A quick update on the gas-spilling, non-starting white 1978 bus. Two days after my last post I once again watered down the driveway to lower the chance of sparks and got back under there with a handful of paper towels and my new gas filter and my larger hose clamp. I'm sad to report I ended up using a regular stainless steel hose clamp from the plumbing section at Canadian Tire. After looking at the fuel line clamps at Canadian Tire, Lordco and CIP1 (online), there seemed to be no local place to buy the large size fuel line clamps that one section of hose requires (3/4" by my measuring). I believe there are a few US suppliers who carry a larger size of proper fuel line clamps and I'll order a couple over the next while but for now, the regular hose clamp had to do.
So now, my corroded grounds were fixed, the connections on the starter solenoid were fixed, my badly split fuel filter was replaced and I still had around a 1/2 gallon of gas in the tank so time to try her again! Cranked it over 3x at 6 seconds each and while once again, mostly no signs of ignition, there was one little cough 1/2 way through the 3rd cranking but then nothing. With not a ton of logic, I wondered if another blast of quick-start into the air box would do anything. Popped off the clips, gave a healthy blast (3 seconds) into there, clipped it back together and back to the driver's seat. Turned it over and 3 seconds later it once again roared to life on the powerful effect of of the quickstart but this time it kept going. Within a few more seconds it settled down to that wonder VW engine sound of a happy, idling engine.
I did not even bother texting any information my daughters, I took a 20 second video of the engine going and sent it to them via text-messaging without any other explanation: they would know exactly what happened. Happy days!!!
Next sunny day (i.e. raining here since Friday.....), I'll get out my timing strobe and tach and do a quick timing check and adjust the distributor as necessary. Even though it's running, it sounds a little fast and I have to wonder how accurate the timing was done by the PO and his friend when they could not get the bus to start at all.
So while the rain is falling, I've turned my attention to the inside of the bus and am removing the home-made cabinet that the PO put in. While quaint a kinda rustic, it does not look VW bus to me so out it comes and I'm putting in a rescued VW cupboard/sink/fridge to give it the proper look. The upper bunk is too short as well since it appears to be missing the flip over section so while a smaller child could easily sleep up there, an adult would have to be in near full-fetal position. So that's all indoor work while the rain is falling. The other next sunny day thing is to cut out all the rusted rot that used to be the rocker panel under the sliding door and weld in a new one from CIP1. I started simply breaking off the really nasty pieces on Friday and found an older rust repair someone did by filling the void with crumpled tin foil and then body-filler over it. The good news is that the track amazingly is firm and hole-free. I still have to replace that entire track on my daughters orange 1975 bus and I'm not looking forward to that at all.
Good times!
-George