Little Stuff
We’ve been ridiculously busy trying to get ready to drive north. We hope to be on the road by the end of this week.
So, lot’s of little projects to wrap up and others that we might have to postpone. As Angela says, “now you can’t just pick the one you want to work on.” No help there…
The good news is that the bus is rolling and on the road. The bad news is that I’ve hardly had time for the mechanical and electric stuff. That’s this week.
Is it just me, or do none of the reproduction rear side markers fit properly?
I’ve had 4 – and all 4 require wedging a screw into the back plastic thingy to force it stay put.
And, we’ve got some electrical Gremlins. When I put on the right blinker, the brake emergency light comes on and there’s no blinking. When I put on the left blinker, nothing happens and the bulbs go dark. The problem? A bad ground between the right taillight housing and the bulb holder. I rigged it with a screw and some copper wife and am hoping for the best.
Also, nearly all of the spade lugs on my rear taillights have broken off over the years and I’ve just soldered the wires directly to the nub. It works.
When I parked it, it had no leaks. I drove it 5 miles from my brother’s shop to my dad’s place and it’s now leaking oil.
My brother’s garage is like the Twilight Zone (still no takers on the carbs). So, I pulled the engine and had to change the oil cooler seals. I probably should have waited to install the new alternator (thanks again, Mark!)
One of those things on many overlander’s fear lists is corrupt cops swiping your license plate until paying a bribe.
It never happened to us (and I’ve never heard of it actually happening), but now I finally got around to finding some of those anti-theft screws and putting them on. Now, our license plate and a men’s room stall have something in common.
New muffler. Stock German. First time I’ve had one. I’m embarrassed to admit, I had to look up a photo online to figure out how the tailpipe went on. I guess I got it right. But, I had to pull out the grinder and knock down part of the engine mount so there was clearance to clamp it one the heater boxes. Both sides. This was always an issue with other mufflers too – maybe my heater boxes hang too low?
I’ve see that happen a few times in Mexico and Central America, but it isn’t corrupt cops: if you’re parked illegally, you get a ticket, and they take the license plate. That way you are forced to go pay the ticket and get your plate back. A simple system for places where the DMV and the post office have a small budget.
That said, I’ve had safety screws like those since Mexico 🙂
Been following your restoration. The bus looks awesome!
Greetings from Peru.
A couple of thoughts. First, the rear-hanger busses like ours always had a unique muffler clamp for the sealing ring/asbestos seal which had just one long bolt on one side so it missed the mount and the resonator and tailpipe could be shimmed or pulled away and then clamped tight while pulled away. Tail lite housings aftermarket or later imports had a third spade lug on the housing for a separate ground-as opposed to using the mounting screws- I used the battery cable bolt hole right side, aux battery cable bolt hole left side. You can buy aftermarket light sockets with pigtails and hog them into the place where the old ones fit. If properly fluxed you can solder on a spade lug for best contact. Please remember to add an extra ground wire from the alternator to frame directly, not through engine. Helps with cold staring motor voltage also. Always have a functioning gen/alt light bulb as alt will not charge without it being good. I had to finally burr the screw threads on my plate mount in Mexico due to plate removal by police revenue generators so yes it happens. Thanks to narco bribes local police seem to need less small moridas nowadays. PS avoid led Chinese replacement bulbs 1157s 1034s 1156s as they crap out very quickly. Rusty