gee, it's good to hear that i havent been singled out for special treatment.

years ago, i bought my first vw, a carot ornage 73 poptop.  it ended up with
a 77 fi motor, which a year or so later had a problem of cutting out
randomly.   Then a pattern developed that it was after the bus got good and
warmed up.   i finally took it to a shop, as my limited knowledge (tune up)
 didn't help.  it was not the points.  

the shop charged me lots of money and told me notings wrong.  they couldn't
get it to die.   :-( !

after further investigation, it turned out to be the head temperature sender,
which cost me $15 for a new one, and took less than 5 minutes to change.
   so i said, hey, i can do that, and haven't paid for a repair since. 

which has kept my problems like this to a minimum,  as it only happens with
people i don't know that i get parts from.  which doesn't happen much, cause
now all the local junkyards know me, and the guy at the shop i like,   i
don't go to the one with the alleged cokehead  (yes duh, i know what year the
bus is,   yes im sure it's that year. )    And i always check to make sure
it's the right part.     dont use those india made wheel cylinders, the
insides are the wrong size.  

i get it, though,  like a couple weeks ago a was working on a motor,  which
had blowby.   Three head studs were pulling out, and one was a self tapping
stud.  so i motored on down to the vw store for case savers,  i needed an
oversize one for the hole where the selftapping stud pulled out.   then
across the street to the screw store, to get the thread tapper and correct
drill bit.

i go in and say what size thread tapper i need, and show the guy the case
saver, say what it's for.  He asks if 'they'  need the drill bit too.   I say
that I do.  he asks what size drill 'they' have.   I say  that  I have a half
inch chuck.      etc.

I was kind of amused by this exchange and the pronoun switches. 

  Get a grip.

clara