Bolts working loose? A week after buying my 1989 Vanagon camper while
shopping at Home Depot in Encinitas California, my clutch popped & I could
not get in or out of gear. AAA towed it to the dealership where I had an
appointment to put on those cooling pipes I mentioned in my earlier
messages.

It turns out all the bolts that hold the clutch linkage came loose and the
last one just popped out. A blessing in disguise it turns out. Very easy to
fix-- a ten minute job.

I had every other bolt checked while there. And I plan to crawl under every
few months to check things out myself.

William

----- Original Message -----
From: "Blake Thornton" <thornton@MATH.UTAH.EDU>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Wednesday, November 28, 2001 10:29 AM
Subject: Missing Exhaust bolts

> I climbed in my 84 van this morning and turned it on, and boy did it sound
> rough.  I figured it was just cold (it was probably 15 degrees F here in
> Utah this morning) and I figured the van needed to warm up.  Well, it
> sounded very rough the whole ride and when I got home I looked underneath
> and took a look.
>
> Where the collector pipes (attached to the heads) meet the next pipe (the
> pipe with the O2 sensor in it), there are four bolts (two for each pipe),
> and I only had one.  Somehow three of the bolts came undone!  I put a new
> exhaust gasket (it was missing where the bolts were missing) and put in
> some new bolts, but why did this happen?
>
> I recently put on a new exhaust system (less then a month ago), and I am
> fairly sure I tighten everything down good.  Just to be sure, I checked
> all the exhaust bolts and there were a few that were looser then I liked
> (so I tightened them up).
>
> What do you think?  Was I careless, or was the heating and cooling cycle
> on a new exhaust system enough to loosen the bolts?  Or was it something
> else?
>
> Blake