What did YOU do to your van today?

[Steve M.]

R&R'd a bad front wheel bearing. Less than 4 months driving on it. Before anyone says wrong grease or too tight, the correct grease and adjustment was used!
It was an SKF bearing. The inner bearing was still ok, but changed it out anyway as well as checking and repacking the other side.

[greebly]

Steve, just ordered a set of SKF inner bearings and FAG outer bearings for the rear of my Jetta through Rock Auto, I did not choose the cheapest options listed there, Fag being German with a plant in Joplin Missouri and SKF is a USA company. The SKF bearings were made in Mexico, well not so bad, the Jetta was made in Mexico, but the FAG bearings were manufactured in Vietnam. the boxes they came in were the most flimsy falling apart crap I have seen pass for packaging, It was bad enough I sent FAG a message. You just cannot win with replacement non OEM auto parts. I think that you actually get better quality from Chinese made parts and have had excellent luck with Dorman parts recently.

[Steve M.]

I was surprised by the SKF failing like that because they normally are a reputable bearing. I changed to a different grease as the grease left inside the disc housing just seemed to be caked instead of being viscous for a relatively "new" grease.
I'll see how long this one lasts. Thanks for the info on FAG.

[16CVs]

My Steering rack sprung a leak big time. I drove it for a day because I had to.
VC and GW are out of Rebuilt units and a buddy of mine had a new one form a source in China and I agreed to be a Guinea pig.
I put it it in and it spewed as bad as my original. We realized that we used PS fluid and should have used ATF Dexron. So we pulled the lines at both sides and blew the old fluid out and changed kit to ATF.
Besides having ATF everywhere, it is still bad and will need to put another rack in it Tuesday before I can use the truck again. A local shop had one and I hope for the best.
In preparation I opened the Reservoir and cleaned it out and made sure the filter was clean and not plugged.
So spent about three hours dicking with it and ended up in the same position I started with and that is with work truck dead in the water.
It either works Tuesday morning or I take the belt off and drive it Ala manual. A pisser to be sure, But Oh well the truck has 360000 miles on it so something has to go wrong once in a while.
_________________
1987 Syncro Westfalia Triple knob (bastard)
1989 Syncro Tristar Triple knob "Swedish"
2013 Jetta Hybrid a true "Zwitter"
Samba member # 14980
Call anytime number 650 722 4914 .
Keep Your van running and upkept tastefully for the love of the hobby.
Don't let your van end up in an "abortions" thread.

[djkeev]

[Steve M.]

[16CVs]

If this wasn't my work truck that needs to be rolling Tuesday morning I would do that.
I rebuilt one in my 85 years ago and it was a basic but tedious job. I am going to keep my eyes peeled for a good used rack so I can keep going next time.

Stacy
_________________
1987 Syncro Westfalia Triple knob (bastard)
1989 Syncro Tristar Triple knob "Swedish"
2013 Jetta Hybrid a true "Zwitter"
Samba member # 14980
Call anytime number 650 722 4914 .
Keep Your van running and upkept tastefully for the love of the hobby.
Don't let your van end up in an "abortions" thread.

[TheArmand]

You're welcome.

(Attached via velcro. Yes, it's just like a modern car!)

[greebly]

$2.08 Hockey puck

I bought a used Radiator Fan motor from the classified section. The seller stated it worked well. When I got it I could not turn the shaft by hand, installing the fan blades I could turn it, but it would not spin very well and made a rasping noise indicative of dirty bearings. The shaft did not have too much play. It was in worse shape than my original on the Van now. The seller wanted me to ship it back to him so that he could "inspect" it to refund my payment I did not think too much of his inspection skills for sending it to me as it was, much less confident enough to pay return shipping, between shipping here and back to him it would have cost what I paid for the motor. Live and learn. So I disassembled it and cleaned it, and re-greased the bearings with CV2. Very smooth now. I will post this in a pertinent thread for future reference.

It had several unwanted dead residents

Must have been warm between the power terminals.

the other end and bearing s after re-greasing.

[oldhuldy67]

I've been away from the Samba, but glad to have my health restored and enjoying simple therapy of tinkering with my Westy. The side door had been working well, rollers replaced, rear rail clean and smooth...but....
Nothing new, I know, but I came across a roll of UHMW tape and the OCD did the rest. The door is remarkably quieter and although it does not tend to roll away on its own any longer it is very, very smooth to operate.

One placed over the rail and behind it after a thorough cleaning wit alcohol

One strip under the bottom roller and on the outboard side of the upper roller

And a strip on the outboard side of the nylon guide..
I did a little trimming with a utility blade and thought a 2inch width might have been a bit easier to install but, 1 inch was enough..The door has lost its sloppiness and moves more like my son's Odessy slider now..😳
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Currently:1980 Westy Westfalia Poptop (a total stock-look rebuild with all my favorite camping mods)
1967 stock Sunroof Beetle
Formerly:
1978 Westy Campmobile, the"EM50 Urban Assault Vehicle" code named "The Pickle"
1973 Squareback (sold on a lark)
1973 Super Beetle (crashed..walked away without a scratch)
1972 Standard Beetle (lost in a relationship..)
1966 Beetle (the Black Beauty, my Dad's)
1964 Beetle (the Beige Bug, my beginning beater, also my Dad's) Thanks, Dad.

[Paulbeard]

Tried to fix the dreaded wing window whistle. A real fix will have to wait for me to remove the wing frame and see if I can get the window to move properly in the opening. Right now it leans slightly off vertical (the front/top pivot doesn't hold the glass to the front, seems very loose, and the lower pivot isn't very solid on the vertical. No way for me to tighten it without removal so that will have to wait. If I get it painted this year, as I hope to, the windows would come out and I can deal with it then.

It can be closed from the outside, checking for proper alignment, without using any shims and no whistle or leakage. After removal and replacement today, I can't reliably close it from the inside without it rotating and creating that dreaded whistle.

My Bentley doesn't even mention these as a thing and the drawings other Sambanisti have shared don't quite match what I have.

Very depressing to see how damaged the door panels are from the leaks around that window. I would score that as two design defects: one for not making the window mechanism more robust/reliable (this is with new rubber) and one for not sealing the panel substrate to shed water.

Also I trimmed the collar around the upper steering wheel plastic to get rid of the annoying squeak when I turn the wheel. Seems to a fit/alignment issue but the plastic is so beaten up, it can't be aligned properly. The trimming seemed to help.
_________________
Currently -> Frida: 87 Tizian Red (mostly) Vanagon GL Westfalia w/ 2.0L ABA conversion
Formerly -> Steward of a 73 Super Beetle (Beater) and 67 Beetle 1300 (Little Max) both names by POs

[candyman]

[jokeraus]

Replaced the fuel sending unit and changed hoses and plastic bits in the cooling system.

Hopefully that will be the last time I need to drop the tank for awhile. Very tired of it.

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88 Vanagon | Build Thread

[dobryan]

Nice helper!
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Dave O
'87 Westy w/ 2002 Subaru EJ25 and Peloquin TBD

"To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive." Robert Louis Stevenson

MD>Canada>AK>WA>OR>CA>AZ>UT>WY>SD
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=620646

Building a bus for travel in Europe (euroBus)
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=695371

The Western Syncro build
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=746794

[oldhuldy67]

Your dog did all that!?!? Wow😳
_________________
Currently:1980 Westy Westfalia Poptop (a total stock-look rebuild with all my favorite camping mods)
1967 stock Sunroof Beetle
Formerly:
1978 Westy Campmobile, the"EM50 Urban Assault Vehicle" code named "The Pickle"
1973 Squareback (sold on a lark)
1973 Super Beetle (crashed..walked away without a scratch)
1972 Standard Beetle (lost in a relationship..)
1966 Beetle (the Black Beauty, my Dad's)
1964 Beetle (the Beige Bug, my beginning beater, also my Dad's) Thanks, Dad.

[oldhuldy67]

AC in my camper?!? YES! Why did I wait so long? I put together a hillbilly ice powered air conditioner and found it was very good at making ice into warm water..very efficient contraption.

Then, I found a 5000BTU AC with a remote...on Amazon.

Keystone KSTAW05C 5000 BTU 115V Window-Mounted Air Conditioner with "Follow Me" LCD Remote Control
by Keystone
It's quiet and the "follow me" feature turns the remote into a thermostat. I plan to keep it where I'm sleeping and not have to getup to change the temp setting..nice. It's tough..I dropped it on my leg and to the floor in the garage...missed my foot by that much.
The name and part of the shelving is in one of the pics. I found the profile sits neatly over the window rubber and automotive rubber seal kept it off the paint.
I wanted Terry's rig but, Terry, come on, man... the price is a little steep for those of us who have already spent too much money on our Campers..if that's possible.

So, I started with your basic design and my OCD did the rest...
Pieces for wire shelving at HD, threaded rod, Velcro to attach the outside enclosure, bits of other things I had laying around.

It is now 68 degrees in the Vanny...😉

_________________
Currently:1980 Westy Westfalia Poptop (a total stock-look rebuild with all my favorite camping mods)
1967 stock Sunroof Beetle
Formerly:
1978 Westy Campmobile, the"EM50 Urban Assault Vehicle" code named "The Pickle"
1973 Squareback (sold on a lark)
1973 Super Beetle (crashed..walked away without a scratch)
1972 Standard Beetle (lost in a relationship..)
1966 Beetle (the Black Beauty, my Dad's)
1964 Beetle (the Beige Bug, my beginning beater, also my Dad's) Thanks, Dad.

[rlamb]

_________________
1984 Westfalia - Ford Cologne 2.8L conversion
2003 Passat GLX Wagon (4Motion)

[jokeraus]

Installed a sirocco fan last night. Not sure if black was a great idea, hard to see out of your peripheral vision which could result in tangled hair

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88 Vanagon | Build Thread

[MidwestDrifter]

[Paulbeard]

Installed a my just-arrived adjustable voltage regulator. The old one was showing 13.7v, this one shows 14.2 out of the box. I'm inclined to leave it there without adjustment.

Verified that my propane line to the decommissioned Dometic was sealed, using some soapy water. No bubbles: 👍🏻 Poured the rest of the solution into the washer tanks, fore and aft.

Used the awesome power of my now-combined batteries to jumpstart my son's Jeep which had been left with the headlights on for 16 hours or so. Never heard a battery so dead…

Ordered some of the parts for the solar charging system (PowerWerks connectors to start with, the panel and controller will be ordered shortly).

Ordered a replacement panel for the hatch from Werksberg. ABS may not look all that but it's gonna be more durable than anything I can come up with. I could get some close matching marine vinyl as I did with the slider panel if it bothers me.
_________________
Currently -> Frida: 87 Tizian Red (mostly) Vanagon GL Westfalia w/ 2.0L ABA conversion
Formerly -> Steward of a 73 Super Beetle (Beater) and 67 Beetle 1300 (Little Max) both names by POs