Posts Tagged VW bus
Posted on December 9, 2011 by jason
Ignacio and family save the day… again.
The leaking transmission was not getting any better and every time I looked under the bus and saw the drips I got more and more nervous. If we don’t fix it now, I can’t see anywhere on the map in the next 5000 km that we will be able to. Fortunately, we didn’t even have to ask – Ignacio told us to come over and fix it – he’d even have the beer and BBQ waiting.
In the morning, I climbed into the pit and Juan helped me get down to the leaking differential seal – new territory for me. While we were down there, of course, we found plenty of other things to take care of too. One CV boot with a hole in it and the other three were badly cracked. Time to replace all four. This also means pulling everything apart, cleaning, and re-greasing too.
I’d been hearing a little clickety-clack from the back recently and assumed there was something up with the wheel bearings again. After looking at the CV bearings, I think I probably found the source – not pretty. Back in the U.S., everything would immediately be replaced with new parts. Here, you tend to get more life out things. The executive decision was to put them back in and keep going. Juan assured me we would make it Patagonia with no problems (I don’t remember him saying if we would make it back). We’ll put this on our list of things to check in Buenos Aires.
The seal was another issue altogether. It’s not available down here – this is no Brazilian tranny. We took it around to a few shops and one guys measured it with calipers and gave us something as close as he could get. Off by a millimeter. We took it back to the shop and put it on the lathe and then installed with a little RTV. Should be fine. A quick seal replacement turned into a long greasy day – time for large hunks of meat and beer!
After the asadita, Bode wasn’t feeling well, so he and Angela slept in the bus while I hung out with the fam. The big yearly teleton was on TV – a huge affair hosted by the Sabado Gigante guy. It was sort of like their version of the Jerry Lewis Telethon. Far more entertaining than any telethon I’ve seen – mainly because it gave me an introduction to all of the popular entertainers – with bonus commentary from the family.
I wasn’t log before the aguardiente came out (a home-flavored moonshine of sorts with cherries, and some unidentified berry). I even briefly demonstrated my limited ability to croon in Spanish. A poor showing for sure, but at least I’ve picked up enough to embarrass myself.
Posted on November 29, 2011 by jason
Since we’ve been hanging out on the avocado farm for a while, I’ve had some time to knock out a few bus projects.
First, I want to mention that several of our replacement parts were supplied by readers while we were back in the US a few weeks ago. Thanks again to everyone for helping us out – we really appreciate it!
The electronic ignition went in without a hitch. Since we had our mystery problem that killed our ignition back in Quito, we’ve been using points. For some reason, I never threw them away and have amassed a collection. I will whittle this down to just one. Adios platinos.
Speaking of whittle, I had actually whittled a cabinet door handle part so we could open the cabinet under the sink. Now, no more tree branch and we’re back to steel and plastic.
The new door lock cylinder was a hit with Angela. She hasn’t been able to unlock her door since Mexico. Really – you just get used to it. Previously, I’ve had luck just swapping the pins and moving them around until I found a combination that fit my key. It worked again this time, but I still had to sand down the bumpy spots just a little to make it unlock smoother.
My baling wire fix for the carb choke diaphragm thingies were still going strong (as long as the originals lasted?) But, we got new ones from Benito in Santiago, so I figured I’d go ahead and put them in.
Still, as soon as I removed baling wire patches on two places on the bus, I had to pull out the baling wire again. I was trying to fix the pop-top front catch bit (it didn’t align correctly and had to be pushed in with a long screwdriver each time we closed the top) and managed to break off my spare tire mount. It was held on by a combination of rubber compression nuts and rivets, but they finally decided to give up. Now, it’s baling wire. Use what you got.
I changed the oil after about 500 miles on the new piston set and found that my new magnetic drain plug had hair. Scary.
And, while I was down there, I found that my transmission is leaking. I noticed it was getting harder to shift just this week… and now a leak.. I’ve never touched a transmission (heck, the Bentley says that you never even have to change the fluid – what about after 40 years?) and this project doesn’t interest me at all.
Bus projects are starting to get old. Usually, when we meet people, they tell us about all the great places they’ve been. We tell them about all the places we’ve worked on the bus.
Posted on November 22, 2011 by jason
So, this is how we spent our Sunday…
We headed over to our new friend Ignacio’s family’s house to do some work on the bus. The plan was to drop the engine, break it down, and replace the pistons and cylinders. We were already on our 3rd set of piston rings, had low compression on #1, and suspected a minor oil leak (already) since the rebuild in Mendoza. It was the right time and location to swap for a new piston set. Moreover, with our plan of driving south all the way within 1000 km of Antarctica, we figured we should really make sure the engine was ready for the trip.
I think I told Ignacio that I could do all of the the work in a day and be finished in 6 hours – I was wrong and it took about eight. We ended up sleeping in the driveway, but we did manage to leave the next morning.
Everyone was incredibly generous and gracious and we really appreciate their willingness to allow us to invade their home for the day. Heck, they even fed us lunch and dinner. I don’t now how we continue to get so lucky – thanks everyone!
We’ve put a few miles on the engine since then and have a few early results. There’s a really loud valve slapping noise on the right side of the motor – no clue what’s going on there – I cleaned the heads, but otherwise didn’t touch the valves. I replaced the front main seal, but the oil leak is still there. Compression? I’ll check it mañana.
Posted on September 13, 2011 by jason
While Bode and Angela stayed home and made cake, I went to the shop and built the engine. I’ll leave out the minutia of building the engine – there’s already enough VW porn in the world and I’m already a major offender. However, I’ll offer a few random thoughts and observations.
The machine shop screwed up the case. That’s a bit strong, I guess, but they did over-machine it. I started with a formerly new standard case and crank that should have been machined to 0.25. It was machined to 0.50. Earlier in the week, we called when it was supposed to be done and they said they couldn’t find the right bearings. I think what they probably meant was that they screwed it up and had to run it again – and go find the next size bearings. The machine work is fine, but I’m a little miffed that I just lost one rev on the motor… and they didn’t say a word about it.
Since we couldn’t ever find a new piston/cylinder set, we have to just go with new rings and honed cylinders. But, the ‘honing’ looks a lot like somebody just went over them with steel wool. And, one cylinder has a pretty serious gouge down it. But, what to do? I’ve been told repeatedly that I have to go to Chile or Buenos Aires to buy new cylinders*. All the tolerances on the cylinders with the new rings check out, so we’ll just put them back in and see what happens. Maybe we’ll be able to drive to Chile to get those new cylinders.
Boiling oil. When assembling your crank, dip your camshaft drive and worm gear in boiling oil. They slide right on. Besides, when else are you going to boil oil for something?
The beard is seriously kicking in. I’ve never been a beard guy and this is probably the longest I’ve ever let it go. It definitely adds to the bum look I’ve been fostering lately – I even think people are starting to treat me differently. Someone literally walked up to me and offered me farm work the other day – they thought I might be looking for a job.
Mendoza is the world capital of Ford Falcons. Seriously. There’s one on every block. The 60′s must have the heyday for importing vehicles. Cool old cars everywhere – just no old VW’s.
The machine shop total was 1800 pesos. That included line boring the case, re-working the heads and new valve guides, honing the cylinders, new rings, and new bearings. Throw in another 80 pesos for gaskets (bought from Beto – no one had them), 100 pesos for adhesives/oil/etc and 300 pesos for a new muffler (random and welded on). So, the total cost for the rebuild was about $550 USD. Not bad… but we still probably need to replace the pistons and cylinders. We’ll see.
*we’ve been told by multiple people to not attempt shipping anything from the US. We might be charged huge arbitrary ‘taxes’ that far exceed the value of the stuff once it arrives, or the parts may simply disappear somewhere in the system. The major international carriers like UPS and Fed-Ex use 3rd party couriers here, which we are told are not trustworthy. Even if the contents couldn’t possibly have any value to the courier, they might still take it. We have no idea if any of this is correct, but we decided to not take our chances.
Posted on September 4, 2011 by jason
Thanks to everyone who has emailed, commented or offered help regarding our recent engine woes. We’re waiting on the machine shop and thinking hard about improvements we can make the next time around – the list keeps growing.
Lot’s of the suggestions had to do with cooling, and I would have to say that the engine never ran hot – even in the jungles, deserts or climbing the Andes (and we’ve been cross-crossing the Andes for almost a year.) Still, we’ll take the expected care when putting everything back together to ensure proper cooling.
The most reasonable consensus is that we’re getting dirt in the motor. The air filters aren’t that great and the extra scoops are sucking in extra dust. I have to agree with both of those. What to do about it is a little difficult, though.
I always hated the scoops – I kept them thinking that the extra cooling wouldn’t hurt. Well, the cooling didn’t hurt, but maybe the extra filth did.
At the time, I had borrowed a MIG from a friend of a neighbor (thanks, Doug!) for the weekend and had done about all the welding I could stand. There was an A/C cut into the roof, an extra gas tank on the driver’s side, all sorts of holes and things to patch up… and I’m no welder. It was a long weekend – I dug up some more photos to remind myself why I didn’t just weld over the scoop holes (last 6 pics below). Anyway, now that it’s a bit too late for that, I think I might just cut up some sheet metal and screw on some flat panels to cover them up. We’ll see how much cleaner the engine compartment and carb filters get.
I’ll also look around for some oil bath filters and might try to rig something up there as well. Can’t hurt. But, this might have to wait for Chile or Brazil. Contrary to popular belief (mine, anyway) finding VeeDub parts in Argentina is extremely difficult. We’re now being told that there are no new bearings in town – kinda critical.
I hear it gets easier to find parts in B.A. (i.e. closer to Brazil) but in the rest of the country, they are pretty rare. Nobody imports ACVW’s because of the extremely high import duties levied to try to ‘encourage’ residents to buy new cars manufactured in the country (like Citroen & Fiat!) I hear there is a $5000 USD ‘tax’ to permanently import an outside vehicle. Likewise, the VW parts that are available are extremely expensive – so we’re getting nothing new and re-machining it all. Hopefully it will be good quality work and will last (at least until Brazil).
Until the machined parts are ready and we find bearings, all I we can do is wait. We’re checking out the parks and museums, and continuing to clean things up…
Posted on September 2, 2011 by jason
Beto and his wife Kuki welcomed us with open arms, fed us, and let us pop the top in their driveway until we could figure out what to do next.
The next morning, after rearranging several VW’s, we pulled the bus into the shop and dropped the engine. After a few hours, everything was apart and we even split the case – too much play in the crank. The front main bearing (thrust bearing?) was a little wobbly, so this means we will have to line-bore the case.
The increasing oil consumption and low compression also meant that we would re-do the heads and piston/cylinders too. We knew we would do at least this from the beginning. Overall, a pretty major overhaul, considering it’s our house and we’re stuck until it’s all completed.
In all, we got somewhere around 30K miles on the new engine we bought in Portland. Sure, we ventured to some pretty extreme locations, but the engine didn’t have any idea where we were. We changed the oil continuously, adjusted the valves and tuned it up religiously. The bearings wore out after 30K because… ?
If we were in the U.S. and lived in an actual permanent home, this wouldn’t be such a big deal. Transport yourself thousands of miles from home, where you don’t really speak the language, don’t know anyone, don’t know how or where to get things done, and are sleeping the vehicle you are about to remove the engine from… and well, it’s a slightly bigger deal.
Anyway, the really cool thing is that we’ve got help. We had never met Beto and only corresponded by email a day prior. He doesn’t know us from Adam. Now, we’re sleeping in his driveway (they offered a bedroom,) we’re sharing dinner, vino and mate, Bode is best friends with the dogs (Tobi and Gala circle the bus at night waiting for him to come out and play). And, we’re communicating (often poorly) solely in Spanish.
Every so often I venture outside of my normal thought process and wonder, “How the Hell did I get here?” Not literally – I know the answer to that one – but in the bigger scheme of life, you have to appreciate all the random or unplanned events that shape your future. Often, your entire life. Somewhere in here was one of those moments… and it’s pretty awesome.
Since the engine was out, apart and diagnosed before lunch, all we had to do now was take a 4 hour lunch break. We went to the park, sipped some more mate, then returned to the shop and cleaned up.
We’ll deliver everything to Beto’s favorite machine shop in the morning.
Posted on August 25, 2011 by jason
We headed a bit out of our way and up to the sugar cane fields of San Miguel de Tucuman. We really had no intention of coming this way, but wanted to check a few projects off the bus list.
One the way into town, we couldn’t help but notice the largest retailer in the world has a presence here. Again, haven’t seen one of these since Mexico. The farther south we drive, the more it feels like we’re getting closer to the U.S. instead of farther away.
We pulled in and had a look around. 9 bucks for a quart of oil. 10 bucks for a can of air (to clean the camera sensor.) You gotta do what you gotta do.
Since they had a garage, I went over to talk to the guys and see if they knew where to get some bus parts. They were pretty bored (zero customers) and were eager to help. I learned a new word – rulemanes – by explaining that I was looking for “little balls for the wheels.” They knew what I meant.
They wanted to take a look for themselves and before we knew it, the bus was up on a lift at Wal-Mart in Argentina and we had a crowd. It turned out that one of the guys saw us on the road to Tilcara and also saw us camping there. He said he waved to us on the road and I actually remember him. He also said that he saw us in a magazine, but neither one of us could figure out where it could have been. Weird.
Anyway, after an hour of having 5 guys poke at the bus, they finally agreed that we did need new bearings. At least there was consensus. The problem was, nobody knew where to find them. They were busy doing internet searches on their phones, but then ultimately told us to go to the local VW dealer.
As crazy as it sounds, I went to the VW dealer. Of course, they thought I was an idiot bringing my 40 year-old German combi to their dealership, but they did recommend a parts dealer across town. Okay, I’m an idiot.
“El Rey” on the corner of Las Piedras and Alem is the place. Luis, the owner, was super friendly and promised to help with anything we needed while we were in town. Of course, he didn’t have the bearings either, but had a guy deliver them on motorcycle within 15 minutes. He also set us up with a mechanic to install them the next morning. We went to find a cheap place to sleep and realized we would be staying in a neighborhood surrounded by rodamientos shops. Another new word for the day. Ironic.
They next morning, I went to meet Hugo. Also, an incredibly nice guy. His guys went to work as we sipped mate and tried to chat for a few hours. The new bearings went in without issue and he promised to help me with the next thing on our list. He hopped in the bus and we drove across town to the D’Mayo brother’s shop. We had a leaking brake servo and these guys knew brake servos. But, it was lunch time. Everything shuts down for 4 hours. We said goodbye to Hugo and he tells me that if I need anything while in town, just call him.
The four hour lunch break is a two sided coin. You can’t get anything done in the middle of the day. On the other hand, you can’t get anything done in the middle of the day. It’s time to go sit at a cafe like everyone else.
The funny thing is that even dinky little convenience stores are set up like cafes. Go buy your soda and if you want to drink it there, they give you an actual glass. How civilized. They even have tables and chairs on the sidewalk. You could sit and watch the world go by, except that there’s nothing happening… you just watch the people at the cafe across the street.
Anyway, 4 hours later I went back to see the D’Mayo brothers and they went to work. They told me that there are probably only 2 or 3 other air-cooled VW’s in town, so finding the right parts to fix the servo could be a problem. While they were under the car, they also discovered that I’ve broken another shock – it’s what I do – I kill shocks. So, I left to walk around town and tried to locate another shock. No luck.
When I returned, one brother rode off on his bike to find a new boot for the servo – the old one was ripped. The other brother started telling me of his love for Kenny Rogers and old Star Trek episodes. And, he says he’s related to Joe DiMaggio. The family changed some letters in the name to D’Mayo when they moved to Argentina. Makes sense to me.
When the new boot arrived, it didn’t fit, so he rode off to go look for another. I walked off with the shock and went looking for a welder. I found a muffler shop, and since they had every size of pipe and tube imaginable, they could fabricate a new end for the shock – all for free.
By 10pm or so, the bus was back on the street and ready to go.
Now, it doesn’t stall when I hit the brakes… and we’ve got some real brakes now. Head-jerkers. And, there’s no more knocking and grinding bearings from the back wheel.
It was a long day, but mission(s) accomplished. Now, there’s just one item more on the list – and it’s a big one.
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