Date:         Tue, 21 May 96 22:51 CDT
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Joel Danke <JDANKE@macc.wisc.edu>
Subject:      Tune Up into CV repair story

Hi, peoples.
 
This last weekend was spent elbow-deep in my bus ('77).  As with
most time spent with our busses, the days turned into nights,
and minor setbacks and successes took on a larger scale than
perhaps warranted.
 
The main job was to perform the tune-up which I had delayed
throughout the winter and (much colder than average) spring.
The bus had been subject to its first Chicago winter, and I am
appalled at the amount of salt this area dumps onto its roadways!
The corrosion had begun to inhibit the electrical connections, so
a good scraping was also in order.
 
I began (bright and early!) by reviewing what I needed to do, and
performed a very thoughtful and easy-paced inspection of the engine
bay and surrounding environs. "Ahh!" I said. "Look at the carbon on
the plugs. Hmm... What is that pip on the points?  Ahh, I see."
Then, crawling underneath for the visual inspection; what to my
wondering eyes did appear, but a split CV boot and grease far and near!
Actually, there wasn't all that much grease, and there seemed to
be plenty inside the boot. Looks like I caught it in time.
 
My previous experience with CV joints was repacking those in a
Rabbit Diesel I have that used to run before I let my sisters get
hold of it.  Actually, I didn't actually repack them so much as
hang around while my dad repacked them, dropped the bearings all
over, swore, sweated, and grunted, sheared off the special star
socket, swore some more, tried to force the joint back into order,
and so on.  I briefly thought about wrapping the boot in Saran Wrap,
but my conscience got the better of me and I added two new boots
to the shopping list.
 
Onto my trusty bike, and pedal pedal pedal to a parts store. I get
the boots, but no Bosch.  OK, I'll just try these other two nearby
stores.  No Bosch.  Well, there's always TRAK. Lots of Bosch (and
there was much rejoicing)! Closer inspection revealed that they
only carried the condenser and points. Plenty of plugs, wires, caps,
and rotors, but none for the bus. And, no, they can't order any other
Bosch stuff, except the stuff they stock.  Very wacky.  Why on earth
would they stock the points and condenser, but nothing else for the
vehicle?  Another imponderable mystery of the universe to keep me
company as I bike around to a couple more stores and fix-it shops.
No luck.  And, oh yeah, the parts counter at the VW dealer a block
from my house is closed on Saturdays.  Satisfaction is job 43, right
after throwing in a mountain bike with a new Jetta. (No, I'm sorry,
but you can't upgrade to an OCLV.)
 
Anyway, it's plenty late, so I head home with Autolite plugs
(and a tube of anti-sieze) and start gapping and adjusting and
installing and scraping.  Get the tune-up part done right before
dark, check that the bus starts, idles OK (not great, but better)
and calls it a day.  I've gotta get those wires (just for completeness).
 
Sunday morning, bright and early, I trek out to my bus with the
6mm allen socket (I got lucky -- no starfangled recessed head cap
bolts for me!) and a sharp pointy thing and get to work.  Because I
was so smart yesterday, I had doused the bolt areas with Liquid Wrench
to ease the pain.  Scrape, scrape, blow! and carefully loosen the
bolts while watching to ensure the bolt was turning instead of rounding
out.  Twenty minutes later I'm back at the ranch scraping off grease
and struggling with the circlip.  Luckily, I was able to stop the first
one from its aerial escape by knocking it to the ground with my left
eye.  The reflexes of youth!  I'm staring at the shaft wondering how
hard I need to pound on it when I give the star a tenative pull and
it slides almost all the way off! Cool!
 
The joint looks OK (SAE definition, of course) to my eyes; just a
little black & blue, and definitely not as smooth of bearing surfaces
as I see on my bike stuff.  But I make a decision, based partly on the
fact that I don't want to drop the dough at this moment for a new joint.
The grease was a little "loose," but not rusty or gritty, so I was
lucky.  If any of youse think that the surfaces should be very smooth
instead of "not tore up," please let me know so I can start saving
pronto.  Oh, yeah, another observation is that the Previous Owner,
who also had rebuilt the engine, had a fairly conscientious demeanor.
The CV joints had previously been repacked, and they have small chisel
marks to prove it. (much like the punch marks on the rods and pistons.)
 
Reassembly was accompanied by my constant repitions of "easy, now... easy"
as I thoughtfully tilted the outer part while inserting the bearings.
It reminded me of those "old-timey" puzzles made of iron or wire, with
loops and such that can be separated only a certain way.
 
The near disaster came as I was lying underneath the bus and installing
the driveshaft.  Start a couple of bolts to hold the wheel side, and then
start the bolt into the tranny side.  It won't match up! I didn't pay
attention and didn't put the star onto the shaft correctly! Oh no! Panic!
Panic! Panic!
 
I walked half a block to my apartment to get my tools and workstand when
my mammalian brain kicked in.  "If the transmission is not connected to
the wheel, and the bus is moved to and fro, then the alignement of the...
Wait, wait, I got it!"  Near-disaster of needless work avoided! Woo-hoo!
I *ran* back to the bus in joy.  Now I know why the crossmember of the
frame has those holes cut in it -- handles for pulling the bus around
while lying underneath!
 
So, all in all, the repairs went smoothly and quickly.  I was soon heading
out to a bike race with plenty of time to spare.  Of course, that's when
the bus completely died unexpectedly; a recurrance of a problem I hoped
had gone away.  This is that problem which everyone gets sometime -- the
mysterious "fart" or "misfire" as it has most recently been called.
 
So I spent many hours in a K-Mart parking lot testing my fuel injection
system with no success.  I blame the temperature sender II located on
the cylinder head, even though it demonstrates 1500 Ohm resistance.
I found that terminal 9 on the air intake sensor was loose, the dual
relay seemed to be operating correctly, and the grounds were solidly
connected and clean. I also found that the juice to the injectors
increased with the throttle (a crude test I know), and the timing and
point gap were still OK.
 
I need to completely replace the vacuum hoses, instead of just cutting
off the split ends, assemble a fuel pressure guage, and spend more time
with the air intake, including the temperature sender and flap.
 
This post has gone on long enough, though, so I'll stick to the point
by saying that my bus really exemplifies the Facts of Life. (You take
the good, you take the bad, add them up and there you have the Facts
of Life -- wasn't that written by Alan Thicke?)  Also, that if I were
able to perform the repacking of CV joints in only a couple of hours,
I am fully capable of tackling the other hurdles thrown at me by my
happy little bus.  It really is happy, and though it has been beaten
up by a drunk driver, and sways way too much in a crosswind, it makes
me smile every time I walk to it.
 
Watch for an upcoming story on The Hunt For the Component Which Causes
My Bus to Stall and Die, Yet Permits Full and Normal Operation Only
Moments Later, Though the Bus is Sometimes Hard to Restart.
 
 
joel danke