Engine is still running poorly.  I’ve spent a few nights this week trying to get the engine to idle properly and not overheat – I’m not quite there yet.  This is what is happening:  Engine starts quickly (better than last week, but I still have to pump the gas pedal 2 – 3 times before turning the key).  Engine fires up – if its starting cold, runs for couple minutes until warm – if its already warm, runs for about 5 seconds before idle slows and it dies… Unless I goose the gas a bit.  It varies how many times I have to lightly rev the engine, but eventually it settles and will idle somewhat roughly.  If I put it in gear and go anywhere, the engine will start to die as soon as I press in the clutch and come to a stop – unless I can get stopped quick enough and goose the pedal a few times.  I’m getting pretty good at keeping the engine going, and when it does die, it will start right back up.  It also seems to be running fairly hot.  Bottom line is – I got me some engine problems, and they needs a fixin.

I’ve been trying to learn myself about the carburetor, and I’m getting more comfortable messing with it.  Eventually I will either rebuild it, or get a new one; right now, I just want to make sure it is working.  First thing I did was check the automatic choke.  To start, I loosened the fast idle screw (name is deceptive, doesn’t actually have anything to do with setting idle speed).  As I turned the screw, the screwdriver with adjustable head slipped – Clink!… Great, just great! I dropped the little screwdriver head somewhere on the engine, can’t find it, oops.  Once again, the little steel pick, that I used to get the broken key out of the ignition, came in handy – I found the little screwdriver head and kept going. Ok everything adjusted up, bus runs but still dies at idle, still seems to run hot.  I’m going to keep messing with it, will try to reset the timing and check the valves again.  I’m also thinking about replacing the fuel pump and filter set up, and replacing the fuel lines.

Oh and I managed to break this big steel c-clamp trying to get one of the rusty side mirror bolts out – bolt 1, Drew 0.

Hot, Stressful, Interesting, Exciting, Awesome.  We brought the bus to its first VW show today!  The event has hosted by the Harsh Winters VW Club, and took place down in Joliet (about 45 minutes down the road).  I trailered the bus there, and went with a friend from work who has an amazing, fully restored 23 window deluxe.

The fun actually started on Saturday.  I spent some time cleaning the bus, and practiced reversing out of the garage, and then pulling back in.  By the end of the day I was able to shift easily into first, and keep the bus running by lightly pumping the gas as I came to a stop.  I picked up the same U-haul trailer that we used to bring the bus up from Florida – except this time I had to drive it on there myself, and I wouldn’t be able to make the same mess of things when I got to the show!

When we got there, I was a ball of nerves.  Keep in mind that I have barely driven this thing around, and the last time it was on the trailer I almost crashed the thing… now I’m pulling the trailer into a parking lot full of pristine bugs, busses, and small children- WTF am I thinking! Thankfully, my practice paid off – nothing untoward happened when backing off the trailer, and I was even able to reverse into the spot designated by one of the staff members.  So now we are at the show, lets make a day of it!

We wandered around, met lots of people who were all interesting, genuine, and awesome, saw lots of amazing busses, bugs, ghia’s, things, etc. Noelle bought some sweet little glass magnets that go great attached to the inside of the bus, and I was able to chat with a number of people that might potentially be able to help me get some of the bigger projects done. I even won a tire cleaning kit as a door prize – heck yeah!  Overall, a great day – it was very hot, but the people were awesome. Unfortunately I didn’t win “Best Rust Bucket”, but theres always next time. I stalled the engine halfway back up the trailer, and needed a little pushing help, but I’m getting much more confident in my driving abilities, and I’m so excited to get out there on the road!

I drove Noelle in the bus today for the first time.  We backed out, got going down the parking lot, turned to the left, kept going, turned to the left, and again, and then back into the garage.  I know, it was thrilling!

Before this though, a friend from work came by and we drove the bus in circles around the apartment parking lot.  The wheels didn’t make any noise, the steering felt reasonably tight, the brakes work well.  It felt great to finally get moving in the thing.  I even got it into second gear!  However, as soon as the engine warms up, it loses the ability to idle.  So every time I come to a stop it dies, and I’m not coordinated enough yet to press the clutch, shift to neutral, let off the clutch, press the brakes, and lightly press the gas to keep the engine running.  I’m thinking it might now be time to clean the carb.  In the meantime, I’m going to keep practicing my stick driving – lets just say that its a steep learning curve.  Until I can keep the bus running at a stop, I’m not going out on an actual road.

But I did take Noelle out this afternoon.  She was pretty apprehensive, given our earlier experiences with driving this thing, but I convinced her to ride along.  Everything went very smoothly, and it really makes me look forward to when we are out there camping and road tripping it up!

In addition to my skillful turns to the left, I bought some plastic shelves, and spent time time cleaning and organizing the garage.  I took a bunch of pictures, and I’ll be spending the day trying to fix the idle problem tomorrow.  There’s a VW show in Joilet that I would love to attend if possible!

Finally, something got fixed with minimal effort and stress! I spent some time yesterday trying to investigate the clunking noise I heard coming from the front passenger side.  I figured it had to be something with the wheel, wheel bearing, or the front suspension set up.

To start, I jacked up the side, and spun the tire.  It rotated freely and smoothly, no grinding, no resistance.  Hmmm, ok, so I don’t think its the wheel bearings, and its not a loose cable or anything.  I spent some more time underneath just trying to figure out where everything goes. I couldn’t find anything that wrong – tires seem well connected, tie rods, center pin, other bolts that I don’t know the name of yet, everything seemed to generally look ok.  So whatever, now I’m thinking I might need to replace the whole suspension.  While this is something I definitely want to do at some point, I really don’t want to cough up that kind of cash before even driving this thing on the street.  This is an example of what I want to get, upgraded w/ sweet (and safe) disc brakes, but man its pricey!  So instead, I spent the night searching the forums on what might be causing this clunking issue.

Tonight, I tried one of the suggestions online.  I didn’t think this would work, but I lifted the bus back up, and checked the tire lug nuts.  Sure enough, they were all very loose!  I tightened them all down, checked the other wheels, started up the bus, and backed straight out of the garage.  I then pulled straight back into the garage (after shifting too hard and lunging forward like a crazy person).  No noise from the tire – Success!  I’m going to keep working on the parking brake, and will hopefully try test drive #2 again this weekend.  Looking forward to it!