Vanagon - Gnarlodious

My Vanagon speedometer quit working. Turned out to be the square end of the wheel hub was not gripping. I went to the hardware store and got two of the 3/16 "E-clips". I squeezed them closed a little more with pliers and slid both in the slot. I believe two will engage the square rod positively, as it was pretty loose. Watch out, the clips have a way of disappearing while you are holding them with needlenose pliers.

I tried the 1/8th clips, but while I was pushing hard they disappeared. They should be forced go manufacture them in blaze orange. Except they would sell less of them, so it will never happen.

Prime a Diesel Pump

~ You may need to do this when:

If it sat for a couple of years dry.
If the pump was off the engine or has leaks or is full of water or is new and rebuilt.

Of course, you could install an electric fuel pump before the filter or under the tank.

The usual technique is:

Park someplace you don't care if fuel spills.
Loosen the tubes from the top of the injectors with a 17mm wrench.
Remove the fuel hose end at the filter and spray it down with WD40 to clean it.
Loosen the end at the pump so air will go through.
Insert one end in a jug of diesel fuel that's wide-mouthed enough to receive the gnarbule on the tube.
Stuff the opening with a clean rag and energetically squeeze until you get a siphon going.
Tighten the fitting down until enough diesel is flowing to prevent bubbles from flowing back up the tube.
Now crank like hell.
If and when fuel is squirting regularly out of the loose injector connections, stop cranking.
Tighten down the injectors and attempt to start the engine. When it's running well, stop the engine and reconnect the fuel hose at the filter.
Restart.

DON'T TAKE THE TUBE OFF THE BARB unless you are replacing the tube which is a lot of work.

The diesel injectors take a 27mm deep well socket. I have a NAPA NTD627M and it has worked well for years. Snap-On S6104A is also a good one.

Fuel Hoses

~ The fuel hose from the filter to the injection pump should be Polyethylene 3/8"OD, ¼"ID 30 inches for the line in, 14 inches for the return line. Usually found at hardware stores. Polyethylene is stiff and translucent white so you can see through it even after years of heat and grime.
It's stiff so soak the tube end in hot water to push over the barbed metal. No clamps are necessary.
Getting the old tube off the barbed ends is a challenge. Melt them off by heating and pulling. Use of a knife is unwise since damaging the barb can allow air to enter the tube which is under a mild vacuum.
Clean all parts religiously using spray WD40 before assembly.
Prime the tube before attaching to the filter end using any means possible.

The return tube from injectors is NAPA 4219 LC Fuel Line PCV 3.2mm Performs to J30R7. For injector details see this page.

Diesel starting tricks

~ When you slightly loosen the nuts do you have fuel squirting out under pressure? Air in the steel tubes can cause a "bounce" effect in the fuel, be sure to expel all air by allowing it to squirt for a while by cranking with the nuts loose. The fuel spraying out of slightly loosened nuts should be finely atomized. Since air is compressible any bubble will prevent a snappy spray pattern.

How's the compression? Has oil blown out the air filter box in the past?

If the engine has a block heater (and it should), warm it up for a while before cranking. It makes a huge difference, especially in humid weather.

Try this trick. Soak a rag in gasoline and stretch it over the intake while cranking. Messy but effective.

Here's another trick, pour some clean motor oil in each cylinder, enough to seal the rings for a while. That should give you extra compression.

If all else fails, give the recalcitrant van a good stiff pull.

Altitude Adjustment

~ Adjust the delivery rate of the injection pump for altitude.

Adjust the horizontal screw (with locknut) that is above where the injector lines exit the pump. A metal collar is crimped over the adjustment screw at the factory to limit rotation. With the engine off, remove the collar and loosen the locknut being careful not to move the adjusting screw. Mark the original position of the screw so you return to the stock setting if necessary. By turning the screw clockwise, IIRC, the level of fuel delivery is increased. Only turn the screw in very small increments; a slight adjustment can make a big difference. You can tell if you are going in the direction you want by monitoring the idle speed. The idle will increase when you are increasing the fuel delivery; decrease with a reduction in fuel delivery. This also means that the idle speed will need to be adjusted to get the engine to idle at stock RPM. Do NOT rotate the screw past its limit or bad things can happen to your engine.

Brakes

Use a 1/4 inside diameter vinyl tube to bleed the brakes and clutch.

Wipers

~ On the Vanagon, wiper arms turn on their shafts from ice, snow or heavy cats doing Tarzan swings on your windshield wipers. This is actually a safety of sorts in the design. The inside spline areas of the wiper arms are made of very soft metal. The shafts have a tapered spline made of harder metal. When you tighten the arm onto the shaft you're actually cutting fresh splines into the metal of the wiper arm. If it gets hung up and strips, it's just the soft metal of the arm that gives; you can take it off, clean out the splines on the shaft, and assemble. It will sit a tiny bit lower each time this happens. If it ever bottoms out and won't grip, it's time for a new arm (or shim the splines with aluminum foil!)

For a quick on-the-road fix try loosening the nut [beneath the plastic cap, if those are in place], move the wiper arms back to the correct position and retighten the nuts.

To fix it right, take the wiper arms off completely and use a sharp Xacto or razor blade to gouge the splines out. They fill up with oxidized metal over the years and the splines no longer grip. Once you clean out the splines they grip good as new.

Window Tint

~ Plagiarized from John Rodgers:
The purple tint is the result of low grade graphic tint. Looks good for 6 months and then it's gone. Use LLumar. High quality, metal coated, 7 year warranty. Serious UV protection.

As for bubbles, put 2 tablespoons of Johnsons baby shampoo in a 1 quart spray bottle, peel off the clear backing of the tint spritzing the tint as the clear backing is pulled away, spritz the glass and apply. Use an open hand to move the whole sheet in position, then use a credit card (be sure there are no nicks in the edge) and PUSH the card edge along the tint towards the edges. That will remove all bubbles. If you have a high quality tint film, there will be a good glue backing on it that will be uncovered when the clear backing is removed. The glue is activated by the water and shampoo. DO NOT roll down your windows for at least a week. it takes that long for the glue to set and dry. During the interim, there will appear what for all the world looks like bubbles or blisters, but if you have done it right, that is only water/glue acting under the film and it will go away as the glue cures. Don't panic and try to do anything foolish like trying to press it out. You will only cause yourself real grief and may have to replace the tint. If you should find yourself with a peeling situation, then you will have to start over with a fresh piece of tint. Don't try to fix what is there. it's hopeless.

One thing, to manage the tint during the process, there is a little trick you can do. Be sure you have on hand a squeegee, a sharp razor blade or a snap-off-blade cutter. The tint has two parts, the tint itself, and a clear peel off layer called a release liner.
Say you are going to tint the passenger glass. To begin, clean the glass thoroughly inside and outside. Then lower the glass just enough to get the top shape of the glass exposed so a razor can be run along the edge. Then rough cut a piece of tint, spritz the outside of the glass, and stick the tint side of the material to the glass, release layer to the outside. With the SHARP razor cut the tint to shape. Be very careful in cutting because it is easy to scratch the glass.

Once cut to shape, remove the release layer, spritz the glue side, spritz the inside of the glass, and apply the tint with a wide open hand. Then spritzed the surface of the tint. Use the squeegee to smooth the tint from the center out. Then use the credit card.

Plagiarized from Bill N:
The ultraviolet fades your interior, causes sunburn, etc. That's why tint films are made to block it. Temp is a different issue. Light (including UV) passes right through glass. When it hits a surface in the interior, it heats the interior. The surface radiates this as infrared. Infrared cannot pass through glass whether or not it has tint on it, so the heat accumulates. The only way to prevent this is to keep the light from hitting the surfaces inside the vehicle to begin with. That's what tint does. Depending upon the type of tint and light transmission percentage, it keeps anywhere from 30% to over 70% of the solar energy from entering the vehicle to begin with.

We did check interior temps before and after tinting our '81 Westy. Naturally, this was not a controlled experiment. We tried to check on similar days with similar sun load, etc. We live in Arizona, so we get over 80% of possible sunshine (clouds are rare). We saw a 15 to 20 degree difference after tinting. Our tint (metallic) is 35% transmission on the door windows, and 5% (limo tint) on all windows behind the driver.

CategoryVanagon