Sunsets and Stutters

Sunsets and Stutters - Part Deux

Well, I'm going to call the original issue of the engine blipping/stumbling as fixed. On the Volkswagen Bay Window Type 2, I've changed the leads, rotor arm, distributor cap, cleaned the distributor, cleaned all electrical connections to coil, etc, repaired a a few vacuum hoses with slight split-ends and generally tidied up the wiring routes.

The bus starts first turn of the key and I went on a hilly 15 mile test drive at 40+ mph and the bus ran perfectly.

Though the original issue now seems to be fixed for the Volkswagen Bay Window, or it was an anomaly, I will have to revisit the rough looking distributor that I discovered on my fixing warpath. The distributor looks as if hasn't been cleaned in years. Also, the installed Compufire module is supposed to be touch-less, but something has definitely been touching the casing of the module. As you can see in the picture, the casing is almost worn through. At the moment, I'm deciding between a new module or refitting points/condenser. But that's a story for another time.

By far, the most difficult part of this refresh was not dropping a socket/plug under the tin of #2 cylinder. I used a socket with a plug grabber insert and secured the socket to the extension with tape. At first, I tried to use a piece of 3/8 hose to guide the plug(s) but that fell off on #3 cylinder, so I reverted back to a spark plug socket.

Comments

Bleeding New Year

Happy New Year! After buying our bus in April '20, we replaced the rear shoes and cylinders and bled the system. Front pads seemed fine, as did hoses. We have driven the bus many miles since then with the brakes working well. My daughter took the bus to visit a neighborhood friend and reported that the brakes faded almost all the way to the floor. She was able to pump the brakes to stop. However, after the pumping the brakes were fine again. On her return, I took the bus for a test on the exact route, no issues and the brakes were fine there and back. I also tested the booster by pressing the pedal while starting and, as expected, the pedal dropped slightly - but settled well over half the available travel, as its always been. Fluid is full with no apparent leaks. The reason why seemingly good brakes would intermittently fade? Brake master cylinder - apparently, when a MC is about to fail fully, intermittent loss of pedal pressure is common. I soaked the brake pipe nuts in PB Blas

Wink, wink....nudge, nudge

We fitted chrome 'eyelids' to the Bus because we like the look. Check out the install video here: Before and after picture:

Tacho Blues-day

We recently removed a well-worn CompuFire distributor from our Volkswagen Bay Window Type 2 and fitted a "like new" VW factory distributor - back to the stock configuration. However, after doing so, our VDO tach now read approximately 1500 rpms too high and the needle bounced all over the place while driving. Upon investigation on TheSamba, we discovered the tach needed a supplement, inline diode to stop "ghost" signals interfering with the signal to the tach. The needed diode was a #1N4005 type with the silver marked end going toward the tach. We created the diode fix as shown, installed it on the VW Bus, and the tach is now back to normal; no bouncing , no inflated readings, and no wild swings. RPMs are steady and correct.

Volkswagen Type 2 Musings

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