Date: Mon, 12 Jul 1999 02:32:51 -0400
Reply-To: "Joe L." <jliasse@TOAST.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: "Joe L." <jliasse@TOAST.NET>
Subject: Re: Westy Water Tank Fill
In-Reply-To: <1280385600-8472139@decorah.k12.ia.us>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
IF there is a washe kit for these things I was unable to find one a
couple of years ago when I had the same trouble. What I did was pick up a
bag of assorted washers at the hardware store. This had pretty much
everything I needed but I may have just been lucky. I also put a little
"Plumber's Goop" on the joints. Everything has been pretty tight ever since.
When I do run into city water pressure that will still push its way through
(maby 1/3 of the time I just run off the tank and top it off as needed.
I have found no way to fill the tank through the filler at any decient
speed without water running over the side of the van. I think the passages
in there are just too narrow. If I am in a hurry I fill it from the top.
I wouldnt worry too much about things that might be living in the water.
Nowadays most city water has enough chlorine in it to kill about anything.
If in doubt what we used to do in the Marine Corps was to put two or
three drops of either bleach or iodine in the canteen and wait for half an
hour before drinking. Didnt taste all that hot but nobody ever got sick and
we were drinking from some pretty strange places. A canteen holds about a
quart so multiply three drops by however many quarts you are carrying.
Unless you are in a REALLY strange place this should do you. There are
"water purification tablets" that can be picked up at the sporting goods
department of the Wal-Mart but these are *usually* nothing more than bleach
or iodine in pill form. Some of these tablets claim to be tastless but for
as much as they would cost purifying a tank of water I would as soon get
used to the taste of iodine.
There IS some special tablet that contains something (name forgotten)
that is supposed to kill a particularly nasty kind of bug (guardia??) but
these are kind of expansive and never having had any problem in either the
Westy or the Marines I saw no reason to pay the extra cost but if you are
headed someplace wierd you may want to check into it.
For the brown bleach streaks on the paint job I am afraid I cant help
you. The paint job on my 83.5 is pretty well shot and I now only worry
about rust. The rest will be taken care of when I get it painted.
-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com]On Behalf
Of j fritz
Sent: Monday, July 12, 1999 12:49 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Westy Water Tank Fill
Volks,
OK, first an admission: Don't do the dumb stunt I did....trying to get
bleach into the tank through the filler tube on the outside (wanted to kill
anything living in there....its our first fill-up with the the water tank).
Anyway, overflowed the bleach, it ran down the side and left brown streaks
on the paint job :-( I'm hoping rubbing compound will take it out.
Now for some questions: I hooked up a hose to the city water fill adapter.
Only about 40 lbs. of city pressure but the faucet couldn't hold it. Is
there a washer kit for this thing to get it so it will stop the water flow?
It was either turning on the electric pump or dripping.....there was no
definitive shut-off.
Second question: How in the h*ll do you fill the water tank from the
outside? I stood there like an idiot holding the hose and watching the
water run down the side of the van. I felt like the dork in the old AAMACO
transmission commercial. You the know the one...some geek with his hat on
sidewayssaying,"let me fix it boss, I was born to fix a tranthmithion"
Jim in Iowa
91 Passat Wagon GL
89 Westy
66 Beetle
