On Thu, Apr 15, 2010 at 6:34 PM, Alistair Bell <albell@shaw.ca> wrote:

> the way I look at it is:
>
> -our vans are old
> -while mostly well made, some parts are problematical and prone to
> failure apart from usual wear and tear
....

> Vanagons, westies especially, are kinda like owning a boat

Sage advice and I use the same analogy. (having helped a friend with
his Catalina 27)

I would suggest that unless you own one of those "I can eat off the
rear trailing arms" late model beauties <grin>, one POV to take when
approaching maintenance, is that of a restoration type attitude.

Granted, my MO leans toward doing more than is needed, but almost
every time I go to replace or repair a part, I find more that needs
attention. Or more accurately, preventative attention. This often
requires "walking" the well worn path to the archives, Bentley or list
for help, going through the throws of trial and error, and buying more
parts or extra muffler bearing grease (heh). This all obviously takes
time.

Guess I'm saying allow for more time than you think to do maintenance.

Neil.

--
Neil Nicholson '81 VanaJetta 2.0 "Jaco"

http://tubaneil.googlepages.com/

http://groups.google.com/group/vanagons-with-vw-inline-4-cylinder-gas-engines