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This bus definitely has gremlins. “Gremlins… You got-you gotta watch out for them forgeiners cuz they plant gremlins in their machinery.” Gremlins, 1984

Haha, that movie is seriously terrifying… Went to start the bus this week, chug chug chug – it wouldn’t start! I think maybe it was flooded so I grab the carb cleaner, spray a good amount into the carb and try to start the engine again – it starts, but it wasn’t happy.  I do a test drive around the parking lot, everything seems ok – park the bus, attempt to start it again to test it – this time – nothing!

Ok fast forward a couple days – try the bus again, it doesn’t start, doesn’t even turn over.  I start in on the Muir checklist of what to do when the engine doesn’t start – I checked the coil – it sparked so thats good, I adjusted the auto-choke – it needed reset after John and I messed with everything last week.  I tried rolling the bus backwards in 3rd gear (this has never worked for me, but yet I still try it optimistically every time!)  Finally I decided it’s either the ignition switch or the starter. Its easier to check the starter, and sure enough, I climb under the bus and immediately notice a loose wire hanging down  “there’s your problem right thar!”  Looks like the wire that comes from the ignition switch worked its way loose – a gremlin. Reconnect it, bus fires right up – I mess with the choke a little, drive around the neighborhood, and call it a day.

It makes me nervous because even though this was an easy fix, I have this sense of foreboding every time I drive it that them gremlins are just waiting to get me.  I’m thinking that I won’t be fully confident in this bus until I’ve checked or replaced just about everything on it – sounds like fun!

Went to a car show in LaSalle with a few VW guys today.  We had a ton of fun – beautiful day, cool cars, nice people!

I decided not to drive the bus to the show given how far it was and the possibility of afternoon rain (which definitely materialized!)  A group of guys from the Harsh Winters VW Club drove down to LaSalle, Illinois for a car show; we all had a really good time!

My friend’s perfectly restored 23 window Samba won Best Import – sweet!

Took the bus to a friend’s house today.  He’s got a big garage and a sweet car lift so I was able to check out the underside of this thing.

Overall, I would say it’s some good and some bad.  The underside of this bus is definitely crusty – the cargo floor will need a full replacement, the front valance and A pillars will need replaced.  One cross beam looks pretty bad, but the big frame pieces are solid.

The front beam and steering components will need to be replaced eventually – I’m looking into getting a new front suspension built, and upgraded w/ disk brakes.

The rear set-up is in a little better condition.  The bus has been lowered w/ a Beetle transmission and straight axle kit.  I’m thinking that I want to replace this at some point with the stock bus reduction gear boxes and “freeway flyer” tranny from Rancho.

After checking out the underside of this beast, we took the bus to another guy’s house – John is retired and has worked on VW’s/ Hot Rods for a long time – he checked out my engine/ carb work and got everything running really well.  I had it running ok, but he got it running real sweet!

I think I fixed the bus! And the best thing – it was free!

I spent some time this week researching the swooshing/ clicking/ clattering noise I was hearing from the passenger rear wheel.  I had determined that it wasn’t tire related – the drum was hard to turn by hand though, and once I backed off the brake adjusters, the drum seemed loose.  It also had a lot of brown brake dust everywhere.  The possible diagnosis’ were everything from a loose axle nut, to a problem with the brake internals, to a bad wheel bearing or CV joint.  The common denominator in all of these is that I needed a torque wrench and 36mm socket to remove/ tighten the axle nut. Unfortunately, those torque bad boys are like $100 or more – having just spent some coin on getting the bus to this point, I was very hesitant to go buy a big tool that I might use once.

Thankfully, this is where my local Autozone comes in – turns out you can rent tools like this torque wrench and the axle socket that I needed.  You pay the value of the tool… but if you bring it back in working condition within 90 days you get your money back – like all of your money even the sales tax back – free is always a sweet deal!  I looked at their brochure and you can rent all kinds of stuff like steering wheel and brake drum pullers, wrenches, compression kits, etc.  I’ll be sure to utilize this service going forward.

Back to the bus, it was pretty simple – I pulled out the little pin in the axle castle nut, spritzed the nut with pb blaster, fit the torque wrench on, twisted it up to the required 250lbs and slowly added pressure to the nut.  It was definitely not torqued to 250, and it moved easily to the right until the wrench hit the 250 mark and clicked over.  Put the pin back in and started the bus up for a nice trip around the parking lot.  No noise, no problems, brakes work – Success!

In the end, I don’t think the shop took this drum off, so I definitely can’t and don’t blame Darby – he did a good job with the shifter and the mirrors – bus is running well, and I’m excited to start driving this thing around!

I’m still recovering from yesterday’s revelry – it sure helped that my safari windshield kit came this weekend!  Unfortunately I also haven’t fully figured out the new noise I’m hearing from the right-hand side of the bus.

I’ll start with the good (and might just end with a rant).  I bought this safari kit from EIS parts, the kits are some of the newest on the market, and have a v-shaped frame similar to original factory installations. They’ve had decent reviews, and I’m looking forward to making this upgrade to the bus.  I was thinking I want shiny chrome frames, but the options for this kit were primer or powder coated white.  I went with primered so that I can either paint them, or have them chromed.  Although it will be a while before I get these bad boys installed, they are going to look cool, keep us cool on the road, and thats cool!

Ok now the bad – I noticed on Friday that the bus is making a new noise on the right side – it started as a swooshing/ squealing noise, and seems to be getting worse.  It’s not engine related, and I think its coming from the right rear wheel.  I started to try to diagnose by jacking up first the front, then the back passenger-side wheels.

The front spins freely, the back does not.  I can spin the wheel by hand, but it takes quite a bit of force – not good! I’ve also noticed the outside of the drum is a lot dirtier than it was before I drove it to the shop.  I run inside to do some research on what could cause the brake drum to stick – first culprit – brakes need adjusting. Didn’t I just pay a guy a bunch of money to adjust the rear brakes?!  It turns out its extremely easy to adjust the brakes; Thanks to Noelle for these great and exciting action shots.

I turned the little adjuster stars until the drum would rotate nicely with just a little resistance, had Wifey help me test that the brakes still work to stop the drum, and took the bus out for a spin in the parking lot.  The swooshing noise has now turned into more of a rapid clicking noise, and is very noticeable even just creeping along. Clearly there is more wrong than just a brake adjustment – again not good!  From the research I’ve done, it might be the wheel bearing, but doesn’t sound quite like they say it should; it could be something with the axle nut, or maybe the CV joints.

Either way, it’s really disappointing that I just waited six weeks and spent the better part of a grand to get the bus back and have it break after 1 day of driving!  I should expect a bunch of gremlins like this though, and honestly it just motivates me even more to get this thing fixed up… and by using my own knowledge and labor!  I’ve said before that I don’t/can’t trust car people in business – the nice folks at the local auto stores are so clueless I’m surprised they can get their pants on in the morning (maybe they just don’t take them off?) – the car shops around here are very pricy, and now my bus is broken a day after leaving the local VW expert.  I’m definitely not blaming Darby at this point – I know this bus is a jumble of mismatched and rusting parts, but its disappointing none the less.  Looks like I’ll be learning how to replace some brake and axle parts!