Date: Thu, 13 Nov 2003 10:08:18 -0500
Reply-To: Jay Brown <jayb@COEDSPORTSWEAR.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Jay Brown <jayb@COEDSPORTSWEAR.COM>
Subject: Re: Newby questions
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Hey Skip,
Looks like you have a fairly customized van. From the pics you posted I
would guess that someone made these changes to make the van more capable of
comfortable year round camping. While it is not all original, it looks like
they did a pretty decent job with the changes they made over the years.
Your fridge is not the original style that came in your van. As far as I
know, Westfalia never used that type of external vent door for their fridges
in VW's, they used a simple round vent with a mushroom type cover. At some
point the original fridge probably died and someone tucked a standard RV
unit in its place. The good news is that the fridge in your photo looks
like it has more volume than the toy fridge that came in most campers.
The heater appears to be a standard small RV furnace. I can't tell from the
picture, but it has the same general appearance as the Suburban line of RV
heaters (probably 6,000-10,000BTU). There should be a thermostat of some
sort (usually just a little dial type) somewhere in the van that must be
turned on to run it. These heaters almost always run off propane and
sometimes have a dual input power source to drive the blower. That way if
you are camping in a campground you can use 110v and save your battery.
Beleive it or not, the jack is actually supposed to be that way. As you
jack the van up it will change the jacking angle past 90 degrees, so a
regular jack will not work properly. As long as the jack is pushed into the
jack point fully you shouldn't have any trouble with it. If you would like
to get a vastly superior jack, vistit www.busdepot.com and check out their
scissor jack. I have them in both of my vans now and will never go back to
the original design.
Your water tank appears to be roughly the same as the style offered for the
Canadian market. It should have a small pump plumbed thru the side of the
tank. If it is not working, you might be able to access the pump area by
removing the fridge unit to get a better look at things.
The hot start problem is usually fairly simple to fix. First, make sure
that your battery is holding a good charge. Many garages and parts stores
can load test it for you free of charge. Next verify that all of the
connections from the battery to the starter are clean and tight. Give your
battery terminals a quick cleaning with a wire brush and dab a little
vaseline on them to keep them happy. Leave the negative battery terminal
off for now and check out the starter connections. On the starter remove the
connectors (one at a time so they don't get mixed up) and clean them up as
much as possible before reinstalling them. Since most of these connections
are exposed to the elements and have electricity running thru them they
often corrode quite badly and have trouble passing enough juice. Go back
and reconnect the negative battery terminal and give it a try. If you still
have trouble with hot starts after everything has been cleaned and
tightened, you should probably install the Bosch WR1 Hot Start Relay. It is
available from many parts vendors, Bus Depot sells them for $6.95 as I
recall.
Hope this helps,
Jay Brown
'72 Riviera
'85 Westfalia
http://www.geocitites.com/vwcamper72
