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go ahead its not a big deal

In cleaning my friend Peter found his good alternators and figured out the one he had passed off to me was his one known bad one well after installing my new voltage regulator installed in one of his good alternators and installed in the van we fired the van up and I gave the alternator a jump start off the positive terminal and the field was started after that lots of thing started working better fusers second battery got a nice recharge and was starting the van easier after a bit of a charge from the alternator and the alternator was self exciting too . So after that I went and purchased myself a new battery and put that in closed the battery cover and finally slid the seat all the way back. I helped my finish fixing my sisters exhaust I made sure to put the jumper wire for my Subaru in the center console (at least I have not needed that for a while) so my mother can drive that this week while my father works on her Forester. She gets to drive that because I have the Vanagon with me in RI will get some pictures for proof tomorrow . It was a happily uneventful drive down though my father requested I call him ever half hour to make sure I did not have any issues.

Well I am a little over due for an update as things have happened in the interim with the Syncro. It started with a letter from the state of Rhode Island where the van is now registered apparently if you don't inspect the car and pass within about 2 months and it seems it has already been over a month . So I have until the 21st to pass inspection so I made an appointment last week and had the van inspected on Friday I failed on 4 points. The front brake rotors were rotted and warped (knew at least one was warped), the front brake lines were dry rotted, the power steering lines were rotted and leaking (the front half of the lines are a little crusty but not leaking when they blow they really blow and had a slight drip at the hose coupling), and the biggest issue that I had a feeling was going to happen I failed emissions ( I think it is from a leaking collector and the distributor looks a bit burned) So time to order parts first I ordered some brake pads, rotors, and hoses from Van Cafe turns out they will not get here until Monday . so I was on the hunt for rubber Power Steering Lines (many years ago around 199? we had the rear half of the hard lines fail my father tried to replace them with rubber lines but did not know he needed to have the hoses made by a hydraulic shod to deal with the pressure and ended up buying the from VW and having the shipped from Austria and installing them) I wanted to buy the really nice set of TOS that I wanted to get:


But never heard back from the seller so on Tuesday morning I ordered the set from Vanagain as well as another set of front brake hoses and did 3 day shipping on that to make sure I had that for the weekend.


The hope is to install the new power steering hoses and bleed those this weekend and then pull the front apart install the new hoses and get everything free to just do a quick pad and rotor swap on Monday night. Next is to look into the failed emissions starting with my inspection last Sunday while my wife was at work. I looked into the rough running a bit to find that the cap looked a bit burned and the rotor had a noticeable burn on it but the plugs looked fine. So I ordered up a new cap rotor and plug wires to swap out to see if I can take care of the miss at idol. I noticed some steam pouring out of the collector one cold morning so that will come apart and get some new gaskets and some copper sealant to try and seal that up to help the rich running at idol. Hopefully after all this work I can pass inspection and not have to work on registering it under my parents name again in Mass.

And here is a picture of me waiting with the van while Fuser went and grabbed a battery to help me get to transporter fest

So now that the Inspection update has happened time for the story of last night. so on my way home I had to brake a bit harder than I normally do (with those awful brakes that failed inspection) and the engine just died . So I rolled the van in to the end of some ones driveway off the side of the road and I start looking for the problem, last Sunday when I was working on the van when ever I bumped the wires going into the relay box the van would stall I leaned some things and thought it was ok so that is where I paid my most attention to. I also noticed that with the key on I never heard the fuel pump cycle so knew I wasn’t getting power to the fuel pump. I also realized I had no work lights in the van they were all at the apartment so I managed to push the van accross the street and into a parking lot. I grabbed my work laptop and locked the van up luckily only about a half mile from home I walked home to gather some lights and my spare fuses. After riding back to the van I started digging in first looking for any obvious issues including looking at the backside of the glove box and the ignition switch for any obvious issues. Next I got out my multi meter and started probing things in the engine compartment checking for voltage in my small black boxes. I finally figured out I was not getting any switching power to my relays then I checked for voltage at the black wired in the primary wiring junction and found 12 volts I think I found the issue traced wires to find the wire I had repaired the terminal on that hooks to the coil had no connection apparently I had made a bad crimp and the wire just fell out . Luckily the terminal was still usable as I had no spares with me so I crimped the connector on using my GOOD crimpers put it all back together and turned the key and we had success . In the end it was my fault but I felt really good about fixing it on the side of the road, well, parking lot all on my own and driving it back to the apartment under its own power.

and then?

well time to dust off this thread now that my forester is all assembled and on the road time to get back to the Vanagon. so after fixing my little electrical issue and passing the state inspection I don’t need to worry about inspection for another 2 years. Before inspection I had to replace the power steering lines and did the entire front brakes from the line at the firewall (my feet under the front of the van) to the rotors one wanted to stay on the van

I also had failed for emissions so I went and worked with Fuser and his exhaust gas analyzer to try and get it tuned better but to no real avail y idol was still really far off. I took it to get it inspected and it passed because they had as hard a time in November getting the Exhaust Gas analyzer up to temp as Fuser and I did



This brings us up to Tuesday before Thanksgiving and I was feeling Great the Vanagon is running awesome and now fully registered and inspected everything was going great…..

So after passing inspection it was time to head home for thanksgiving and the first time the wife would be riding with me in the van…. And it got a tummy ake on the highway and the cooling system went all wanky I managed to get off the highway when the gauge started rising rather fast well after that I was not able to keep the heat going on the highway it would not flow at all and the gauge climbed with the grade made it home with a grumpy car and a grumpy wife. I tried to drive the van and it didn’t go well and the latest drive showed the cooling system not right. Since I bought another car in October to put together for a DD the van was put aside . Well after finding out the engine in my new car actually had a bad bearing:


I Picked up another engine and went through that to make a car I would not have to work on for a while I did head gaskets, oil pan, clutch, radiator, timing belt set, and a few other odd bits pieces and gaskets. I did however try to reuse the head bolts, and I read the 132 inLb and tried to apply 132 ftLb well it did not work so well and I had to remove the broken piece:


Well after getting the piece of head bolt out of the engine I put the heads on right and put the engine in the car:


Well I finally got the money for the Legacy that will get the used clutch from the Forester and go to my little brother when they get him insurance and I have put all the little stuff the Forester needed together So time to overhaul some of the old parts of the Vanagon cooling system I put a small order into Van Café :

Item Qty
Differential Flange Lock Ring 1
Drive Flange Cap 2
Drive Axle Seal (Manual) 1
Accelerator Cable 1
Rear Seat Heater Core 1
A/C Heater Fan Motor 1
Rear Seat Heater Core Bleeder Valve with O-Ring 1
Rear Seat Heater Core Control Valve O-Ring 1
Rear Seat Heater Core Control Valve 1
Front Heater Core Coolant Control Valve 1
Water Pump 2.1L 1
Thermostat - 87 degree (stock) temperature 1
Flange Gasket for 90 degree coolant elbow 2
Outlet Gasket - Multiple Locations. 3
Reservoir Cap - for pressurized bottle 3
Mudflap Hardware Kit 4
Cross Arm Shaft Bushing Kit 2
Heater Core Hose Tee 2
Thermostat O-Ring 1

Also I will be ordering a new front Heater core, and a stainless steel junction T but I at least need to wait for payday Friday and will probably wait 1 more week for those and I have a set of stainless steel lines to go front to back and some used steel bleeder loops for the engine bay (I plan to eliminate as much plastic as possible

someones busy!

This weekend was time to spend some quality time on my grandparents 87 Westy, it had a leaking rear heater core and now that I had a spare new rear core and valve I figured it was a sign. Gave the Vanagon its yearly oil change and will drive it around this week to make sure it is good for the summer. also spent time swaping trailer hitches around on the foresters picking up my sisters new car and a buggy and sleigh that was being given to some friends but Ya I have been spending a fair number of weekends in the garage.

Well Time for an update on the Syncro after putting the hose clamp on and swapping out the thermostat I could not keep the system from boiling and overheating a short drive so time to install those parts started by pulling the dashboard and cleaning up the wiring and pulling out the heater box. So after getting the dashboard loose I found the PO had stuffed a lot of wiring under the dash with the removable head unit what a headache I had to get my father too look at it after I revealed it all and ask him why his response he is not as good as I am now was my chance to clean up what he did oh inheriting the old family van. Well after cleaning up the radio wiring cleaning all the grounds and replacing their spade I installed the headlight relay kit and cleaned up my fog light wiring. Next I swapped out the water pump and did one Heater T. Next once it comes in is the new heater core and putting the Dash back together then new hard lines front to back (going with SS over plastic, have a new SS distribution tower on its way the plastic heater T's are being replaced with metal and the plastic bleeder loop has been replaced with a used steel one we shall see if this makes any difference. I also plan to replace the oring on the rear heater and the bleeder valve along with the front heater valve. Hopefully with a hole in the thermostat and all this work getting rid of all the plastic I can drive the van for a little longer this time

So a few weeks ago i found a beautiful set of Mercedes CLK wheels for a fair price and they are clean



So after getting the wheels I needed to get the 37/64 drill bit to enlarge the lug holes to fil the 14 mill hardware (still need to get the lug nuts

(If any on the New England guys want to borrow the drill bit let me know)

Well on to what I have been working on with the van to try to get it back up and running I pulled the dash to install a new heater core and blower motor

new copper core from Van Cafe to replace the old aluminum one (not leaking but for the work was not putting a used one back in)

A quick view of the spaghetti that was hiding


Next after installing the new core and blower motor it was time to re attach the two halves of the heater box, I was not interested in buying the clips to try and clip it together so I grabbed some good glue I had in the garage Weather-strip adhesive here it is with c clamps and vise grips while it set up:


Well after putting the dash in and out a few times trying to get thing routed right and remembering all the pieces


After getting it all put together reasonably I went to check the operation of things and nothing worked well I figured I could not have screwed everything in the dash up so having been playing with things through the project I figured go to the source .68 volts on the battery well through the battery on the charger for a while and found thing started to come alive.

I am also attacking the cooling system to rid it of plastic which includes the lines that run front to back, heater T's, the bleeder loop, front heater core, and the distribution unit behind the firewall. While swapping out the water pump it was a good time to swap the plastic ring for one of the used steel ones I had around, you can see the old plastic one and the other steel one hanging here:


Here you can see the SS distribution unit and a plastic T and a Steel T you can also see some of the caps I am trying to figure out if any of them work all are rather new or new in the package



(edited one time on 1/25/2013 to add the last missing picture)

classy, I have a 1/2 one I wiggled around iirc to make em fit. or I 17/32. either way the merc wheels I found (free) turned out to be more expensive to mount than just buying decent ones at a yard, as I needed longer studs. Now I'm on the fence of 16 vs 15. also I found some brand new steeel wheels that are cheap! gonna do a 930 CV conversion in the rear first, then think about wheels again.

Well I finally got around to getting the coolant system back together and hopefully pretty close to bled maybe next weekend I will actually get a chance to drive it for a change also got by fathers bug in better tune and did the timing belt water pump and oil pump on my mothers forester.

Did you drill those CLK rims yet? From what I understand you're not supposed to with a regular drill. Wheel shops charge about $400-500 because they put inserts in them after machining the holes bigger.

I have the same set of wheels on my '66 after I converted to 5 x 112mm but wound up replacing the studs on the rotors and drums with thinner ones and centering lugs (for a Honda accord I believe). Cost about $150 for the studs and lug nuts.

NOT AN ENGINEER OR A LAWYER: but my feeling is it Depends how they center. Vw wheels center on the lug, but use the bevle of the nut and rim to center, so as long as there is enough bevel to still center the wheel i feel you should be fine. Chevy wheels tthat center on a shoulder on the lug, where the nut fits tight thru the hole, pay a shop. Wheels that center on the hub, well ive never seen em but i assume you can drill those to your hearts content