Volkswagen Type 2 Musings

 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

Yesterday, we managed to attend our final classic car meet before Covid 19 restrictions limit the amount of people that can gather. From today, in WA state, no more than 5 people can gather outside. Therefore, for at least the next month, no more gatherings of the classic Volkswagen Bay Window Type 2 clan. Here's to the future and getting back to enjoying our VW Bus in safety. But, for now, safety first.

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.

 We bought our '76 Volkswagen Bay Window Type 2 this Spring, so have never really needed a heater nor tested it. As colder days are around the corner, I took a look today to try to see why we get zero heat with both red levers all the way down. First, I ran the bus, and with both the red levers down, was able to verify that the fan in the engine compartment does run. Secondly, with engine off, I looked at the heat exchanger control flaps. Both have the same issue that the cable is too loose at the flap. With the red lever all the way down, the flaps barely move when using the red levers. I can manually pull the the heat flaps open. I'd say I'm losing 90% of possible opening. With the dash lever up, the cable has a bend in it between the valve lever and the cable mount (under the vehicle). I assumed I could slacken the nut on the lever-arm and take up the slack, but the cable has a "flattened" end that only seems to pull through so far. I was looking for an adjuste

The refurbished distributor finally arrived for our Volkswagen Bay Window Type 2. After a little grease and a "wiggle",  the distributor dropped straight into place. I placed the pulley timing mark at 7. 5 BTDC (visually) and, using a test light, rotated the distributor until the test bulb just illuminated. I turned the key, and instant success! Bus started immediately and held a tick-over.  My next step is to time with a timing light. The distributor has a single vacuum that is currently attached to the throttle unit. However, I believe that I should have a 'T' in the vacuum line that also goes to a nipple under the air box. That nipple was capped by the previous owner. For now, I will time with just the vacuum attached to the throttle unit - as it was with the previous electronic module dist. The VW Bus started first time and performed flawlessly on a 10 mile test drive. However, the tachometer's now reading roughly 1.5x higher rpms than it did when we used the

Well, the Volkswagen Bay Window Type 2 has been driving like a dream. We attended an event this weekend that culminated in a 100 mile round-trip. The VW Bus ran perfectly. No stumbling or misfiring and we kept the speed to a maximum of 50 mph and minor roads only. However, for the whole trip, the thought of our severely worn distributor imploding played on my mind. There is simply too much vertical play coming from the shaft of the distributor - almost 1/4". The folks on TheSamba forum seem to believe that the distributor has disintegrated internal washers and shims. Renovating such a finely balanced device is well beyond my capabilities. Therefore, on TheSamba, I tracked down a person who FULLY renovates Bosch distributors and sets them back to factory spec. I'm reverting from electronic ignition back to points and condenser. I understand points and condenser and the process to test them.  Also, part of the scenario to run a Compu-fire module (as we have) is to shave off appr