed the upper speedo cable from parts bus, cleaned and lubicated with grease in a spray can. Installed it, no change. Oops, lower speedo cable is bad, not upper. Oh well, I now have a lubricated upper. Removed the lower speedo cable, definitely bad. Did the same trick with the parts bus cable.

For the people that have a problem with the end of the cable pushing agains the hubcap. Pull the cable from the inside wheel area. The cable is simple held in by a rubber bushing. I musta fed 5 inches of cable PAST the proper location. Fit the grease cup and pushed pulled it back so the spring clip was flush with grease cup. Viola, speedo works again. Pull slowly but firmly.

Removed intake stuff, FI stuff, etc to re-torque right head. Managed to do this without removing alternator. Two were slightly loose, tightened them all up. Adjusted valve lash, as rocker assemlies had to get removed for two of the head bolts. Adjusted other side too. While doing this, I noticed two push rods felt mushy. Are these the ones that are making all the clacking sounds?

Removed the fuel pump on the parts bus, and drained about 12 gallons of fuel into a 2 gallon container and thusly into my truck. Forgot only once and let it overflow for a few seconds. Original hoses looked fine ('80) but larger one had been replaced, looked cracked. Was gonna install it, but didn't have another fuel filter, nor proper large dia hose. Will buy today and then replace. Hopefully it'll work without whining.

Original hose on daily drive bus near fuel pump also looked good, but will replace them anyway.

Things went well.

- Jeff '80 Westi


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