Autopendium :: stuff about old cars

Tags: bus volkswagen vw

...I have been busy. New job. New classes heading for a new career. All sorts of stuff have kept me from wrenching on the bus is a major fashion. Little stuff, sure, but no big projects!

Well, every car has its way of reminding the owner that "Hey, I need some attention here!"

So when Amber and I were out driving in the Santa Cruz Mountains last weekend and it started becoming more and more difficult to turn left, I knew that some repairs were due.

I had also recently purchased new cargo door seals and cargo door stops to silence the incessant rattling I get from that area.

Well, the bus had gotten to a point where it needed a little help staying started when cold...so that was on the list.

Anyway, last Monday I tooled over to the parents' place to do some work. I figured three hours and I'd be out of there. Well, while fiddling with the carb, timing, and points (all of which needed adjusting), we realised that I had no brake lights! Okay, so there's an additional project for the day (thankfully it was just a bad connector at the brake light switch).

The cargo door stops became more of a chore because all the old ones were just spinning on the bolts to which they're attached. Two needed the use of the sawzall to get them off. One sheared and needed to be drilled out. Honestly, that project probably wound up being an hour longer than it needed to be!

The cargo door seals were a bit easier, but it also exposed some of the more serious rot I have in my rockers. But with a bit of cleaning and some sweet 3M adhesive spray, my doors are soooo much quieter than they've ever been!

Well, the time came to look at the steering box. I had felt something a little off in the steering a while back, saw that the steering dampner was worn, replaced it...and honestly, I could feel the oddness even more! So my gut said something was definitely wearing out inside the box. Or maybe the box was going dry!

It turned out that the adapter plates for the Bice bumper I have actually block all the access to the steering box, so with a bit of muscle (and a very sore arm four days later), I removed the bumper so we could get at the box.

So I crawled underneath and scraped away probably decades worth of dirt to expose all the bolts, adjusters, and plugs I needed to access. First, the filler plug...came out nice and easy. We filled it with some gear oil...overfilled it, actually. So we let gravity drain it out...and noticed sludgy black oil coming out of the bottom where the horn wire exits. Ah, should this be happening?

I devised a "diaper" out of a large ziplock bag and some zip ties to see if this leak continues under usage.

At that point we decided it was better to see if filling the box made any difference before we try adjusting anything and risk making the steering worse.

Well, five hours after we starting working on the bus, everything was buttoned back up and the tools put away. Sadly, the steering still feels off...not as bad as it was, but something isn't right. Honestly, my gut still says that I am headed for a steering box replacement soon.

Oh, as a side note (because I didn't blog about it properly), my bus was used in a promotional video for the National Auto Auctioneers Asso. 2009 conference in San Francisco. It was a blast and I can't wait to see the final product. They were cool with me taking pix and shooting my own video...so here's a video from coming back over the Golden Gate.

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