Boy, I love it when preventative maint. pays off!

I changed my broken clutch cable on the '71 Bus (Matilda) about two
weeks ago, and I ordered a new accelerator cable at the same time.
Well, the cable was binding a little lately, so I figured I would
go under and grease her up this weekend. 

I was pulling all 17 feet (3 meters) of cable out from under the bus 
like a big tapeworm, when it snapped! Right there in my hands! There was
a segment that was very rusty, and about half the nominal diameter.

Buy, was I lucky it had happened on a warm fall day, instead of some
snowy, slushy day on the side of the road! When preventative maint.
turns up stuff like this, I love it. (I also found a loose lower shock
mount that was making a noise I was attributing to an old ball joint.)

Word of caution: DOnt pack you accelerator tube with grease. I did,
using a grease gun and a rubber coupler made from fuel hose, and when
I was done, and reinserted the cable, the spring in the back was not
strong enough to pull the peddle back up. I had to flush the hose with
almost a quart of 10-w-40, and it is still a little stiff. I am still 
wary of COLD weather freezing the grease. I think I will get a stronger 
spring for the back. Use just plain old oil, or mabye 90 weight hypoid.
Pack about an inch of grease into each end to keep dust and water out.

BTW, I took most of the advice given a week or so ago, and now the hesitation
problem is mostly cleared up. Turns out it was a combination of an
intermittant voltage at the choke and a lean mixture. I still have to
figure out how to ream the carbon out of the carb heater tubes without
removing the engine. Mabye take the muffler off? (Yeah, right!)

--- Chris Chubb (cchubb@ida.org)
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