Hippy Prairiemobile II (Un-Breaking)

Hippy Prairie mobile II (repairs)

 

I have decided to add another page to this site.  This page is to document the repairs I have made to my 68 VW buss.  The Hippy Prairie mobile Page will be updated soon I promise. 

So a little re-cap about what I have done so far. 

When I first bought the bus I stripped the interior down to mostly bare metal.  Painted and re-decorated, built furniture, etc..  What I didn’t cover on my Hippy Prairie mobile Page are all the interruptions to otherwise faithful service.  During the restoration a number of interruptions occurred that necessitated emergency web store visits to California Import Parts Ltd. 

The ignition switch. 

In a seemingly random fashion the buss would not start when the key was turned.  However the bus would start just fine if you used the screwdriver method.  This is where you lay under the bus and short the power lead to the starter solenoid with a screwdriver.  Anyone with an old VW is familiar with this way of starting an engine.  So I replaced the starter switch.  It worked just fine for about a week.  Then the symptom returned and back I was under the bus with a screwdriver.  I did some looking around on the web and in the book “How to keep you VW alive” and found that sometimes the wire gets old and warn and needs to be replaced and or a relay installed right next to the starter.  Since I am kind of a geek, and have lots of powerful 12 v relays lying around the shop, I went that route and installed a relay to replace my screwdriver.  Worked like a charm for a while.  Then I found that the cheap ass key switch I bought stopped working.  So I installed a button on the dash board.  Now it works just fine.  Kind of strange, but that’s ok, it makes it even more difficult to steal.

 Brake hoses. 

That is documented here in a post I call Braking Allen.  So now I have nice new stainless steel shrouded brake hoses for both rear tires.  Adjusting brakes on a bus is not as bad as on other cars I have owned.  Still sucks.

Clutch time

I was on my way to pick up my son from school when I went to shift into third, the clutch peddle went to the floor and didn’t come back up.  So with some skill and a lot of luck I managed to turn around and drive home with out stopping, in second gear.  The clutch cable broke at the pivot joint where it attaches to the pedal.  It took over an hour to realize that I can’t get my big fingers into the tiny space where the attachment to the pedal is made.  It another five minutes for me to figure out how to disconnect the pedal.  I used some pliers, washers, bolt, and sweat and managed to make a repair that I hoped would last a few days until I could get a new cable.  I went online to order the new cable and what I found was that I own a bus on the cusp.  The buss I own is a 1968, the same year that they changed to the bay window style.  So on to the CIP1 website I had two choices of clutch cables.  One was 3116mm long and the other was 3200mm long.  I crawled under the bus and tried to measure the distance with out pulling the cable out (I still had to drive the bus) and found that the distance was 10’ 5”.  Converted to metric it came out to be 3175mm.  So I bought both cables, and a nut and pin, just to make sure that I wouldn’t be missing any parts.  

 

When the parts arrived it was time to delve into the project, the fun part is getting the old cable out.  First I tried simply taking the nut off the transmission side and pulling the cable.  It stopped at a tube with an s-curve.  I spend about an hour under the bus with a flash light, reading glasses and a mini screwdriver trying to figure out how to disconnect the damn tube.  For some reason this is not covered in the Volkswagen bible.  I found that it simply required force to pop the tube out of its mountings, straighten it out and pull the cable out.  Installing the new cable only took three tries.  I adjusted the tension and drove it around the block to make sure it was working properly.  Yahoo its good to go.

The great fire is documented here 

After replacing almost the entire electrical system around the engine, fuel hoses, filter, and associated connectors I thought I was done.  Nope, it seems that heat does wonderful things to springs.  So while driving to work a week later I found that the engine seemed to idle way to fast.  I looked in the back and found that the spring that returns the throttle when you let off the gas peddle wasn’t quite as springy as it should be.  So thanks to keeping a Leatherman handy at all times I was able to shorten the spring enough last me until I can find a replacement.     

Windshield

Well while driving home from work the other day and a coming truck flung a sizable rock right into my windshield.  By the size of the star I feel lucky that it didn’t do any more damage.  I also feel lucky because the rock hit in the same windshield as a previous rock made a much smaller mark. So the drivers side wind shield must be replaced, the passenger side is in perfect shape but both weather seals need replacing.  I ordered the replacement weather seals from CIP customs but they do not carry windshields.  So after a little Google searching I found www.vwparts.net, and yes they had the replacement windshield in stock. 

 

I started to place the order, and after going through the obligatory account creation including giving them a password, my e-mail address, snail mail address, phone number, etc, etc, etc, I was finally was able to make my order.  $45.00 for the windshield and $65 for foam packaging!  For that price I expect that the foam packaging is customized by two blind foam artists making $30.00 per job.

 

After my order was complete, the website offered a survey with the promise of receiving a $100.00 for participating.  What the hell, I will play their silly game and see where it goes, if I don’t feel comfortable I can always bail.  There were a lot of generic questions and when the end finally arrived my prize presented itself.  Free magazine subscriptions.  Gah, the last thing I wanted was subscriptions to an endless rain of renewal notices.  I bailed as soon as the first group of potential magazines showed their ugly faces.

 

I paid for the slowest shipping that they would allow and at $13.00 it is a bargain.  I hope to get all the parts with in a few weeks.  Then I will see if replacing window glass is as big a pain as the VW forums claim.  So far they are dead on.

 For all the gorey details of this clusterf$%k please visit this post.

 Looks like I am ordering another windshield. 

And more fudgcicles.

 -pf

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The points

 

Well it happened again.  I was driving home in my HPM when all of a sudden I lost power.  Sometimes this is difficult to notice at first, the HPM doesn’t have much power to begin with.  So here I am on the last two miles before home and the engine just stops.  I pull over to a safe portion of the road and go to the back to see what’s up.  The engine looks fine no shorts, no fire, no wires loose, gas in the filter, no obvious problems.  So I get back in the cab and give it a crank.  It has lots of cranking power, just no spark.  So I get into my storage space under the back seat where I keep my (sizable) stash of tools and spare parts.  I after checking everything electrical I can get my hands on I figure that the trouble is the ignition coil is bad.  Without spark the HPM is a mini mobile home roadside attraction.  So I give my son a call for a ride to NAPA for a new coil.  I am always impressed by NAPA and their magical ability to have virtually any part I need in stock.  Sure enough they had an ignition coil for my bus.  An hour later I have the new coil installed.  It’s time to give the engine a try.  Same as before, engine spins, no spark. 

 

Doh!

 

Something else is wrong.  I tested the coil, and it’s getting power, so where does the coil gets its power from?  Oh, yea, the points. 

 

Palm to forehead.

 

So I check the points.  Sure enough the little plastic rider on the points has broken off.  It’s back to NAPA.  Oops, its 6:10pm and they are closed.  Lucky for me there is another auto parts store in town (checkers), I just hate going there.  In the past this store has done nothing but piss me off.  For instance they had to order spark plugs for my bus, when they arrived they could only find three of the four I ordered.  Then they had the balls to ask if I wanted them to order the missing one.  WTF am I going to do with three spark plugs?  Anyway I had no choice but to try checkers or push the bus home.  I couldn’t believe it, they had them in stock and charged me only $10.00.  What a deal.  Then I got back to the bus and installed the new points, set them by eyeballing the gap and fired it up.  Third time is a charm; it finally started and ran well enough to get me home.  Once home I went ahead and set the gap to .061 and checked the entire ignition system.  Next stop is to buy a new rotor and cap, just in case…

 

You would think that this would be a stressful experience.  Nope, it’s an ancient bus I am talking about. You have to have faith in yourself and your tools to keep em’ running.  I keep telling this to myself.  This kind of thing happens and I have grown accustomed to it.  It does, however, make me wonder, what’s next?  I try to keep every conceivable part on hand just in case.  .  I have spark plugs, accelerator cable, belts, tools, flat fixers, oil, wd40, brake fluid, gear oil, clutch cable, jumper cables, charger, booster battery, fuses, and an amazing amount of tools available in my hidden back seat storage compartment.  I didn’t think of points, for only ten bucks I will get a spare set.

 

What else can break that I can get parts for? 

 

I guess I will find out soon enough.

 -pf