Date: Thu, 18 Feb 1999 12:36:35 -0800
Reply-To: Tom Clein <tomkat@ISOMEDIA.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Tom Clein <tomkat@ISOMEDIA.COM>
Subject: '87 Syncro Westy Fresh Air Fan/Blower-UPGRADE? (Long)
Content-type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
Thanks to all who responded to my plea for help on
non-blowing-blower. With Robert Bentley on one hand; and my old
man on the other (to keep me patient)...I'm ready to pull the
dash, etc.
As suggested, archives were full of valuable info. Sounds like a
pretty large, non-exclusive club. Anyway, call to local VW
Graveyard (Bry's in Seattle @ 206 938-3868) turned up a complete
airbox from '91 Vanagon for $50 (I extract). Since they were
going to charge me $50 for a blower motor...seems like a situation
where I can practice dash removal on a wreck I don't care about
before working on my precious TOYBOX.
Then again, who would want to do this thing twice? Bry's said
they'd take about 1 1/2 hours to remove and charge me ~$25 more.
Maybe I should take mine out 1st (since I have to anyway)...then
see how much work it is?
Possible Upgrade? - I've heard that '88 and newer Vanagons had
advantage of warming side vent air. Anyone have actual,
real-world experience (advantage?) with this?
Any foreseeable problems with controls, wiring, etc.? I'll
obviously check operation of 'new' blower motor before pulling
unit out of '91...and open airbox to lube fresh air fan before
installing in my '87.
Do I have to disconnect/drain cooling system to replace front
heater core?
Anything else I should consider before diving into this thing
headfirst?
Thanks for advice from you all to replace bulbs, flap seals (if
bad), heater core, clutch linkage fork, highest-speed 'hot' wire,
etc.
BTW, my usual VW service place says this is what his service techs
call a 'two bottle' job. Meaning that whenever one of us hapless
Vanagon owners has to replace the front fresh air fan motor...they
can afford to go out and get 2 bottles of champagne to
celebrate...cuz they make so much money off of this job!
Personally, both my father and I prefer beer...and I'm sure we'll
have a few while we do this thing....we'll toast the VW engineers
who designed the Vanagon around the heater and brought us all
closer together.
As an aside, I've been using the rear heat-exchanger while my
front blowers been out. I'm getting a distinct 'anti-freeze' odor
in the van whenever I turn on the rear fan. Could this be the
(dreaded) rear heater core leak problem, or just odor from the
engine compartment which probably requires a far cheaper and
easier anti-gunking or steam-cleaning fix?
I'm a long-time Westy owner ('86 Tourist Delivered Westy died in
rollover accident-no injuries to driver or passenger-with 180K on
it). Bought the '87 Syncro Westy 3 years ago to replace it...3rd
owner...have put 40K on it since, now approaching 140K)
I'm a newbie to the list, so please forgive my rambling. Just got
'wired' so that's why you haven't heard from me earlier. Thanks
again for all your help and advice!
Next job to tackle - passing emissions (August). But that's
another story!
Tom Clein
'87 Syncro Westy (309 DUI - no kidding - PO's plate - NOT a vanity
plate)
'86 Westy (Bronze Beige Metallic - Turd Brown for us in the know!)
'79 Diesel Rabbit (SNOSHU) sold in '85 to buy new Westy :''( (I
really loved that car!)
21421 NE 79th St
Redmond, WA 98053
(425) 868-5185 Voice
(206) 409-9622 Cellular
tomkat@isomedia.com
