Hi Mark,

What your email is telling me is that the original parts are much
higher quality than most of what's available in the aftermarket.  It is
a good idea to carry a spare, but it's not always a good idea to
replace a part before it breaks... you might be replacing it with an
inferior product.

There are a lot of parts out there that I **Know** this to be
verified... the original shifter bushings on an aircooled bus last much
longer than the replacements available. Same thing applies to a lot of
seals and cables, and most of what comes from Brazil.

As they say, Your Milage May Vary.

Happy trails,

Greg Potts
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

1973/74/79 Westfakia Conversion **Bob the Tomato**  LY3H
1977 Sunroof Automatic L63H/L90D
http://www.pottsfamily.ca/westfakia
http://www.busesofthecorn.com

On 12-Mar-05, at 10:04 PM, mark drillock wrote:

> I'm not sure he needed a new engine in the first place. Why was it
> done?
> The compression readings he posted in Aug 2002 seemed to be what
> prompted the whole engine saga. Given how far and how often Larry ended
> up limping around the country on crippled rebuilt motors it certainly
> seems possible to me that he might  have been better off sticking with
> the original until it died, assuming it even did. If he was willing to
> limp the high dollar motors around so often, why not just limp the
> original until it died?
>
> There were other breakdowns that occurred all too soon after he had
> replaced parts. Wheel bearings come to mind. Why did he get all new
> ones? Then a couple thousand  miles later he has a failure. Was there
> even a failure to start with or was the full replacement another
> preemptive effort gone bad?
>
> Over many years on this and other VW van lists there have been stories
> from people who spent great sums on their Vanagon getting ready for a
> big trip. The Caravana trip list comes to mind. These folks were going
> to the tip of South America and back in a group of VW vans. Some
> members
> replaced a lot of expensive things before the trip and still had those
> same things break down early on. Perhaps there is something to be
> learned from this.
>
> The syrup was good, Ben, thanks!
>
> Mark
>
>
> Benny boy wrote:
>
>> """As for Larry, he made what seems like a classic mistake to me. Some
>> people figure that you can preemptively replace enough stuff as an
>> insurance policy to ensure  a more trouble free trip. Time and again
>> this has proven to be a waste of time and money. Fix what is truly
>> broken and save the rest of the money until you really need to spend
>> it."""
>>
>> I don't agree Mark... when you leave for a 1 to 2 years trip, you do
>> as much
>> as you can so you won't loose to much time in the shop.... that is
>> 60k miles
>> trip! not your everyday weekend trip.
>>
>> He did one thing wrong, and he knows about it! Wrong choice of
>> engine....but
>> look now, he as an broken AVP after 9k miles...
>>
>> Life IS A risk!
>>
>> Cheers, Ben
>>
>>
>>
>
>