Hi Mark,
Thanks for taking the time to elaborate on your latest European adventure.
You are my hero!
Hope the rest of the trip goes well, & you continue to show us how to deal
w. the cards you got!
It makes moi appreciate the little, & I mean very tiny issues, we go thru
w/ our vehicles!

Cheers,

Tom

On Tue, May 24, 2016 at 3:05 AM, Steve Williams <
steve@williamsitconsulting.com> wrote:

> Hi Mark,
>
> What an epic!  I feel your pain and truly appreciate your taking the
> time to vent...er..share your trials and tribulations with us all!
>
> All the best with your repairs and your travels!
>
> Cheers,
> Steve W.
>
>
> On 24/05/2016 12:26 AM, Mark Drillock wrote:
>
>> After spending the 3 day weekend at the campground in Amsterdam I went
>> early Tues morn to the storage place to let them know I was expecting
>> parts
>> to be delivered there from Van-Cafe.The parts had already been dropped off
>> by DHL and they were shocked at how fast that happened from California.
>>
>> Since the new head and gaskets were now in hand they said I could use part
>> of their shop starting Wed afternoon and would come tow me back from the
>> camp before lunch. On Wed this happened and they put my van on their only
>> lift. I started pulling the exhaust and then the head, hoping there would
>> be no other issues along the way. It all came apart without too much
>> struggle and nothing broke in the process. Alas, once the head came free
>> there was a visible crack all the way through the cylinder wall itself,
>> making the cracked head the least of my worries. I could catch my
>> fingernail in the crack and clearly would need to replace the piston and
>> cylinder to get the engine running again, not just the head.
>>
>> I called the shop guys over to show them the ruined cylinder. The manager
>> asked if I was able to make the fix if the parts could be had. I said yes,
>> but I would need a little help. He called around and found a parts place
>> an
>> hour away that said they could get a set the next day, Thursday. I would
>> need to go to pick it up from the parts place Thursday once it was. Then I
>> cleaned my work area and they pushed my van outside to a place where it
>> was
>> not in the way of their very busy operation. I rode my bike back to the
>> campground where I had rented a small cabin to stay in while my Westy was
>> at the shop.
>>
>> So early Thurs we went out to the town where this VW parts store and
>> repair
>> shop was. I wanted to see their shop and ask about the possibility of them
>> taking over the job if I couldn't manage it. The place was called
>> Bus-Brothers and there were lots of bay window buses as well as what we
>> call Vanagons parked out front and in the shop service stalls. I liked
>> what
>> I saw but it turned out that they were booked up solid for a few months
>> with no chance of helping me with my problems any time soon. He also said
>> that what I was trying to do wasn't a job many shops would try, as they
>> would just tell the customer to get a rebuilt engine instead. The new
>> piston/cylinder set was delivered during lunch while I was talking to them
>> so I paid for it and went on my way back to my dead van.
>>
>> Once back at the shop, I asked if there was a place I could work on the
>> van
>> where I would be less in the way. I would need all my wits about me to do
>> this fiddly job and didn't want the time pressure of being in the way of
>> their main service lift and their guys working around me. They opened a
>> nearby garage door, pulled out the vehicle parked inside, and pushed my
>> van
>> in. So I had a nice covered work area with level paved surface to work.
>> Did
>> I mention it was raining?
>>
>> I spent about 4 hours at the shop, getting both right side cylinders and
>> pistons out of the engine. The shop closed before I was done doing this
>> but
>> they let me stay after hours, alone in the shop, and go about my work. I
>> told them I would need to make a tool to pull the piston pins and they
>> showed me where they kept lengths of threaded rod and other materials. I
>> would need to cut one to length and use spacers and nuts to press the pins
>> out of the rod ends to free the old pistons. It all came apart fine, just
>> a
>> little tedious and complicated. I could have stayed later but I wanted a
>> fresh day to begin putting the new parts in. I was beat by this point
>> anyway, as I hadn't been sleeping well with all the worries in my head.
>>
>> Here I was, engine apart on Thurs night and my wife was flying from Calif
>> to Berlin on Sat where I was to pick her up at the airport. This seemed
>> unlikely as that was over 400 miles away and me with no van.
>>
>> Mark
>>
>

--
Tom Buese