1977 Bay Window hightop

I've been busy with the interior. The floor has been wirewheeled, kurusted, and Rustoleumd and now I've been fitting the insulation and the rock and roll bed from Rusty Lee's

Next job is to get some marine ply and board the floor out. I'll be cutting slots for my Unwin tracks for the minibus seat


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Fixed!

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Fitted the tank and the engine on Sunday. Not quite complete as I had a few hiccups - forget to put the accelerator cable through the two pieces of tinware and spent an hour and a half twisted like a bagel with my fingers in knots trying to thread it through.

I'm concerned one of the plugs is a bit cross threaded as it didn't feel good when I replaced the plug. It was running well before so I'm just keeping my fingers crossed on that one.

Biggest thing left are the starter nuts/bolts (the one on the back of the D bolt thing) and a mystery bolt on the other side. The rear tinware had a bolt rusted in place so I removed the engine with it in place. It's caused an issue getting the starter bolts/nuts back in place. Any tips?

The mystery bolt is one I think that I shouldn't have taken out (was feeling around blind) - it seemed to come out covered in oil from somewhere near the top at the rear (driver's side) so I need to sort that, too. Can't seem to find where it went!

I also lost the accelerator cable fixing so I've ordered one to arrive this week.

 

Getting to know your VW: If you forget to thread the accelerator cable through as you refit the engine, pull the engine back even if you have to undo a bunch of things you just did. Also the cable often gets kinked when you forget.

What do you mean by rear tin - rear of vehicle? I guess you mean the one under the firewall? I do not know of anyone removing or refitting this in order to remove/refit the engine. D-bolt - wrap some insulation tape around it so it stays where you put it (from under the van), before you reach around the fan housing to put the washer and nut on. It equivalent bolt on the left side is accessed from under the van. When I did this regularly, I'd forgo the tape, push the D-bolt through and balance a lump hammer on top of the starter to keep it in place. Then carefully get the washer on, push laterally on the washer with one finger helps keep the bolt in place while you get the nut on with thumb and another finger.

Would have been easier if you'd looked while the engine was out. What size is it?

 

It would have been easier to check when the engine was out! I totally forgot about it until I found it in my parts box. I can;t remember the size right now but I'll update later.

For some reason, I can't even feel the thread of the D bolt poking out anywhere. I was many hours down by that point and the light had gone, too. Perhaps it'll reveal itself a little easier the next time I can get on it.

Cable seems fine - managed to do it in the end but I won't forget that fun in a hurry!

 

It's running!

I found the back of the d bolt immediately when I went out to work in it this morning

I used a flat head screw driver to hold the thread in place whilst I threaded the nut on then a ratchet spanner and she's all good.

Starts and runs great!!

The metallic tubes that come from the heat exchangers were really brittle and were damaged in the removal. Can I use the bus whilst waiting for replacements to arrive?

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Will it affect the engine cooling if I use the bus without the heat exchanger tubes fitted in the engine bay?

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Without air flowing into the heat exchangers they’ll get hot and the hot air will be sucked into the engine bay.

 

What if I blank the holes in the tin ware? Just for a few days

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That would stop the hot air from being sucked into the engine bay but it won’t stop the heat exchangers getting hot, ‘cos there’s no air flowing through them. Why don’t you just put the hoses back on, even if they’re damaged and don’t look nice?

 

When I was a lad it was common to see buses without these hoses or blocking the outlets from the fan housing or the tinware holes. Fell apart then got chucked. I'm not suggesting any of that was wise but it wouldn't worry me for a few days.

 

They're split in lots of places - really brittle and fell apart as I was handling them

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Brill, cheers Zed. I'll do just this and hopefully the new hoses will land in a day or two

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Just don't blame me. lol
I've been assuming you mean pottering about locally rather than a long trip. If I was going far I'd fix it first.

 

Haha - I'm just going to leave it until the hoses come as I started to install the minibus seat and unwin rails and had to abandon due to a thunderstorm!