My 70 Bus!!

It's ALIVE!!!!

I got some new (used) battery cable ends and cleaned the wires and installed them. Now I have a good connection at the battery. I went to start the bus and nothing. So I jacked it up, put it on jack stands and crawled under it. Only thing I did was push on the cables I could reach. Crawled back out from underneath and went to try to start it. It turned over now. When I get it on the lift, I will take all the wires off the starter and clean them up.

I tried for about 10 minutes to start it on my own. With no throttle it made it hard. I would go back and and dump a little gas in the carb, give it a pump or two, then go back up front and turn the key. Most I got was a couple little sputters. When hubby got home he did some work on the points and it finally fired up. Yay!!!

Tomorrow I am going to look to see how hard it will be to change the throttle cable. Then I should be able to start it on my own! LOL

It's getting closer!!!

Congratulations!!

I got my stuff I ordered from one of the guy's over at Earlybay.com today so I was able to install the bumper. I would have been able to do the license plate light, but the bulb was burnt out so I figured I might as well wait till I get a new one!





I also bought some new rubbers for the turn signals up front! Got those all installed!



I also had a little fun! Found some stickers at Walmart today!



I also found out that reverse and first gears work! I am happy to say that I turned the key and Wes fired right up!! No hesitations or anything. He starts faster then my other 2 VW's!! Because my throttle cable is bad, rusty and all, it doesn't allow the carb to idle. So right now I have cruise control and because my brakes are either half way rusted to the drums or something like that, I have automatic brakes too! LOL I lucked out and Wes will be going on the lift tonight!!! Hubby's paying job is finally able to come off the lift. I plan on pulling the wheels and drums tonight so I will be able to know what I need to buy tomorrow. So hopefully after tomorrow I will have a running and stopping bus!! If all goes well I will have hubby tow it to the brake and light place on Monday. ( Either that or I have to go to DMV for a moving permit) Then Tuesday or Weds. I will go to DMV to get him registered. Not getting my hopes up though, I know how things can go sometimes. LOL It is getting closer though.

Yay!! Finally on the lift!!




After getting it on the lift we were able to find out that there was only one wheel kind of stuck. It was the one causing the bus to feel like it's brakes were locked up. The other 3 spun freely. Those were also the easiest to get off. LOL The last wheel took some persuading, but it finally gave up. There was just a lot of dirt and rust keeping it on.

Once all the wheels were off we inspected the brakes and they all look fairly new. New enough that we are not going to buy new ones. It looks like all that needs to be done is a good scrubbing. That will save some time and money.

It's hard to tell in the pic, but the brakes have a lot of pad left!!



So tomorrow I will tackle the cleaning of the brake parts and R&R the throttle cable.

Boy this is totally deja vu for me.

It still might not be a bad idea to replace the wheel cylinders and master cylinder though if it's been sitting for a long time.

silvertonguedevil wrote:

It still might not be a bad idea to replace the wheel cylinders and master cylinder though if it's been sitting for a long time.

Yah, I already have a new mc. I'm mainly talking about not needing shoes. I will be pulling everything and inspecting it to see if I need new wheel cylinders and all!

Well, I didn't get all the brakes R&R'd today. I took everything apart and cleaned. We ended up buying new wheel cylinders all around. That was expensive!! I also bought new front shoes. Hubby said they looked like they were coming apart from the metal. Better be safe then sorry. He say's the backs look fine.

I didn't get started till after noon on the project. That and we had to run back to Carquest to see about a different MC, but we ended up using the one we bought originally. It only has one electrical hook up, to where the original one has 2. Hubby say's the lights will work as they should with only one and that having 2 is just a fail safe for if, lets say, the front of the mc fails, the back will still turn on the brake lights. I sure hope he is right! LOL

I only got the driver side front done today, that and the mc.

Before,


After,


Tomorrow I have to finish the rest of the brakes and install the throttle cable.

I am happy to say, for the most part I am doing this all myself. Only thing hubby did today to help was pull the front shoes off. Other then that, it was all me. So when I am done I will let you know so you stay off the road!! LOL

Good job Kim! It's great that you're doing this by yourself!

Here is a better pic of the old front brakes. Look at all that meat. To bad they were falling off the metal.



Well, I would have gotten it all done today. I got the brakes all on and adjusted, and bled. Only thing is, the mc ended up being a bad one. It is leaking out the front by the boot. So needless to say, I had to take it back off. They will have another one for me in the morning so I will change it and hopefully have it off the lift by the time hubby gets home from work.

I got my throttle cable out and back in too. Even got my mud flap brackets installed. Just need to go get some bolts to hold the flaps on to the brackets. In the pic they are just hanging by old bolts. I want the kind of bolts that go through but won't squish the mud flap, that and self locking nuts.



Well, tomorrow I will hopefully get the new, new mc in and will be able to go for a test drive. My fingers are crossed!

Thanks to hubby I managed to get my brakes bled with out any one else to help ( hubby was at work). He suggested that I take a bungee cord and hang some kind of weight on it. Then I could pump the brakes by pulling on the pedal arm from below the bus. Hook the weighted bungee and then go back and open the bleeder valve.

Here is my Brake Buddy!



Here he is helping me!. LOL





So with the help of my buddy, I managed to get my brake job finished!!

Once that was done I took him for a slow test run. Not really a run, but I moved him out of the garage and just went forward and backward a few times. He stops great. The going is a different story. He's not exactly running really smoothly. I have to give quite a bit of gas to get him moving with out him trying to lug or die. It could be a couple of things. One, he barely has any gas in him. That and had the old yucky gas in him before, even though I washed the tank and all. Two, he may just need some fine tuning on his carb. I will know better once I have some more gas. Hubby is supposed to be bringing some home for me. That tells you how low on gas Wes is. I won't even take him out of the drive way! LOL

I also found out that Wes will be a fair weather driver for now. He leaks from his windshield gasket and rear window gasket. I kind of figured he would since they are both dry and cracked. I will probably fix the rear window first since it will be an easy in and out job. The windshield is a different story. There is visible surface rust, so I don't know how bad it is under the seal. That job will have to wait till we can have him in the garage for more then just 2 days.

That's thinking outside the bun.......

Here is a little update, well maybe big one on what has been going on. I got down to just needing gas and reinstalling my headlight switch. Got the switch in, but then I lost my high low beam. So after this post, http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=484333

I was able to get that working. Then I lost my turn signals. So after this post,
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=5616702#5616702 I kind of got those working too. I say kind of because I really don't know how long or if they will work or not from time to time. I am just hoping they will work through the inspection the bus is at right now. Once it passes the inspection, all I need to do is get a vin verification and it will finally be legal. Well, once I go to DMV that is! LOL

Only thing is, it scared the bajeebers out of me!! The drive to the inspection place was the first time I have taken it more then 5 - 10 feet. It started feeling funny at 3rd gears high point, then I switched into 4th and it really felt funny. Almost feels like a wheel is falling off, but I know they are all good. Or maybe the motor was trying to cut out? I can't really say. I just know that when I go pick it up I'm making a B line for the first side street back to my house! LOL That way I can keep it at a slower speed. Luckily the inspection place is about a block from the first side street I can take to get home!

I will update the results of the inspection as soon as I find out how it did. Keep your finger crossed for me!

I am happy to say, it PASSED!!!!!

It is now down at my hubby's work waiting for a CHP officer to come by. Once one does, probably Friday, I will be ready to go to DMV. Well, maybe, lol, I may try to wait for my personalized plates to come in first. They should be showing up any time now. That way I can kill 2 birds with one stone.

So now I am bussless. I'm not sure what to do with myself. I have been going out and working on Wes pretty much every day since I got him. I guess I could get back on the bug! Maybe I will take a nap!

Figured I'd give a quick update.

Not much has happened since the brake and light inspection. I had left it at hubby's work to get the vin verification, but only retired guy's came in. So I brought it home over the weekend. Hubby did call a PD officer he knows and she said she would come by the house when she gets a chance. So I have to leave it in the front part of the driveway. That means I can't do much to it there. I did install the items I bought at the TRP Swap Meet. Well, the step it just sitting in the jack points right now, still need to clean them out and install it properly! It sure makes a difference in climbing in and out of the bus!!





I also replaced the rear window rubber. Now I just need to do the side window with the vent window in it, and the windshield. I have the jealousy windows to deal with too, but I need to research to see how to replace the rubber on them.

I'm hoping to get the vin verification soon. Then I just need to wait for my personalized plates to come in, and I will be off to DMV.

On a bad note, I have to pull the motor again. I don't know why we didn't think about this when we had it out, we thought of it when we had my bug motor out. We forgot to change the flywheel seal, and sure enough, it leaks. So the plan is, once it is verified (vin), we will put it in the garage so I can pull the motor, do the seal, and check the clutch and all. I plan on doing this over a weekend. Hopefully next weekend. While the motor is out I am going to do a valve adjustment. I didn't do it last time because I figured the guys could do it when it was on the lift. Figured I might as well do it this time. Maybe that will help it's running issue in 4th gear.

Hopefully DMV will be sending my notice of my plates being there, and I can get the motor R&R'd over the weekend.

I also did a little photo shoot with my VW's the other day, since they all run now! Well, kind of run. LOL

Nice shots!

Well, the plan was to pull the engine today, then go get a flywheel seal tomorrow and put the engine back in. Things didn't go that way. LOL Instead, I got the engine out, hubby found a seal, so we cleaned everything up (oily fly wheel and all) and put the new seals in. Then I reinstalled the motor. This time I had to have a little help from hubby to get it back in though. I put the jack stands to high and wasn't able to get the mustache bar over their mounts and get everything else lined up too. But, it is in and everything is back together.

Now I'm still waiting for the vin check, and my notice that my personalized plates are in. Once I get those two things, I can go register it and hopefully drive it! Although I think it still needs some fine tuning on the carb. Or it may need the carb taken off and cleaned out. Even though I flushed the tank, I think it may have gotten some gunk in it. Although it seems to idle and start fine, just doesn't want to idle once you drive it a little. In little I mean maybe 20 feet! LOL Once you go forward, and then push in the clutch, he wants to die. I can do the heel toe thing for now though! LOL Oh, I don't know if he will still be so scary in 4th gear now either. Good it have been a oily clutch and all causing it, or is it actually the carb? I will find out as soon as I can get him registered.

Anyway, I was pretty excited that the engine uninstall and reinstall went so good and fast. Probably had it done in about 2 hours!

Well, I'm happy to say, I have a very fine running and driving bus now! Although I found out that my preheat tubes are not working to well anymore. A friend that knows more about VW's then me came over and let me know that I should start looking for another manifold. He said this one will be ok for now, but it will take longer to heat up and may cause a hesitation. Good news is, I think I have another manifold on the motor that came with my bug. I think? LOL

After soaking the carb in carb dip overnight, then cleaning and blowing it all out, it finally idles good. After that we torqued the heads, adjusted the valves, and timed it. It now runs a lot better then it did. By doing all that, we also fixed the steering problem I was having! LOL I thought it was the front end causing me problems, but it turned out to be a motor that needed it's heads torqued and timing done right.


I also got my verification done. Now I am just waiting on my personalized plates to come in, then I will go down and finish getting it fully registered.

Now I am working on my sink. It's filler tube desinagrated when I tried to take the cap off. So I am trying to find another tube for it. We went to an RV place and found a couple good candidates, but they are to loose. So I'm not sure what I am going to do. We also rounded up all the plumbing parts that we need to fix the drain for the sink. We decided to go longer on the pipe under the bus, to allow for a little bit of storage for the dirty water. That way we won't have to drain it where we camp. It won't be much space, but more then what it had. I will take pics when I get it done.

Have you tried RV Dr George for your sink parts? He has tons of old RV parts.

mikeinch wrote:

Have you tried RV Dr George for your sink parts? He has tons of old RV parts.

Yah, that is the only place we go. We are good friends with George! He had a faucet just like mine, so I scored there. We looked through a lot of his sink parts but haven't found the right size piece yet for the filler tube. We may be able to rig something up out of the several parts we picked up though. We also got all our drain plumbing there today!

Got a late start on the bus today. We planned on going to PnP first thing in the morning, then come home and work on the projects. Well, we made the turn onto the road for PnP and my hubby's truck just shut off. Needless to say we had to wait for the other driver to bring one of the big tow trucks, then tow the hubby's back to the yard, then go back to PnP with a different one. So we started on our projects after 1pm.

I did manage to get my sink plumbing done as far as behind the cabinet and down out of the bus. Still need to finish plumbing under the bus, but I'm not sure what I want to do. I need to go to Home Depot and look at some elbows and all. Thinking of either running pipe over to the other side of the bus and have the drain there. Or, keeping it on the passenger side and going from 1.5 inch pipe to 4 inch pipe and run it almost to the back tire. That would give me a bigger holding tank per say.

So here is what I got done.

Found out my port a potty will fit under the seat behind the driver.



Got the faucet, air vent and the cabinet installed.



I used Gorilla glue to fix my broken vent pipe! That stuff is weird. It swells up, so I had to sand it back down flat to the pipe.



Also installed me a pull for my door! LOL



I have greased everything on the door but it still wants to only open when it feels like it. I was always afraid to put my fingers on the u shape thing and pull, so I came up with the string! LOL

I think tomorrow I will just take it for a drive!

Well, I lowered my bus today. LOL, Well kind of. I finally got down to the yard to change my tires. The tires I put on are a tad smaller then the ones that were on it.

Here is one of the old ones. It is kind of hard to tell in the pic, but it has a huge flat spot. All 4 tires were that way.



I did gain some white walls. I just need to find my white wall cleaner now.





We also put it on the lift at the yard and I was able to grease the front end and hubby tightened the steering a bit. I am happy to report that I no longer have a shimmy and my steering is a bit tight but there is no more side to side play. I can now drive the bus with no problems.

On a bad note, I do have to pull the motor again. I found a single port intake so Monday I will go pick that up and then figure out what day I want to pull the motor to replace the intake. Once that is done, it should run pretty good for me. Right now it wants to die when it is trying to warm up. Once it is hot, it is fine though. Just takes a long time to get there with the clogged intake heat riser things.

At least for now, I can drive it!!

Today I was planning on cleaning my white walls, and also doing some panel work. Never got to the tires, but I did do some of the panels!

After reading the thread on cup holders, I decided to make wood panels for the sides of the seat stands. Then I could attach my cup holder to the side of the passenger seat area. I was going to go with an ashtray version, but was afraid that my shifter would it it. I didn't want to have one that sat in the walk through area, so this was my best bet. Here are some pics.

Side panels cut.



Stained and installed,



It's not the prettiest, but I'm not going for a show bus, just a functional one!

Cup holder installed.



A view from the back to the front. Still plenty of room to walk through. I do need to do some cosmetic work on the side of the cup holder.



I also got to the sliding door.

From this,


to this,






I am thinking about trying to find a different inside door handle. Mine is starting to crack and I don't want it to break. I hear they are hard to come by, so I would rather use a plain jane handle, then to take a chance at breaking this one eventually.



Tomorrow I plan on getting to my white walls. If the weather holds out that is. LOL I also get to go pick up my new to me intake. That will be next weekends project.

Today I actually took the bus for it's 'real' maiden voyage. By 'real' I mean more then just around the neighborhood. LOL I went to Starbucks so I could test my cupholder! It works great. Only thing is, when I went to roll my window back up, the handle broke.



Made it really fun to roll back up. Of course I don't have that style of handle at home. I have quite a few of the spilt bus and early bug style ones, but they wont work. To think we used to have a ton of these things about 15 to 20 years ago. Gave them or threw them all away. Live and learn. LOL So needless to say, I need to make a run to PnP and see if I can find a new handle.

I went out looking for the straps that hold the top down. I went to a 4 wheel drive place, but they only have new style one's. So I ended up at Bugformance. I bought the Empi aftermarket ones.

Made it back home with no problems. Well, other then the fact that it doesn't want to stay running sometimes when you are going up to a stop. Have to do the heal toe dance! LOL I will look into that after I change the intake next weekend.

I then installed the straps. They work ok, but I need to find an original hook ( not sure what it is called exactly but it is the piece that the rubber strap hooks into). I tried to use the aftermarket hook but I had to install it upside down and it doesn't want to stay latched that way. I will have to bend the hook piece down so it will actually stay latched.



The other side has the original hook. Works fine.



Now I need to figure out how to find the one in the back. I was taking pics to ask about it on The Samba, and ended up having to ask where to get a new one, or if I could use an aftermarket one and just drill a hole to put the metal piece on. Things are a big brittle. LOL

Here is the latch in one piece. LOL





I'm not sure how that latches to the bus. Maybe I am missing something? There are scuff marks on the metal where the latch looks like it has latched before, but I just don't get it?

"I still need to figure out what kind of cord was used for the bottom of the curtains"

If I recall correctly from my '76 camper, the bottom cord was elastic cord that the curtains just tucked behind. If the cord went through the bottom of the curtains, same elastic cord to provide some tension on the curtains. It's been awhile since I had my '76 or my '80 camper.

Very nice work on that bus!