Hi Karl,

Be careful.. I went the same route - bought an '84 GL cheap because of the
known head gasket problem, pulled it out because I hate working upside
down, then decided to go the full montey and do the entire engine. Sure am
glad I did because the bottom end definitely needed help, too. I just used
the Bentley, Tom Wilson's book (although it's for air-cooled's), the list
vendor's websites, some knowledge gained on this list & a bunch of horse
sense. Followed Robert Lilley's advice & am getting the rotating parts
balanced before reassembly.  While I had the engine out, figured I might as
well have a look at the trans, too, so it's on the garage floor, too. Then
while I had the clearance, I hit all the little rust spots in the engine
compartment with Corroless and some paint. Replaced all the CV's while the
axles were off.  Then I did the rear brakes shoes & decided to replace the
wheel cylinders while I'm in there because of the age of the van. The
flexible brake lines looked OK, but they got replaced too because of the
age of the van. But while I had the wheel cylinders off, the brake backing
plates were butt-ugly with rust so I pulled them, too, & hit them with the
bead blaster & a new paint job. (Had to buy a bigger compressor & re-wire
and re-plumb the garage because the old one wasn't producing enough air for
the blaster and the new airtools, but that's another story.) The rear
trailing arms look pretty ugly next to the new backing plates, but I held
the line on pulling them & blasting them because I knew what was sure to
follow next. The exhaust pipes were all rusty, too, so they got blasted and
painted with some high temperature coating. All the fuel lines are about to
be replaced, the gas tank's about to be dropped for gasket replacement just
because it's a good time to do it, and the long coolant lines are due to be
pulled & repainted or replaced because people on this list talk about them
failing. I haven't even gotten anywhere near the front end yet.  I'm sure I
will find plenty more things while I'm in there. I'm looking at Bulley's
website and then my van & thinking "Hmmm..". Somebody should have warned me
before I bought this thing that I was buying a lifestyle rather than a
hobby. All my friends think I died because I never hang around with them
anymore & my son knows that on the weekends I get him that we are working
some project in the shop together. On the 914 (got 2 of those, too) list
this is known as DirkWright's disease. There is no known cure for it.

Frank Miller

Alternative Business Systems
"Leaders in Customer Relationship Management Solutions"
4216 Indianola Avenue
Columbus, OH  43214-2826

Tel: (614) 447-0060
Fax: (614) 263-9086
URL: www.altbussys.com