Date: Mon, 8 Jun 1998 22:52:41 -0700
Reply-To: marcus <marcus46@FREEWWWEB.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: marcus <marcus46@FREEWWWEB.COM>
Subject: Re: It's not my fault.
Content-Type: multipart/mixed;
Bill it takes a special kind of person to admit error and for the sake of the
group help them to avoid the same.You need pep talk from Uncle Joel.I gave him
mine a couple of weeks ago and now it's time to share this with the group. See
attached and pls read word for word and maybe a few more times.If you never
work on your Vanagon just delete.
Murphy Law at work
A few months ago I had a
noise
coming from the rear and I knew this noise as I have had it in the past.
Wheel
bearing no doubt about it,so I go and get the bearing set and seals for
one wheel.
A month or so past as I'm thinking about doing this job myself. I'm not
driving the
van much as the noise is really loud. Ok now which wheel is it? So I
have my wife
in the rear seat and ask her where is the sound coming from. She says
under the
seat in the middle, I say what I don't believe that, She says ok let me
drive and
you listen. And I also hear it coming from the middle and under seat.Dam
thats the
trans I had rebuild 4 years ago for $1100.00. So another month goes by.
My brother
comes over and I remove the right tire and drum. My logic was this I had
the other
side done about 3 years ago. We inspect the the hub area and find what
appears to
be grease brake down(leak) That it . Its this wheel. I got cold feet
about doing
the job, So I took it to my local Billy Bob.Small town.I told which
bearing to
replace and they did. After the job, they drove it and it had the same
noise. I
kept the old bearing and that should give you a hint where this is
going. The guys
said it had to be the trans.Oh well what ever. I called the guy who I
trusted on
the trans.Explained what the deal was and told him it even made noise in
nutral and
he said sounds like main bearing in trans and the job was $350.00. I
told him I
didn't think I could drive the 44 miles to his shop. No he said $350 if
I took just
the trans to him. Otherwise another $100 to pull it and another $100 to
install it.
Ok not a big deal as I have done this befor that is pull out the trans.
Befor I go
any farther, the trans thing could have been stop at the beginning. If I
had told
him that the noise was only there if I was moving. He thought when I said
I could
hear the noise in nutral that I was at a dead stop. I found out later.
OK back to
the confession. I remove all those things to pull the trans. Go to pull
it and it
hang up.I look and can't see what the problem is. So I pull harder
thinking it's
stuck in the clutch spline. and it comes out along with throttle line. I
forgot to
remove. and didn't see cause it was mounted on top of the trans. while
the trans
was hanging up on the throttle line the end was being scratch on the
pressure
plate. I now take the trans for the guy to fix. That ends the dumb story,
now for
the dumber. Few days later he calls and says the trans is ok,problem
must be
somwhere else. I go and pick it up. He said he went completely thru it
and it's
fine but he had to remove the scratchs on the shaft and told me to check
pilot
bearing. He charged me $120. On the way home I got a new pilot bearing
for $3 wow.
I check the old pilot bearing looks good to me but what the heck I
already have a
new one and all I have to do is pull the fly wheel, no big deal, right?
I got a new
10mm hex and tried to remove the bolts with my small impact wrench and
they won't
give. So what would Tim Allen do, buy a bigger impact wrench. So I did
and they
still won't give except two. So I call the trans man and he says to hit
them real
hard with a hammer. Ok that worked. Now I can really see the bearing up
close.
Still looks good but I do have that new $3 one. Checked around for a
puller none to be found in this
small town. So someone said he just took a chisel to it, and so I did.
About
3Hours later the old was out and the new was in.Now things are good
right?? put the
fly wheel on clutch in and tighten pressure plate with my plastic spline
in place.
Oh things are good. Then I find I can't turn fly wheel by hand, hum must
be on
compression stroke right? My son and I put the trans back in and I
connect
everything back together. Try to start it up but starter won't turn the
fly wheel
What the hell is wrong here. I pull on the belts motor won't move even
an inch. So
I call my trans man and he says maybe a washer or a rock got stuck to
the fly wheel
when I laid it down. Well I not that stupid to lay the fly wheel down on
the side
that goes into the main oil seal, but what the heck. I remove all those
things to
remove the trans. This is where I shorted the starter red wire to frame.
Oh well
probably need new starter but will deal with that later. Got trans out
and all the
other things. Checked with my finger behine the main seal, hum
something doesn't
feel right but I can't really tell what it is. I put the fly wheel on
but befor I
tighten the hex bolts I was able to turn the motor and after I tighten
them, no go.
Fly wheel won't move.That it I quit this van goes to the trans man.But
of course I
had to put trans in to transport. Called wrecker and paid $72. Hey Joel
wake up
and pass the popcorn. Ok no need to put everything back together so put
in van
along with old wheel bearing. Week later Trans man calls and says van is
ready.
Bill was $ 350 and here is what he found. He had to remove the main seal
and three
shims. Behine these shims is a thick washer that has a slot cut out of
it, which
fits in a groove on the crank. Well remember he told me to hit the hex
bolts with
hammer? This some how make the spring that holds this washer in place to
shift and
the washer wasn't in the groove. So when I had tighten the hex bolts on
fly wheel
it locked the crank up. And yes the left wheel bearing was bad. He took
the old one
from the right and put in the left. Now to the fire and then the end of
this story.
With my head down low I paid my bill and drove off.Hum guess I didn't
burn up my
starter after all. It's 4pm and traffic is heavy not LA heavy but heavy.
Van is
runing good but about 4 miles it act like it wants quit. I'm in the left
lane and
nobody will let me over to the right OH Jesus I need you now. I go about
3 more
miles and the van stops with smoke coming from the engine compartment. I
open hatch
and slowly open motor cover and see a fire. At that moment I thought
this van is
gone and it may take out a few other cars. I had to put this fire out.
It didn't
look like a gas fire, so I removed my shirt and put the fire out. Then a
Saint
stopped and helped me to get the van on the right side of the road. Boy
was I
lonely ,Hundreds of cars passing me by. I did a close inspection of the
fire damage
and notice that the wiring harness to the fuel injector did a complete
melt down
and the fire was fuel by old oil on the padded license plate. I also saw
that the
coil wire was melted to the harness. Ok thats what cause it right??
Called wecker
and paid $75 to get it home. Well thats when you guys come into the
picture. I get
on the internet and find a new friend Kyle Wade, who has a harness I
need. He tell
me about Vanagon.com. For $162 I get the harness from Kyle in Calf. In a
couple of
hours it in and the van runs good. But this harness get a little to hot
I think.But
I don't normally go around and touch my harness. OK thats the end so far
of this
story. Murphy law at it's highest peak.
I hope this true story can help someone in the future I paid the dues maybe I can save you from the dues. Who knows.
