Colin travels all around the country teaching people how to work on their VW buses and this week he was in Portland. He got here just after 9am and I had a list of things I wanted to accomplish. We started off in our kitchen over a cup of black coffee and he explained to me the inner workings of the rotor and distributor/coil.. how a 12 volt spark turns in to many thousands of volts thanks to a magnetic field that is formed with the coil, points, and lots of other things working together and in a perfectly arranged dance. Colin makes beautiful drawings to explain the complex automotive workings. They we talked about the AFM or Air Flow Meter... it's a complex instrument located above the air intake on the engine and it allows you to vary the richness or leanness of the combustion. You can adjust it so the mixture of air and gas is consistent at different speeds or rpms.. or you can adjust a different part so the mixture can vary according to speed.
Then we walked outside and put the drawings into practice. Over the course of the day and into the night here is what we did:
Intalled new valve cover gaskets.. Easy
Centered Hydraulic Lifters... Tricky
Replaced Push Rod Seals... tough
Clean and gapped points.. easy
Set Dwell to 46 degrees.. easy
Timing 7.5 degrees BTDC
Adjusted mixture screw and AFM as I was running very lean.
Reduced idle from 1800 RPM to 1050.
Adjusted clutch freeplay
Adjusted rear brakes and E-brake (which now actually works!)
Test drive
Repaired muffler clamp
Installed a Hot Start Relay which worked the 1st time!!!
Replaced air filter
Repaired my dash light behind heater controls
Compression test...
#1 115 #2 135 #3 95/140 (with oil) #4 145
(yes #3 is in trouble.. but we think it's rings and not real worried yet.)
Installed new spark plugs!!!
I tried to get away with not doing a whole lot, but Colin would have none of it. And I can honestly say I did half the work. Just setting the hydrallic lifters was a very technical precise thing.. careful to only turn the screws 1 1/2 turns to get the exact location of where they need to be centered.
But now I think I have a pretty good grasp of some of the basics. I think I could adjust the timing on my bus all by myself... simply loosening the screw that holds the distributor and then turning it ever so gently to reach that 7.5 degrees with a timing light.
I could replace the points with no problem and could also do the valve cover gaskets which are pretty darn easy.
I still have to do two push rod seals on #4 because the push rod tubes wouldn't come out when we tried.. so I'll have to cut out the push rod tubes and install new ones.
I learned the firing order of the engine which is 1-4-3-2.. and I learned the location of the cylinders.. right front is 1... right back is 2.. left front is 3 and left back is 4.
Anyway, I'm probably boring you with all this, but some fellow bus folks thought it was pretty interesting and came by to give some moral support.
Then we did a test drive and I watched Colin double clutch to put minimal stress on the clutch and transmission. He says always shift with your foot off the gas, get it in gear, then add gas. Add as little gas a possible when starting off in first gear.. don't downshift when coming up to a red light.. coast as much as possible, then shift into the right gear at the right time... don't keep your foot on the clutch at a stop light.. always put it in neutral.
Finally at the end of the night, we went back inside after 13 hours of hard work and reviewed the day. We listed all we had accomplished and it was a big list. There were some things we didn't get to.. like changing out the fuel lines, but I will now venture forward and do those on my own.
Colin said good bye as he drove his little blue bus down the street approaching a half million miles!!!! And as tired as I was, I could not resist taking it on my own late night test drive... going off into the Oregon night with a contentedly purring engine. We never did find the source of that little clank and I may have some troubles up ahead with my #3 cylinder.. but Colin thinks this little bus will keep rolling down the road for many years to come with the right care. I thought about what he said about that low compression #3. He said he thought the engine was pissed off for running too lean for too long and too hot. And said, "Who knows, it may come around."
I hope Colin returns someday as well, to further my knowledge of these buses that not only provide a way to get from here to there and back.. but also a place to sleep, eat and gather.. protected from the elements... as we explore our beautiful Northwest countryside.
Thanks Itinerant Air-Cooled!!!
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