“She’s like a new car!” The kiss of death, right there. I’ve had my current '73 Baja bug over 15 years, I know better than to let it hear something like that.
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I’ve heard (of a few brands): “Make sure to look for a patch of oil underneath it. If there isn’t one then you know it needs oil.”
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My 1994 Toyota pickup (Hilux to you non-Yankees) was the only car I ever bought new. Cost $7650, since the new-for-1995 Tacomas had just arrived, and they needed to clear out the old '94s but quick. My niece still drives that truck up in Alaska, with well over 200,000 miles on it. Certainly the most value I ever received for my automotive dollar. But otherwise I prefer my vehicles to be older. My current '04 Sienna and '07 RAV4 are a sop to fatherhood and practicality. I miss my '62 Buick, the Super Beetle, the '68 F250, and even the Mustang IIs, and I’ll never get rid of my Cougar. I like driving and working on vehicles I thoroughly understand.
Heh. I learned to drive in a 1974 Renault 12 wagon, just like this:
Four-speed stick, black vinyl upholstery, and sixty asthmatic ponies under the bonnet. Zero to sixty in somewhat under a month. My Dad learned to refuse to give jumpstarts to stranded motorists in this car, since it generally blew out the alternator, which cost some $400 and took weeks to be shipped from France. God only knows why he bought that car (which even the dealers pronounced “Ren-ALT” in 1970s San Diego) instead of a Pinto or Vega or similar less-weird thing.
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[quote=“jlw, post:10, topic:49330, full:true”]
Normal operating conditions and my 2.3L GoWesty waterboxer with the AT let me hold 72-75mph on most freeways and most inclines. I slow down up really big monsters, like going over the Sierra Nevada. No way an air-cooled will do that.[/quote]
Back in the day, a great cure for Slow Microbus Syndrome was the Corvair engine swap. My dad bolted a 110 HP Corvair powertrain (with the two-speed Powerglide automatic) into a '71 Bus. That thing could peg the 90 MPH speedometer and keep accelerating. It surprised more than a few Beetle jockeys who didn’t notice the little Corvair cooling vents under the rear bumper, and it (aside from crosswind stability) handled a Chicago-Salt Lake-Denver and back trip admirably. Sadly, rust killed it, and the buyer just wanted it for the powertrain and its mounting hardware.
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Wow. Putting Corvair speed into a tin can where there’s nothing between the driver’s knees and oncoming traffic but sheet metal and maybe a spare tire…
Ralph Nader would have peed his pants.
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The 110 wasn’t really that powerful, not by a long shot. The real hot engines for the Corvair were the 140 HP NA and 180 HP turbo engines, but all those horsepower figures are gross rather than net. A modern Subaru engine has a lot more power. Still, in its day, it was a very nice swap.
It was probably just as well that ours had the automatic. The axle adapters were apparently a weak spot when used with a manual transmission, due to the torque loads.
Poor Jason, and your poor friends who missed out on the joy of VW camping. Or, rather got too much of “the joy”.
I can’t help but point out that all this would not have been a problem if you had kept the faith and stayed aircooled and carbureted. My 1974 T2 never has thermostat nor injector problems. On the other hand, 35 MPH uphill is normal for Bep and me (and running out of gas is a much bigger worry, as the consumption is sky high!). On the third hand, Bep chews up Swiss alpine passes, even if it’s at 40 kph. Counting down the months until April when Bep is sprung from prison (the garage where he’s banished for winter, hiding form the salt) and free to explore again.
Hang loose!
-jeff
What about that “indestructible Toyota” pickup they tested in Top Gear and unsuccessfully tried to break? They dropped the thing from a fair height and then started it and it cranked up despite looking like a crushed Coke can.
That, and when the excrement meets the spinning blades you can weld a gun carriage on the deck and have a technical.
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Damn! My 1958 Chevy station wagon is a lot better at making trips than that, even towing a popup trailer. I did have to stay overnight at a friend’s house last year to rebuild the propeller shaft, and earlier I replaced the generator with an alternator on the way to Burning Man, but other than that it’s just happy to go. And it gets two digits of MPG!
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I actually went full bore on the camper route a few years ago. My wife was convinced that we’d see more of California (where we’d just moved) if we could park-and-camp, so I bought an RV based on an '85 Econoline 350 with a 454 in it.
It was pretty much the worst of all worlds. The camper part was “vintage trailer park” in its style and accommodations, and I couldn’t figure out how to fix anything (I can tinker with a normal fridge, but this one ran on propane, spiders, and magic). The roof was more caulking than aluminum, and bedding was all prohibitively expensive to replace, as it was all “custom” sizes. Tires just about bankrupted me (six commercial grade high load tires ran as much as a CA mortgage payment).
Then there was driving it, which was absolutely terrifying. Tons of steering slop, terrible visibility, inconsistent brakes… I fingers ached every time I stopped from gripping the weird thing little steering wheel like it was trying to kill me (and spoiler alert: it was totally trying to kill me).
I sold it for a terrible loss, and went back to tent camping.
There is a long list of other things that are great until they are not, but Vanagons are near the very top.
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To that, I would add Mini Coopers.
I hate to kill all the lovely drama of this well written story, but as I am sure you realize a little more persistence would have gone a long way. A simple thermostat replacement is something I would have just done on the road and continued on the way. Short of throwing a rod or a blown head gasket, nothing should keep you from soldiering on. I do own a cabriolet and I understand how finicky and complex these things can get though so I get why you headed back. That’s why I drive a 1971 Mercedes 306D bus instead. Thanks for the road trip story!
I disagree; I think Jason did the prudent thing. As he mentioned:
On some cars, the thermostat housing is right there on the top of the engine, an easy fix. On others, there’s a bunch of annoying crap in the way. If your cooling system isn’t behaving as it should, “soldiering on” is foolish (especially over an international border where repair resources are uncertain at best), and I understand Jason’s reluctance to tear too much of the engine apart to get to the thermostat housing when he’s away from his garage.
On a trip home from my parents’ house in Prescott, AZ, my Cougar once died on Interstate 10 about 15 miles east of Indio; truly in the middle of nowhere, on a hot summer’s day. Had gas, but no spark. Opened the distributor cap, discovered the rotor could spin freely by hand. Realized the shear pin on the distributor gear had… well, sheared. CHP came by to see if I needed help, “no thanks,” I said, “I got this.” Pulled out the (still hot) distributor, drove out the broken pin, then drove it back in halfway so it would at least tenuously fasten the gear to the shaft. Dead-timed the engine to TDC, dropped in the distributor, fired it up, then carefully drove to Indio where I could pick up some new shear pins. Replaced the busted pin in the parking lot, drove home, then immediately set about finding out why the distributor had enough bind to shear the pin in the first place. On another occasion, a transmission cooling line burst at 3:00 AM on the way home from Temecula. I had a length of fuel line in the trunk and a couple of hose clamps, plus one single quart of transmission fluid; was back on the road in half an hour and made it home. I can get through many on-the-road failures, but I’m too old to want to go looking for them, especially when I’m supposed to be relaxing. Cooling system and electrical problems, however intermittent, are ones I want to fix right away, not wanting to risk waiting for them to get worse, especially far from home.
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Well Donald, I hate to say it but you live with more trepidation than some aging folks, myself included. My friends Bill and Penny for example were in their seventies when they drove their vintage 1970’s Mercedes all through Russia and Africa a few years ago, then brought it over and drove it to the Yukon then down to Mexico.
Here is their diary:
http://www.africa-overland.net/Bio-435-Odd-Way-Round
And here are instructions for replacing the thermostat on a Vanagon. It’s greasy work I’ll admit, but you could do it at a roadside motel if you were motivated to…and weren’t too timid.
http://www.africa-overland.net/Bio-435-Odd-Way-Round
Mind you, I respect their choice and yours and I certainly don’t think you should drive when your car is overheating. Seems that’s what led to their engine rebuild in the first place.
The housing top is 4 simple 10mm bolts but there are some rigid hoses and a junction box situated right over it. The two bolts closest to the back of the engine have very limited access and I did not have the right socket set to get near them. I did not want to remove the hoses and things blocking me as I was unsure what held what and didn’t want to spend time mucking about in the manual to be sure before disassembling.
Having done it once, at home with zero pressure, I’d be happy to swap it again on the road.
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Nah, I wouldn’t characterize it as trepidation or fear. I’ve just gotten old enough that I no longer enjoy walking home when it’s not by choice. There are some mechanical circumstances where one can let things slide a bit without fear of permanent damage, and there are some circumstances under which you want to stay off the road until the issue is fixed or risk heavy engine damage. And there are some times when you cut your losses simply because you can’t be bothered with getting greasier than you feel like, especially when one has guests along for the ride, and knowing when to cut those losses is more a matter of prudence and personal enthusiasm for unscheduled repair work rather than any particular lack of intrepidness or sense of adventure.
Agreed. 
But in my case, a thermostat would never have sent me home. Clutch failure yes, thermostat no. Again, I can understand it, I just would not have let that stop me personally since it is effectively a minor repair.
If you ever decide to go from “interesting” to “practical”, then as several people have recommended, a VW Transporter (which apparently is only sold as a camper under the ‘California’ name in the US) is a great choice. A ferind of mine likes them so much he has two, one is his work vehicle, and the other is his former work van which has been converted into a family car/camper.
In my family I grew up with VWs, the entire family had them, and they were always reliable. I kind of miss not having one now.
Thanks for this story. I have been curious how your trip turned out. Sorry to hear of the cascading cavalcade of issues. Don’t give up on getting there, because you already have a place to sleep every night. I bought a 1982 air-cooled westy about 10 years ago in Colorado. I’ve driven that thing over the continental divide 9 times, each time white knuckled , RPM’s maxed at 20mph near the crest. I love the simplicity of it. There’s nothing back there to go wrong, except a belt and the engine itself.
Of course, with any vanagon, replace all fuel lines every few years (mine was spraying gas all over the top of my engine once upon a time).
Best mod so far, opening up the forward accessible hidden areas under the seats.
Love it, keep us posted. Go find a westfalia campout group.
