Hi Geza,

What would I do?? Drive it, of course. I'd just go a goodly bit
slower, is all.

I drove 500 miles on the recent Canadian Thanksgiving weekend with a
dropped valve seat on my 73 westy. I noticed immediately when it
failed in Buffalo but I continued southbound to John Brown's Buses in
Brunswick MD and made it home again to Toronto running on three.
Coming home I took the interstate and managed to make much better
time by avoiding the grades on PA219.

It was brutally slow on the hills in PA, but with patience it crested
all of them eventually. When I got home the head was pooched, but it
was done for anyway once the valve seat let go.

As they so often say in these matters.... "Your milage may vary".
One of my buddies had a valve go through a piston on his 68 westy
back in April; and he wasn't going anywhere until that got sorted
out. (ie, roadside rebuild). http://www.pottsfamily.ca/macbus/doombus06/

Happy Trails,

Greg Potts
1973/74/77/79 Westfakia "Bob The Tomato
www.pottsfamily.ca

On 23-Jan-07, at 2:01 PM, Geza Polony wrote:

> Seriously, what WOULD you do in Thorndike with a bad valve? Can you
> imagine
> the towing charges to get Westy to the nearest Vanagon mechanic?