June 29 2014

Today I sewed slip covers from a nice fleece fabric for the armrests. I sew horribly...put they work well.

My wife and I made a replacement bag for our camping table. We wore the original one out. This bag turned out much better...Kim can sew.

Fine Tuning

There are a few fairly minor issues driving me nuts that I am addressing.
1) I've been experiencing occasional bogging of the new motor off a dead stop. 2) Also, it has been idling rough and sporadic. 

3) Prior to the rebuild while in first or second gear at low rpm's the bus would buck as if the throttle was revved and let up. The only solution while driving was to depress the clutch. This seems to have gotten worse since the rebuild.

 I first tried replacing the Signal Filter for Air Flow Meter . This had little if any noticeable effect on the performance of the motor. 

Aftre a lot of thought and reading I decided to replace the Fuel Pressure Regulator. Today I received the new Bosch Regulator and installed it. Immediate much improved idle, and acceleration off the line .

Here is the new Fuel Pressure Regulator installed.

My great friend and VW aficionado , Chris, has been insisting that the Catalytic Converter is the source of the problem.The new higher c.c. motor and the larger stainless steel exhaust is restricting the flow of exhaust gases because of the cat. So, today we also removed the cat. and gutted it and reinstalled it. Another huge improvement in performance. The engine is now receiving fuel and breathing.

Gutted Cat.

Changing out the Regulator and augmenting the Cataylic Converter has solved the acceleration problem off the line. The engine revs much more freely and quickly. A dramatic improvement !

Thanks Chris !!

 Now to smooth out the idle. I am going to change out the Idle Control Air Control Valve, except no suppliers seem to have it in stock...I'll have to wait. Slowly getting her running like a top.

The lunging or bucking problem could be caused by a bad transmission mount. I have inspected it and watched it during a forward and reverse start. It seems okay. I need to think this one through.

As of today, we have 109937 miles on Jesse.

We have logged 3365 since the rebuild. I have changed the oil and filter 4 times. The first time at 47 miles. I switched to synthetic Redline 15W50 at 1500 miles since rebuild.

Third Trip of 2014

We took Jesse on her longest trip since the rebuild. We have a son who lives in Kansas, we all went camping at Perry State Park near Lawrence. The weather was relatively dry but hot !  This trip we remembered the forgotten items from the last trip. 

Oh...I almost forgot to mention, I did purchase the Yakima bike rack, The Swing Daddy. It is perfect for a Vanagon. I figured as the demo video on Yakima website uses a bus exactly like Jesse.Here is the link to their video;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZa-Iee_leQ

Another big advantage I hadn't realized at the time of purchase of this rack is it also doubles as a bike stand for repairs.

The new 3-way cooler working it's cool magic. The cooler worked extremely well in 90 degree heat and only used one 1 pound can of propane over three days !

I also purchased a battery operated fan. It runs on 12V, 120V, built in rechargable nickel cadmium batteries and in a pinch 6 D batteries. It is manufactured by O2 Cool.This was a life saver to have while sleeping ! Sometimes it's the little things that are so important for your comfort.

We raced a huge thunderstorm on our way back home to Chicago. We were on the forward edge of the front for a majority of the drive . Missouri has an insect problem !  :)  We had to make a pit stop to clean of the windshield.

While camping Kim and I are always wanting a form of exercise. Hiking has been our number one activity. Since our son helps run an outdoor/biking store we decided to take advantage of the opportunity. We both purchased Specialized mountain bikes.

Kim's "Fate"

My "Stumpjumper"

We will argue over who gets to make a run for more beer ! :)

No more excuses to get exercise.

Second Trip of 2014

We took Jesse on another short trip to continue working out any kinks which may arise. We drove up to Wisconsin and camped near Lake Geneva. Prior to this year we decided to remove all items from Jesse and re-pack all of our camping and VW service items. This way we could update a lot of our camping gear and rid ourselves of things we never use. This would have worked our wonderfully , except we failed to re-pack a couple essential items. One being the brand new hose attachment for the propane cooler. This camp site did not have electricity . This forced me to use the cooler on 12v. The cooler draws 90 amps ! We were forced to buy ice . The other item we forgot was our new blue tooth speaker. We went without music all weekend.

The rebuilt engine is running great, with one exception, it occasionally bogs down off the line. Jesse runs fine otherwise. I am having a hell of a time trying to figure out why....could it be too much back pressure from the exhaust...could it be the fuel pressure regulator....The ECU...the air flow meter ?