1970 Westy Camper

[ghiastein]

Last nights drive down the freeway was not fun in the Bus. I had one nasty cross wind that would pitch my bus all over in my lane. I was consistently turning the steering wheel 45 degrees to the left and 45 degrees to the right. When we stopped and got out I felt just a slight breeze.

I guess its time to check and update my suspension.

On to other things. Looky what I have been doing in my free time....



That's my Gage Cluster and Glove Box Door. Now they match my cool table.

[VDub63 ( Steven )]

That looks awsome

[bren]

Wow, nice set up AJ. What brand gages are those?

[Southpaw]

Looks like you got a taste of the cross winds I have talked about .

[vw1302]

Awesome AJ, the dash, not the wind sheers.

Now I will have to get creative on my dash ;D

[dunedudex4]

nice Thanks Dave T

[ghiastein]

Oct 30, 2009 21:20:34 GMT -5 bren said:

Wow, nice set up AJ. What brand gages are those?

Its the cheep Harbor Freight set. They may not be super accurate but the only thing that I need to watch for is a change. Like dropping oil pressure and raising oil temp from their normal operating location.

[dansam]

I have the same gages. they are pretty darn accurate from what Ive seen so far. Also been running them for over a year with no problems. I like how you can change the colors. I run green most time. red sometimes.

[bren]

I like the look. I was thinking about those for the rail. Can't beat the price.

[Dustin]

AJ awesome work on the gauges and glove box. You need some new tires! These will greatly help your issue Hankook RA08 185R14 8 ply I can get them for about $70 a piece and put them on for you.

[Southpaw]

Thats what I have . Good tires .

[ghiastein]

Nov 3, 2009 20:31:00 GMT -5 Dustin said:

AJ awesome work on the gauges and glove box. You need some new tires! These will greatly help your issue Hankook RA08 185R14 8 ply I can get them for about $70 a piece and put them on for you.

Thanks Dustin Its on the list of stuff to do. For now I think I am going to focus on other items to help improve handling.

1. Checking steering play
2. Rear suspension bushings
3. Adjust rear height to remove saggy bus butt and to keep from banging head on rear hatch when opened
4. Shocks
5. 4 wheel alignment

Then 5 Tires

If I am still not satisfied then I will do a rear sway bar and increase the diameter on the front sway bar.

[ghiastein]

Well I have finally finished stripping my Green Bus so if you need body parts or weird 1970 ish Bus stuff I may have it. Just ask.

On Sunday I managed to get Wifey behind the wheel of the Bus to check for steering play. I have found that my Drag Link is shot very bad to the point of where the ball want to pop from the socket. Good thing there is a perfect one on the parts Bus. Soon I will switch that over and go for a test drive. Lets see what happens.

[ghiastein]

Well Sunday Nov 15 was a dark day with the Bus I Broke the Transmission. I am not too worried about it because winter is almost here and it was the wrong Transmission. My Transmission that broke was from a 1974-1975 Bus it a Type 4 engine. Now it’s time to get the correct one.

This is what happened.

I was humming down D ave. and when I came to the intersection of Riverview. I shifted into First gear but it was not there so I tried second and still no gear. I did find third and I was able to remove my bus from the center of the intersection in third gear. After a few minutes of checking stuff I noticed that my Shifter Coupler (the part between the transmission and the shift rod) was trashed. Ok that an easy fix let’s just keep limping the Bus to where I need to go.

Fortunately I found first and I proceeded on my way. I was not able to find second but I caught third and then fourth. Sitting at the light of Sprinkle and Gull it happened again. I was only able to find third and I was able to limp to a corner strip-mall.

I called everyone and admitted defeat. Still thinking it was my Shifter Coupler Glen suggested using items to "take up" the space in the Coupler. So I jammed stuff in the coupler screws, nuts, and duct-tape. It seemed to work I was able to find gears again so I decided to just limp the Bus home. I got as far as through the intersection when I needed to grab second and it was all gone, nothing, no gears, not even reverse.

Sitting on the side of the road with the four-way flashers on minutes seemed to last like hours. This was not the spot I wanted to be at to load the Bus up on a trailer. So after many tries I was able to JAMB it into THIRD after a bit of GRINDING. Then I proceeded to limp the Bus back to the strip-mall in third.

There I just needed to wait until Steven could come with my truck and Kenn's Sand Rail trailer.

The phone rings its Steven he says that my truck is leaking brake fluid and he will be driving Kenn's Truck pulling Kenn's Trailer.

I had a nice time waiting in the Bus for Steven. I unfolded the bed laid down and just rested for a few. When Steven arrived the Bus was still stuck in third so I burned the clutch trying to get the front wheels up the ramps. We decided to use the Sand Rail Trailer as a 2-wheel dolly after barely getting the front wheels up the ramps. After securing the bus to the trailer we hop in the truck to take off.

Oops the bus is still in gear! I hop out and jiggle that shifter all over and I could not free it from third gear. Well being stuck in third what can I do. So we unload the bus off the trailer and I just drive it home in third gear. Do you have any idea how hard it is to take off from a dead stop in third gear? Well I do and I did it the whole way home and I never killed the engine. Now I need to add a clutch to my list.

I will be having a tow bar made so I can tow my bus in case of an emergency or if I can find a tow dolly for cheep I may go that route. That was not a fun experience and I never want to do that again. Also I will be adding towing to my insurance.

[Southpaw]

Sorry for your loss AJ , Glade you were able or your Westy had just enough left to limp home .