SoCal VWs

Ugly wheels, cool tires.

P'burg and (Almost) Back

Oil leak fixed, we gassed up to take Ludwig on another shortish highway run and met another ACVW. This guy had just pulled his "wife's" (you guys with your justifications for driving chick cars) Ghia out of his garage after it'd sat there all Winter. We chatted briefly and I was reminded just how ludicrously small KGs are, inside and out.

Ludwig powered over Georgetown Pass (aka Flint Creek Pass) and down into Philipsburg where we thought we'd check out the local thrift store. The windshield wipers have apparently given up the ghost (again), so we Rain-Xed the windshield. 

We promised Esmé a playground awaited her in P'burg, but it was thundering and sprinkling so she was, perhaps wisely, wary of being out. Or maybe she just thought I was gonna put her in jail.

The drive back over the pass into the Warm Springs Creek valley was uneventful until a few miles outside of town when Ludwig started having a terrible rough running fit. I managed to get him into the SafeWay parking lot about twelve blocks from our house. We thought we'd give him a rest so we went inside for victuals.

But when we came back out, he still wouldn't start. He's always had a hot starting issue (it's a wiring thing), but I thought we'd waited long enough. Unfortunately, the standard clutch popping went unrewarded. Defeated, we walked home. Hey! At least he didn't leak any oil!
I went back that evening after E was in bed and he fired right up. But what was that terrific stumbling that'd driven us to the grocery store in the first place?

View P'burg and (Almost) Back in a larger map

Next: It gets worse.

Not Acceptable

Contrary to one of the more idiotic articles of received 'wisdom' about them, it's not just a matter of course that old V-dubs leak oil.

So the English language's considerable body of profanity came up short when I tried to express my feelings toward the 20W-50 dripping from Ludwig's hours-old engine.

After much cleaning and driving to determine the source of the offense, it was determined to be at or around the oil pump's cover plate. (Cover plate? Type IV oil pumps are basically NLA, so Ludwig has a Type I oil pump--disappointingly, a common enough modification--which requires the fitting of a cover plate.)

The fan housing needs to come off to get at the plate to reseal it. I was advised that all this--fan housing removal and oil pump cover plate replacement--could be done with the engine in the car. Indeed, as our experience shows, it can be done with the engine in the car. But the sense of 'can' in this case is about the widest sense of the word; it 'can' be done in that it doesn't violate a law of logic. However it nearly violates several laws of physics. Anyone finding themselves in a similar situation is hereby issued this caveat: Take. The engine. Out.

Esmé took the above few pictures, incidentally. She took this one because she (allegedly) didn't know I'd put this taillight back on, and was happy it was back.

There's the leaker: that lower left nut.

Seriously: Take. The engine. Out.

Amazingly, we were able to get it back together and it doesn't leak [knocks on wood]. In other words, two amateurs, under less-than-ideal conditions and while attending to their three year-old, were able to do what our very experienced and highly regarded engine builder with his trained staff and perfect workspace couldn't (or rather, didn't). That's not bragging--it's infuriating.


Next: Even more problems! Yay!

SoCal VWs

Trip 4

Tater Tot and I are doing the best we can to help get this new engine ready for big road trips. The other day we took Ludwig to Fairmont Hot Springs Resort and Spring Hill.

 Fairmont has a pretty cool playground, even if the depiction of our solar system is disappointing.

Here's their wildlife zoo (that's what they call it), there's goats, ponies, ducks and a llama. Tater likes it alright.

 Anaconda smoke stack in the distance.

Here's the spring where people fill up on water from all around. We parked here for about 15 minutes before turning around, and there was a steady flow of people coming to tank up on water. The guy in the photo got no less than 20 gallons, and from the county on his license plates he lives about 100 miles from here.

Next up: dealing with what's inside this package from Rocky Jennings Enterprises. It was delivered to our house right after Tater and I got home from our drive. Did we forget to mention? He sold us an engine with an oil leak.

View Larger Map

(miles 23416-23462)