Adrian's Bus - Intro and Post #1

I've recently started taking on outside VW work in my spare time, while I'm between my own projects. I've worked on a few peoples bugs recently but have also met a gentleman named Adrian through the BugPack group. Adrian has a '72 Bus that's been sitting for some time. He needs me to get it running and safe for a cross-country trip... Since he is currently cross-country in BC, I will be posting here as often as possible so he can follow the progress.

So far the experience hasn't been good for Adrian. I found a tow company that gave us a great rate on towing the bus from Brantford here to Oshawa. Unfortunately the word came back that a tire caught fire on the way here, and the whole delivery was delayed by a week. It's a fishy story, since tires don't typically catch on fire. So, it waited in Brantford to be flat-bedded to my home.

It just showed up at 10pm, 1 hour ago. It's dark and raining, so I haven't done a full inspection, that will follow. For now it's clear the driver's front tire is flat and the tire is totally mangled. In order to move it in my driveway I pumped up the spare and installed it. As I was doing so it appears I came across the cause of the fire and tire damage...

The outer part of the rotor is fused right into the caliper.. What's more remarkable is the inner part has broken free from the outer - see the clear line half way along the surface of the rotor? This allows the wheel to spin somewhat freely now. It's not clear whether it was like this ahead of time or it was slightly jammed. The friction would have turned it red hot for it to break like that - enough for the grease in the hub to catch fire. The tow driver actually confirmed it appeared to be coming from the hub, not the tire.

I feel the tow driver has no fault in this. There was no way for him to know this was going to happen.

So one thing's for sure.. This bus will need a new tire, new rotors and pads, and most likely brake calipers. I will need to do a full inspection on the brake system to come up with a list.

I stayed home tonight to receive the bus. Tomorrow is a VW camping event. I should get a chance to look into this further on Monday so we can get the parts on order.

Fixing an Oil Leak? No, Replacing the Bus Engine!!!

Despite recent inactivity on this blog, there has been lots of activity in the garage. The Speedster broke a transmission mount at the June Jitter Bug. It was patched by John's Bug Shop and permanently repaired by me a few weeks ago. That meant pulling the engine again, new mounts, transmission straps, etc.

The bus had been running better than ever, but I was really working the engine hard to get it up hills, revving higher than I would have liked. Possibly as a consequence of this, the engine developed an oil leak at the engine-to-transmission seam, meaning the flywheel seal (aka rear main seal, even though it's on the FRONT of the engine) was the likely culprit. I ordered a new flywheel reseal kit from German Supply, as well as a crank seal and o-ring for the fan end of the engine.

This was the first time I've had a bus engine out. It wasn't too bad, but there were some big surprises along the way, so please read on:
Despite being my first bus-engine pull, it did come out fairly easily. The first surprise was the foam engine seal was shot. There goes another $50. These pics were taken after a lengthy pressure-washing of the engine and engine bay..

The tin was mostly solid, but wet with oil, rusty, and covered in overspray.
Here was the biggest surprise... My "2L" engine is a 1700!!! It is possible this CB case was bored out, but it has 1800 heads at best and unknown bore & stroke...

The fuel pump boss should have been a dead giveaway. Somehow I always ignored it.

This is a freshly rebuilt 2L with zero miles on it. I picked it up last year after I found metal chunks in the engine... After discovering my 1700, I decided to install this one.

So, the swap begins. I hauled the engine over where I could work on it.
I pulled my exhaust from the 1700.
I decided to use the shroud from the replacement engine too, since it had matching serial numbers. The CB engine also had a GD shroud... I pressure washed everything as an initial cleaning.

Vanessa spent an hour or so with a wire brush on the tin.

While I welded up some of the holes and rot.
Vee also prepped the tin for paint.
Though I was never a fan of painted fanshrouds, my attempts at polishing failed and I became a big fan of painting it... Two $3.99 rattle cans handled the shroud and the intake runners handily.

The rest of the tin took two more cans of gloss black. I know flat black is more "correct" but I couldn't resist.


This cheap paint looks really good!

Everything got two coats.

I put all the 1700 pieces back together and rolled it to the side of the shop for storage. For now I'll keep it as a spare.
Here the assembly process has begun.

This morning I started adding the FI components.

While the engine was out it made sense to change the input shaft seal on the tranny.

I used my hoist to lift the engine off the stand.

I dragged it over to the bus, then swapped it onto my jack.

It went in pretty easily, considering I left my tranny in place..
Once the cross bar was connected, along with the two bottom studs, I was ready to put the top bolts in.
I held the bolts from underneath while Vanessa threaded the nuts on.


Once I bolted up the exhaust I cranked the engine for oil pressure, then connected the coil and tried it. Crank, crank, BOOOOOOOOOM!!!! The timing was way off... I adjusted things, tried again, and it started right up!! I set the timing to 7.5 BTDC, slightly adjusted the idle, and went for a couple scoots around the block. It is a whole new bus!!!!

Here I am, happy, filthy, and hungry.

Sure looks different without the bumper.
I need to adjust the valves and hook up my CHT gauge before I go further than around the block.. Oh, and the bumper should go back on too!