It's hard for any experienced vanagon owner to pass another without talking  
about our passion for these vehicles. I had a similar experience recently in 
my  home town with a stranded Weekender. I doubled back on the interstate to 
see why  he was in the brake down lane. Turned out to be a battery problem and a 
 jumpstart got him going connecting my jumper cables to his (we were end to 
end  in one narrow lane). I found that he was a new owner of the vehicle so I 
told  him of a few important things to check and keep an eye on, Most 
importantly the  fuel lines. I told him that the best thing that he could do was to 
join  Vanagon.com. Good Karma on your part will surely be repaid to you many 
times  over in the days to come Ben. Thanks for giving Vanagon owners a good  name.
 
David Clarkson
90 Westy (264,000 miles)
 
 
In a message dated 3/2/2009 8:44:53 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
huotb@VIDEOTRON.CA writes:

""""having a car issue in the boonies or Mexico or wherever is part of  the
fun and adventure.Great way to meet people too.
There is a natural  tendency, usually, to help a traveler having a 
problem.""""

Reading  that thread, "Yucatan" and seeing that some are afraid to travel, i
will  post the little adventure that happen to me in Florida a few days ago.
Now,  it's me who is semi stranded somewhere north of Albany NY, dried up  30k
miles old Lobro drive axle (right outer) trying to outrun the eastern  storm.
got to find me some lubricant so i can make the last 180 miles  home.
Horrible noise it was, and that lasted 500 miles... he he  he.

Here is the story i  wrote:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
I’m  sitting here in the south enjoying one of my last night in FL and a  men
come to me... (It’s like a movie, i start by the end....)

This  week i met some Vanagon owner on this campground, about 5. All in  their
60+. So I came back here in Fort De Soto south of St-Pete after a few  nice
night spent in The Keys, beside my site, a 91 Westy, In the morning  the
owner came and talk a bit about westy and stuff, after a wile he told  me
that he had coolant leak problem and he was going to a shop! Yea, of  course
i’ll do nothing, so i took a look and it was only the EX tank  leaking,
cracked. I told him to order one from the dealer and i would  change it. The
day after he came with a new tank, so i started the easy job  but... of
course, the darn coolant sender broke in 2 pieces... we call VW  and NAPA but
nop! Ok, i went to my van hopping i had a spare one, after 30  min i found
one... lucky him! Ok, all good, but now we have 3 more westy  owners around
us + a few other curious folks, it’s all good and fun. I’m  not done of
course!!!! So the owner ask me a last favour , he said he as a  noise in one
wheel (i have notice that but i said nothing...), so i take  the van for a
spin and grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr... not nice, i said to him, 2  thing, something is
broken in the left rear wheel braking system or a wheel  bearing is really
really torn apart... We came back to the site and i told  him to have that
check out. The rest of the afternoon was spent talking  about westy stuff
with the guys from Ohio and NY who BOTH owned their westy  since new! Just to
say that there is many VW Vanagon owner out there that  don’t spend their
days on Internet and The Samba Smile

While i was  fixing the tank a saw a few horrible thing, one was of course
the fuel line  and second was the very rusty 2.1L oil cooler metal line. I
saw a few other  small stuff and told him about it.

Ok, 2 days have passed and no sign  of the men... so tonight, i was
wondering? I don’t know, just a small  thanks would have been nice. I thought
he was gone. So the first men who  came tonight was the guy from Ohio, we had
a beer and he told me about  owning his van for more 24 years, WOW! He had
the engine done lately and  was still very happy with his van, it was his
first year (65yo) that he  could fully enjoy the van... he has been traveling
for 4 month, he had  dream of that for many years, finally, he could! That is
the nice  story!

So he went and a second men came... it was my guys with the 91.  So thankful
for my help but sad in some ways. He said: Ben, it was the  wheel bearing,
it’s torn apart, they said at least 4 hours of work + parts,  so well over
$500 in FL.

He look at me, thank me again and hug me,  he had a $100 bill in his hand...
of course i said no! His wife was as  thankful...

He look at me with strange eyes and gave me his phone# and  e-mail. He said,
i want to sell it, we took the decision., if you ever know  someone.

I feel like shit tonight, i feel like i have broken some  dreams!!!! They
have been traveling in that van for more than 15 years  without any major
problems. They are an old couple, over 75yo (Respect!). I  told them the
truth about what i have seen., just out of respect and for  safety. I
understand their need for security, at that age, you don’t want  to spend
your nights in a motel wile your van is being fix...

What a  nice couple, i hope i have done the right thing!!!

Anyway, that was my  story. I’m now sitting around a camp fire writing on my
3G cell  connection/10in Netbook and enjoying the sunset. I hope they had a
lot of  sunset! I hope you have enjoyed, or even learned something about  that
story, i know i have.

Cheers,  Ben
--------------------------------------------------------------------
All  is fine now, they had the bearing fix and are on they way  home.

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