How Ludwig got his groove back

We've had a request for the tale of Ludwig's re-animation after the woes wreaked upon him in Death Valley, to wit, his getting stuck in second. A previous post shows our removal of his engine and transmission, and What I Found There.
Unfortunately, from an aesthetic point-of-view, this post describing the reinstallation of these components might be lacking. It is difficult to take pictures when you are as mad and frustrated as we were when we tried to put Ludwig's motive components back in. "Installation is the reverse of removal" indeed.

We did some other stuff while Ludwig was laid up waiting for his trans-mission to be rebuilt. This is a picture of the cockpit as it comes stock. (Well, the floor mat is wrong; a Westfalia from the factory has carpeting, not the black rubber mat seen here. The old orange mat was completely destroyed by mouse urine during Ludwig's comatose years. We found a good used rubber one in Ventura for cheap and put it in. I think that the "incorrect" rubber mat is more conducive to the use of a camper anyway. Plus the extension on the shifter ("chick stick") wouldn't've been a factory accessory. But I digress.)

Here you can see the result of installing the package tray from the Bus Depot (good people). Quite a useful addition, we think, and much more practical--and in keeping with Ludwig's overall mid-1970s aesthetic--than the bamboo package trays that are also available. Drilling is required, but like I've mentioned before: Ludwig is for driving, he isn't a museum piece.

Another thing we did was replace the x-year old shock absorbers with cringingly expensive Koni's (also from the Bus Depot). Koni is a Danish company that makes a range of high-performance shocks. Example: Konis are standard equipment the Lamborghini Gallardo, a $180,000 car. They hadn't made shocks for the second-generation Type 2 in years, but a dedicated bus lover ("Ratwell"--see link at right) convinced them to make a limited run for busses like Ludwig. (Thank you, Richard.) This is Melissa putting in the fronts; there was much easier access to the rears with the engine out.
It might just be the hype, but on my first drive with the Konis in, I was nearly moved to tears. With these shocks and the right tires, Ludwig drives like a dream.

When Rancho was done with the transmission, we took Fang Fang to Anaheim to pick it up. Rancho are also good people. The guy I talked to, I think his name was "Luis", said that this particular tranny is very desired on the sand rail circuit because of its gearing and strength. I guess Ludwig's had just had enough. I suspect it had 200,000miles on it at least when it gave out.

We took the 405 (that's how you refer to highways in SoCal--"the 405", "the 5", "the 217") part of the way back. This is the highway made famous by a certain former USC running back when in 1995 he had his buddy drive him down it nice and slow. Maybe he wanted to enjoy the beautiful Los Angeles views--click on the picture and try to see the San Gabriel mountains through the smog.

This is where the pain started. I've helped take engines out and put them back in several air-cooled VWs in my life, probably a dozen different times, including Ludwig's. But the operative word is "helped". I'd only done it with (01)Melcher or (02)McDonald or Groaner, or some combination of these guys. This time it was just me and Melissa (I'm not dogging on her ability, she was great. But she lacked the crucial experience), and I just couldn't (can't?) muster what it takes to get that bear back in. Maybe I shouldn't've listened to an ACVW mechanic in Santa Barbara who told me it was "crazy" to put the engine and transmission back in as a unit. Instead, we put the transmission in seperately, and tried to mate the engine to it. After all, that's all I'd ever done before anyway; I'd never had a transmission out before. "Too many things to balance on the jack and try to line up all at once," he said. BS. Next time they come out together and they go in together. (Probably.)

In the end, we didn't have time to tow the whole schmear to a mechanic--with a lift, what I want is a lift--to have him put it back in. We put the engine in the back of Fang Fang with the cats (why don't more people love station wagons?) and pushed Ludwig onto a trailer, hooked it up to the moving van, and undignifiedly towed him to Missoula. He'd've been towed in any case, but it still seemed undignified somehow. We dropped him off at Mountain Imports and had him back a few weeks later, with all four gears and no more slop in the shifter. His engine now has about 5000miles on it, and the tranny has fewer than a thousand, making Ludwig an almost new vehicle, mechanically at least.

Thanks to Craig, who helped us during this trial, and to Ian, Luke, and Kevin who helped push Ludwig onto the trailer.

nota bene: Here and elsewhere I've referred to the thing that transfers engine power to the wheels as the "transmission". Well, technically this is incorrect. All manual ACVWs have transaxles, not transmissions. The reason for this discrepancy is available upon request.