Back to the Bus, Part 2

Exactly 7 days after arriving in Denver, the bus was finally ‘ready’.  The upside of the vehicle SNAFU was that we had a good excuse to hang out with friends in Boulder and crush all competition on the croquet field. The mechanic covered the cost of our rental car, so we can’t complain too much about the delay.

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All winter, everyone had been telling us how nice Winter Park is in the summer. So, we decided to head up and take a look for ourselves.

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We made it up over Berthoud Pass at 11330 ft and the bus did hold together on it’s initial voyage.  Winter Park was rocking and it seemed like the entire town was out enjoying the perfect weather. Each afternoon, a storm rolled in for a few hours and got everything wet enough to give off that fresh mountain smell. Then, the clouds parted and the rainbows came out… then more sunshine and everyone back outside for dinner and live music at the park. Not bad at all.

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After cooling off, I did quick check on the bus and here’s what I found:

Compression was 110-110-100-110. Not ideal for a new valve job and piston/cylinder set. Possible cross-thread issue on #2 – and these are definitely not my heads. The right side was way too rich with fouled plugs (and burning fuel like crazy), carbs were not synced, and accelerator pumps were turned all the way in.  If I stomped on the gas pedal at idle, the engine would die.  So, after a quick attempt at a re-tune, I discovered the right carb accelerator pump tube was draining continuously at high RPM. Sticking my finger down there and bending the tube upwards did the trick of preventing fuel from being siphoned from it and then I was able to reset the pump adjustments to where they were, re-sync, and everything made more sense. Now, it’s running pretty well with typical mpg, but still seems a little sluggish.  I’ll put some more miles on it and give it another look. Regardless, we’re rolling on.

3 thoughts on “Back to the Bus, Part 2

  • July 22, 2014 at 1:42 AM
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    aaaah finally 🙂 Good to hear that your on the road again! Just wondering around or got a desination fixed ?

    Snowboard and Surf board next for Bode ? (if thats him on the skateboard?)

  • July 22, 2014 at 11:42 AM
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    A little late to begin a trip to Alaksa. Bode says “Alameda, then Lego Land!”

  • July 22, 2014 at 11:36 PM
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    Thats exactly where im going in my bus next week, however its LegoLand in Denmark 😛

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