It's terminal. Holes in the body, holes in the frame, everything on it's
last leg. I had to make a deal with the inspection station last year
promising not to take it back.

I have two rust free busses that will be letting this one live on, and the
car won't be junked but is becoming seasonal housing for WOOFers.

I would love to fix it if it's clutch hydraulics.
What's a good way to test it?

-Craig

On Sun, Nov 6, 2011 at 9:54 PM, Scott Daniel - Turbovans <
scottdaniel@turbovans.com> wrote:

> Hi Craig..
> first you sound like you want to get to the bottom of this mystery,
> and fix it,
> then you say if you do pull trans ..
> you don't want to put it back in.
>
> Additonally ..
> I have no idea how good/bad this machine of your is .....
> personally, I think Vanagons are world class vehicles, and overall ..
> the best VW model ever built..
> and I could list 25 other reasonst they are valuable, unique,
> non-replaceble etc.
> I never part any out ..
> unless htey are rusted badly ............crunched, a not-so-great model,
> etc.
>
> I strongly doin't believe in wasting good things in order to get a good
> part or two, or more parking space, or whatever.
>
> The 85 stock vanagon I last worked on that had a bad pilot bearing ..
> was distinctly intermittant, and actually ...
> you can put one together with no pilot brg at all and it'll still work.
> We don't know what your pilot brg is like...
> but in the one I'm referring to, there was just rusty dust left of the
> pilot brg rollers.
> The warning to presever the input shaft by not continuing to  drive still
> stands.
>
> I've made one good one out of two cars before ..
> many times...
> and through the left over one away ..
> BUT ...........they were not Vangaons.
>
> name any vehicle that is so easy to work on, such a great size, comes with
> a huge world-wide family of affecianado's , has endless suppliers for,
> drives very sporty when set up right ..
> and you can sleep in it, and haul tons of stuff ..
> and comes in many configurations ...
> and about 10 other things I'm not thinking of right now.
> They are extremely worth saving.
>
> I use the really bad ones to mine minor odd parts off to save other
> vanagons.
> I have one ..........an 85 with the interior totally burnt up ..
> that van has been a great source of all kinds of oddball parts over the
> years..
> plus it's storage.
> I realize not everyone has a place where they can keep ....whatever.....15
> + vanagons.
>
> Hyducalics ...less apt to be intermitant, but it's stil possible.
> One of my sayings is that no amout of emails or talking can substitue,
> really, for hands-on dissasembly and inspection.
> But then I seriously enjoy working on them.  It's not 'work'  for me
> ..........it's art.
> It's seriously rewarding to take something apart...
> and get it all cleaned, treated against corrosion, good working or new
> parts in ....
> I just like making things better, including fixing them.
>
> scott
> www.turbovans.com
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "craig cowan" <phishman068@GMAIL.COM>
> To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
> Sent: Sunday, November 06, 2011 4:41 AM
> Subject: Re: Transmission Woes
>
>
>
>  This bus is being pulled off the road in the spring and parted out.
>> Hopefully, If I can get my new '90 on the road and inspected soon, this
>> will happen sooner than later. I have no intention of removing the engine
>> or the transmission from this bus, and putting them back in.  Step one of
>> "when this bus is done" will be taking the zetec to move to the syncro, So
>> I can't justify taking it out to replace a part (or parts) on speculation
>> and putting it back in.
>> I'd rather bike everywhere all winter.
>>
>> My concerns were with the pilot bearing, but if that's what's going.....
>> why is it intermittent?
>> If the clutch hydraulics, same question?
>>
>> -Craig
>>
>>
>> On Sun, Nov 6, 2011 at 1:24 AM, Scott Daniel - Turbovans <
>> scottdaniel@turbovans.com> wrote:
>>
>>  I like that one ..pilot brg.
>>> I worked on a vanagon with a bad pilot brg ...
>>> it matched these symptoms..
>>> sometimes OK, other times not.
>>>
>>> On a good portion of the vanagon waterboxer clutches I take apart, I find
>>> the felt dust seal for the pilot bearing  missing . Clutch dust helps the
>>> little needle rollers turn to dust in a few years.
>>>
>>> there is a metal ring pressed into the center hole of the flywheel. It's
>>> there to retain the felt seal.
>>> Shops or people send the flywheel to a machine shop ..
>>> the machine shop removes that ring to machine the flywheel, then forget
>>> about it.
>>> The tech putting it back together doesn't notice that, or know about it.
>>> So .....no dust seal.
>>> Thus .......short pilot bearing life.
>>>
>>> there is a way to fit a diesel vanagon pilot bearing, which as a built in
>>> rubber lip type seal.
>>> Some material needs to be removed, by a machinist, on the crankshaft side
>>> of
>>> the flywheel, just a few thousands since the diesel pilot brg sticks out
>>> of
>>> the crankshaft hole just a tiny bit.
>>>
>>> and yes..
>>> good call on deal with it soon if it is a pilot bearing gone south ( and
>>> not
>>> hydraulics or some other thing going on ) ....since the trans input shaft
>>> itself is a bearing surface..
>>> a cheapness VW has used since the very first VW bugs in the late 40's .
>>> On better cars like volvo or subaru, and most japanese cars..
>>> the nose of the input shaft is not a bearing surface, and instead just
>>> sticks into the middle of a whole self-contained sealed pilot brg.
>>>
>>> so you do want to preserve the nose of your input shaft for sure, and
>>> deal
>>> with it soon, if it is the pilot brg.
>>>
>>> scott
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: "pickle vanagon" <greenvanagon@GMAIL.COM>
>>> To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
>>> Sent: Saturday, November 05, 2011 6:57 PM
>>> Subject: Re: Transmission Woes
>>>
>>>
>>>  I think this should be a failed/failing pilot bearing.
>>>
>>>>
>>>> This would effectively prevent the clutch from ever being truly
>>>> disengaged,
>>>> regardless of how well the clutch itself is working mechanically.
>>>>
>>>> It means that with the engine off *and* the wheels stopped, you should
>>>> be
>>>> able to shift fine, but with either moving at a speed very different
>>>> from
>>>> the other, shifting requires very good rev-matching.
>>>>
>>>> Being able to start with the clutch depressed is consistent with this,
>>>> since the failing pilot bearing can provide much less resistance than an
>>>> engaged clutch.  It's enough resistance that the synchromeshes can't
>>>> cope
>>>> with, but not so much that it prevents the engine from starting.
>>>>
>>>> If this is what it is you want to avoid driving more with it failed
>>>> because
>>>> you'll eventually mess up the shaft where it rides on the pilot bearing.
>>>> (Only time spent with the clutch pedal down counts against you.)
>>>>
>>>> Might as well replace the clutch while you have the transmission out (if
>>>> you look around, there's some oil seal people like to replace at the
>>>> same
>>>> time too), but my money is on the little pilot bearing.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Sat, Nov 5, 2011 at 9:21 PM, craig cowan <phishman068@gmail.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>  I have longstanding history of random transmission issues. Here's
>>>> what's
>>>>
>>>>> up
>>>>> this time.
>>>>>
>>>>> While driving today, I came to a stop light and put it in neutral.
>>>>> When I
>>>>> went to get going again it simply would not go into first (or second
>>>>> gear).
>>>>> Several tries and some rev matching of the engine finally got it and it
>>>>> ran
>>>>> fine for maybe 40 shifts. Then it did it again, won't go into any gear.
>>>>> That seems to me like it's a clutch related problem.
>>>>> So, I went and bled the clutch. It seems to have bled fine. There wan't
>>>>> really any air in there but the fluid coming out was shockingly dark.
>>>>>
>>>>> There is fluid in the transmission, i tired to add some and sure
>>>>> enough,
>>>>> it's full up (with good clean fluid, only a year or so old).
>>>>>
>>>>> It seems to come and go pretty randomly.
>>>>>
>>>>> I have tried pumping the clutch when it does it and can't really tell
>>>>> if
>>>>> this makes a difference or not. I have noticed though that When it does
>>>>> it,
>>>>> if I shut the engine off I can put it into a gear then fire the engine
>>>>> right back up just fine in gear (clutch in) and then it will work and
>>>>> shift
>>>>> as needed. This seems to conflict in my mind with the idea that the
>>>>> clutch
>>>>> is bad, or else it would have lurched when cranking in gear right?
>>>>>
>>>>> Any thoughts?
>>>>> This is an '85 vanagon GL that I turned into a Westfalia years ago,
>>>>> then
>>>>> recently turned back into a 7 passanger. It has a BOSTIG zetec engine
>>>>> and
>>>>> recently had a break line fail to rust (making me think a clutch line
>>>>> could
>>>>> have started leaking...).
>>>>>
>>>>> -Craig
>>>>> '85GL WESTY-7passanger
>>>>> ZETEC in the back
>>>>> '87 SUNROOF Syncro Westfalia
>>>>> '90 GL
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>