Beefing Up the Roof Rack Extender

From the last post, which was just the feasibility phase, it was apparent that the extender had to be beefed up. When extended, it just did not have the strength and stiffness to hold the weight of the Sunfish. I liked the PVC as the material, but it just needed to be stiffer.
So the solution was to double up the PVC and rivet a metal bar inside the PVC pipe. This made the arrangement much stiffer.
These pictures are out of order, but you can get the concept.


Above is the second PVC clamped to the first. I tried to use the PVC glue but could not get the clamping contact in place before the solvent gave out. I think maybe a construction adhesive or just caulk would work. The [urple primer and orange glue did not work.

Another view of the failed clamping process.

This is a good shot of the concept. Double walled PVC with bar rivetted inside. In order to get the outer PVC to take that shape it needs to be heated. I used a paint stripping heat gun. A torch would also work but may result in burn or too much concentrated heat.

Close-up of the rivets that go through both layers of PVC and into the bar. These will be covered by tape or padding to prevent them from scratching the hull.

Above is the original showing the bar in place and the sliced section to be used to double up the PVC.

This is the heat gun I used. Good even controlled heating. As it heated, I pushed down on the PVC to open it up and applied clamps to hold it in place while it cooled. PVC is fairly bendable when heated but it will scorch. This is one of those well ventilated space activities.

Here is the PVC sliced open on the table saw. The next one I do will not be sliced in half but just at 3/4. This way, I will be able to get some clamping action from the "C" shape of the pipe which might elimnate the need for rivets through the two layers. The "C" shape pluse construction adhesive may work very well for this. The bar will also be necessary for the stiffness.

Roof Rack Mod for Solo Loading Sunfish

One of my original love activities is sailing. My grandparents retired to a cottage near Kilmarnock, Virginia on a small cove off Dymer Creek. Creeks off the Chesapeake can be pretty big. Dymer Creek, where they were, is about 1/2 mile wide and about 3 miles off the Bay. The Bay is very wide there, you cannot see the other side. There were abondoned farm houses, a burned down menhaden factory, a boat yard where they still built wooden workboats and a small island. Basically the best place in the world for a nine year old to be with a boat in the summer.
Grandad loved the dump and one day we brought back a little sailboat. My grandmother, Bee, sewed a sail for it, Grandad put me in it and gave me a big push away from the dock - probably so he could take a nap - and my adventures really began.
So it is pretty easy to see how I came to love the freedom and feeling of sailing.
The problem is that I need to get the Sunfish - my only remaining sailboat - to the water. I have a trailer but it is not reigstered and the cartop would be a lot easier. The sunfish weighs about 150 lbs and loading it solo would result in a broken back, broken boat or broken car. Lifting one end of the boat is fairly easy but there is no way to lift the boat onto the van one end at a time so I came up with this extension for the rack. It lets you lift the boat up onto the van one end at a time.
The rack extension is 1 1/2" PVC pipe with a 90 deg. bend on the end. There is a slot cut into the bottom of the extension that the leg of the roof rack sticks out of. The slot is long enough to allow the extender to slide out a couple feet, enough to catch the boat. The PVC is not stiff enough by itself for the sunfish so you have to do something to stiffen it. I placed a piece of square metal inside the rack that slides out with the PVC. You could use wood stiffeners along the outside of the PVC or even rig up a leg support that goes to the ground.

In the above, you can see the extender bending under the weight of the sunfish.

The above picture is the angle of attack for lifting one end onto the rack.

Once you have the front end up, it is not too hard to lift the back end up and swing the boat onto the roof. I still need to mount the rear rack, but I wanted to test the concept before going forward.

Below is a detail of the PVC with the cut out. I used a rotary zip saw to cut open the PVC.

Below are 2 shots of the roof rack inserted into the PVC extender showing how the leg of the rack sticks out of the extender and the slide range.

To perfect the rack extenders I need to stiffen the PVC. I might do this with maybe 1/2 plywood running along both sides of the extender cut into a shallow "V" to track the shape of the hull. I have to figure out how to attach the "V" without affecting the ability to slide. This same extender concept would be a great way to mount a shade off the side of the van.

Artificial Roof Gutters to Mount Roof Rack

One thing that the van is missing was a good roof rack system. I have had Thule(r) Racks since the mid 1980's. They are very strong and obviously hold up well. The racks that I currently have were probably bought about five years ago as replacements for the originals that never came back from the shop that pulled the plug on an old taurus station wagon. Those racks were a little bent from loading about 15 sheets of drywall onto them. That load actually pulled the wagon's factory roof rack base off the roof (no gutters on the taurus). I remember reattaching that track with one 10" bolt with a hole drilled straight through the track, roof and headliner. But I digress.

The van has gutters but they are too far below the pop top for the standard bases. The high bases are not a good option because they would prevent the pop top from going up. So I fabricated some gutter pieces out of 1/8" steel. The pieces are about 5"x8". I just put the piece in a mechanics vice with about 2" above the vice. I used a large hammer, also called a BF hammer, to put a 90 deg. bend in the plate. Then I raised the plate about an inch and put a cold chisel under the bend. Then I hammered with the BF hammer to bend the plate down around the round handle of the chisel. That way I made channel for clamping the rack base. I drilled holes (5/16") in the corbner of the gutter plate and in the pop top. I raised the pop top up slightly so that I could see in behind the top and to make sure that I was not drilling into the tent fabric. Remember that the fiberglass dust is itchy so wear long sleaves if this bothers you.

I am planning to use the rack to load boats, a canoe, windsurfers and possibly a sunfish. My old sunfish probably weighs about 150lbs which is probably too much to load on the pop top. In order to help distribute the load, I used some backing plates made of the same steal behind the gutters. It feels pretty strong, but I still will probably rig something up to transfer some of the dowun pressure to the actual gutters below the pop top to get the wight off the fiberglass pop top.

Next up is a way to get the sunfish up on the roof single handed. Strength and ingenuity - hopefully more ingenuity that strength.

differential flange and cv joint lube

Time to fix the source of the big blob under the axle. Jacked up, blocked and on the jack stands - always. Also, I always keep the jack ready and under the van with the thing ready to lift the van off me if - heaven forbid -

This is what it looked like, gloopy, thick, gooey and coming out of the cv boot.

a little out of order, but here is a bicycle innertube piece that I cut to wrap around the cv boot crack. I wrapped the inner tube around the split part of the boot, then wrapped that in electrical tape. I'll let you know how long it lasts.

The axle disconnected from the differential without a problem. I hit it with the PB Blaster (R) and used a dental pick to clean out as much gunk as possible from the bolts and they broke loose without a problem. After I wiped off the grease, I saw the flange with a perfect hole in it, which should not be there. This hole let the gear oil into the cv boot and washed out the grease, which leaked onto the driveway. The hole was so perfectly round I thought I had further to go to get to the seal, but a quick Samba consult set me straight.

Here is the new seal and the old seal for comparison with the hole.

Here is the new seal in place. The old seal popped out with an awl.

Here is the bicycle innertube/electrical tape wrap patch of the CV boot. This axle is still attached to the wheel on the outside. I did take the CV joint off to pack it with new grease. There is a lock ring that holds it on which you must have the special pliers to get off. Do not even try to do it with another tool. It would be quicker to slit your wrist and be reincarnated as a person who buys the pliers.

DIFFERENTIAL FLANGE SEAL R&R

Right before our plane trip to the west coast, I noticed a gooey black blob under the driver side axle. Since the new engine insert a couple months ago, there had been no leaks but I had recently noticed a burnt oil smell after longer runs. The gooey blob was totally new. It was like jello pudding with a film on top and the color of tar.

After a quick search on the Samba, I felt pretty confident that it was a failed differential flange seal. The good folks at Van Cafe had the flange seal, washer and lock ring ready to go and shipped that day. I also ordered a replacement hose for my oil pressure gauge - ouch $30 -. As I get into this project, I'll keep posted - for one I am not sure whether I need to disconnect anything but the inner CV boot and axle. That would be nice if I could avoid disassembling everything from the wheel in. I also will re-grease all the CV's I get into.

Terp Van

Do I have talented children, nieces and nephews or what?

This is where we are now on the painting of the terp van. The plan is to wrap the van in the Maryland flag - statetriotic

Where have I been?

Since the valve spring removal and replacement, I have continued to use and work on the van. I have taken trips, camped and even put in a new old engine. My niece's lacrosse team played in - and won - the Women's NCAA Division I National Championship game. That's right, the University of Maryland Terrapins over the Wildcats of Northwestern in late May 2010. Right before that game, we did our best to paint the Maryland flag on both sides of the van. The next morning after we found Doug, returned the Tiger to Mike Tyson's house and reunited Carlos with his mom we did a little touch up paint and drove a completely overloaded van - coolers, grill, people, chairs - up to Towson University for an awesome game on a beautiful day.
Missing on one cylinder, made it back home on three. Tested the cylinder and zero compression.

So, pulled the engine and replaced it with the 1.9 I bought off craigslist last year. Originally, I was going to rebuild that engine but I just put it in and it started up. Used all the newer pieces that I had. After tuning and closing down the screw on the throttle body, she settled right down and has been running great.

Before the Univ. of Maryland game, I took the van on its longest trip up to Brimfield Massachusetts for the crazy antique fair. Camped in the van. Made it up and back. One quart of oil per tank and cleaning the spark plug after every second tank kept her humming along. Even drove through New York City.

After the Brimfield trip, took the van up to Princeton, NJ by way of Amish Country around Lancaster. Played Golf on Friday afternoon, drove up to Princeton, slept in van, breakgast on the grill. Watched the Maryland men's lacrosse team lose to Notre Dame - the irony. Then slugged back to SP - but the van worked fine, same rate of oil consumption - not a leak - and cleaning spark plug.

Now we've got the new engine but a large glob of goop under the differential at the inner driver side CV boot. This is apparently a differential flange seal. On order from the good folks at Van Cafe.

first road trip

Friday after Thanksgiving, we loaded up the van and drove, all four of us, to Chincoteague, Virginia for Thanksgiving Round II with some friemds who have a place on the island. I was nervous about the van, but I had been driving around town quite a bit and had even gotten to the point where I was not watching the gauges every 3 seconds.

We made it down and back and drove it out while we were there. Our hosts loved the way all 7 people could fit and it was like just moving the living room around with everyone sitting or lounging in the back, conversing or just looking at each other.

We also took it out to Assateague. The picture was taken on a causeway through some marsh.

The trip back was only slightly eventful. I got real nervous when the oil temp went up to about 230. I just slowed way down, to about fifty, drove easy and it settled down. After stopping for dinner, it never got above 200. I think the valve that diverts the flow to the oil cooler once the temp goes up was stuck closed. I also got a couple of hiccup like hesitations.

Hopefully, my confidence will go up and my anxiety about breakdown will go down with more trips.

oil pressure getting better

Been running the van on weekends and during week every other day or so and my oil pressure is getting better. Now on highway at temp and speed I am over thirty pounds of pressure. up near 40 before the shift point.
Now I am just burning a lot of oil. A quart every tank and a half, but no leaks. I am going to switch the oil breather tower to the one that came off the digifant 2.1. It is the newest oil breather I have and it has a heating element or something in it which might slow oil passage from engine to air intake.

oil pressure relief valve test results

Here is the oil pressure relief valve and the tap used to pull the gunked up valve out of the engine. It is the 1/4" npt 18 tap. It is a little undersized but when you screw it into the valve, a little side pressure grabs the valve enough to pull it out.

This is the tap set that the tap came from. It is the harbor freight set. The 1/4" tap is the same size that you use to tap the oil galley plugs for insertion of threaded plugs.

I used vice grips to grab the tap and pull out the valve.

Here are all three parts; the valve, the spring and the slotted plug that holds the thing in the engine

The results of the test were positive but did not completely cure the low pressure problems. I still get the light but only at idel and only when the oil is up to about 140 temp. At operating temp of 200 at idle, I have about 4 lbs of pressure on the guage. This is about 4 lbs more than was reading before cleaning up the pressure relief valve. My idle is very low. With just a little throttle, bumping the idle up to a normal sounding idle (no tach) the low oil pressure light is now off. At temp and running, I now have about 4 more pounds of pressure. This is a great relief. Now I am up to over 30 lbs at the shift point, cruising at 60 in 4th gear at about 26 lbs.

So I do believe that the gunked and stuck pressure relief valve was a bit stuck open causing lower pressure. I still have a little loose bottom end. Next rebuild I am going with oversized bearings, machined crank shaft and/or all new. Hopefully, this engine will hold these pressure values for a couple more years.

oil pressure relief valve theory

When I rebuilt the engine, the pressure relief valve never dropped out as it was supposed to. I did undo the large slotted plug in the bottom driver's side of the engine that I am sure is regularly confused for the oil drain plug (that has a hex head and is in the center of the engine). I have had decent pressure at speed and temp but low at idle and at running temp. My theory is that the pressure relief valve was stuck slightly open. The valve is a small piston about the size of the last digit of your pinky that sits on top of a spring. It is common practice to shim the spring with a washer to increase the pressure on the piston. This had been done in my engine but I do not think the valvle was moving. I pulled the valve out of a junked engine and it came out easily with a magnet on a stick tool available at autoparts stores. A tap fits into the bottom of the valve. This is what I used to pull the stuck valve out with. It was stuck and it did have some junk on it. I do not think it was moving based on the amount of pull it took to get it out even after I tried to wiggle it around with a screwdriver. I cleaned up the valve out of te wrecked engine, used the longer of the two springs and kept the shim washer in place. This morning I will test drive to work to see if it makes any difference with the idle oil pressure.

So I have been using the van as my daily driver. Unbelievable. I am almost to the point where I am not completely paranoid that the van will die, self destruct, blow-up every second. I completely obsess over oil pressure and oil temp. It is no longer the heat of summer so the oil stays about 20 degrees cooler. I run at about 200 in the cooler weather compared to 215-220 with temps in the 90's. Temp makes a massive difference in pressure. At cruising highway speed i am at about 26 lbs in cool weather and about 21 at higher temp. I know these pressures are low and it means that the tolerances at the crank journals, bearings, end play are too loose, but it is better than the old engine was before it threw a rod. Hopefully it will keep going for at least a year.
I should have gone with oversized bearings and some machine work on the cam to make the bottom end tighter. I can start rebuilding the other engine I have and do it better.
I also might have a problem with the pressure relief valve. The valve, according to samba, should just fall right out when the screw/plug is removed. It never did. So at the next oil change, I might try to knock it out or push it further up in there. I will definitely shim the pressure relief spring with the 1/4" washer like tencent says.
I am only getting about 16 mpg but that is mostly city driving and short errands. The tank holds 16 gallons. That gives a range of not quite 250 before you are really pushing it. I did run out of gas tuesday-drifted into the gas station-living right.
priced deep cycle batteries today. The size that does not fit under the seat (group 24) $79 for 90Ah. The size that fits about $140 with less Ah. 90Ah is enough to run a truck fridge efficient refrigerator and a little microwave so long as you drive somewhere every day and enough to run CD players, etc. without worry.

air flow meter and my multi meter

Here is a picture of the airflow meter off of the 1.9 wbx vw engine with the cover pulled off and the multi meter I used to test it.

The cover was secured with silicone caulk and took a while to work off. I used a razor knife to slowly and gently create a seam between the body and the cover

Some people do repair these AFM's by bending the little arm that rides on the metal arc and changes the electric signal. Others clean up the track. When you open up the box you can see how the arm wears a groove in the metal arc. That messes up the connection which cause vanagon syndrome mostly in the 2.1 (sudden loss of power).

Basics Valve Adjusting VW WBX 1.9 - What Are They Talking About?

I just want to provide some pictures and some basic basic information that should help you figure out what the experts are talking about on the other sites that discuss valve adjustment on the VW engine. There is plenty of information and controversy out there about how to adjust valves, that is one turn, two turns, pre-load, etc.

When they are talking about gap or lash and pre-load, they are referring to the space between the top of the valve stem and the rocker arm. The space is measured at a certain point in the rotation of the engine for each cylinder, basically when the push rod is just about to start lifting the rocker arm to begin to push down the valve. There is a screw locked down by a nut that runs through the rocker arm and actually touches the top of the valve stem. The other side of the rocker arm, like a see-saw, is pushed up and down by a rod that is moved by the cam shaft and lifters (lifters are little spring and oil filled cans close in size and shape to a "c" battery that actually ride on the cam).

That space is measured with a gap measuring tool which is a fan of different thicknesses of thin metal shown here. Since most auhtorities recommend some pre-load, that is screwing down the adjusting screw some number of turns after contact, the measuring tools helps you determine when the screw just touches the valve stem. With a thin blade, .005 or less, in between the screw and the valve stem, screw down until the blade is pinched. That will tell you when you are right at the top of the valve stem.

The gap is adjusted by turning the slot in the screw that goes through the rocker and touches the valve stem.

Before you can adjust the valve screw, you have to loosen the nut, which is a 14mm, (most everything else is a 13mm). After you have the pre-load set or gap or lash adjusted, you have to tighten that nut back down to lock the screw into place.

As with everything else, do your research, take your time and walk away if you get frustrated. 45 minutes of someting else resolves and avoids a lot of problems.

valve spring removal

My 1985 VW vanagon was running for about fifteen minutes and then losing power. It would idle but did not have enough power to move. This loss of power would occur about fifteen minutes into my test drives and would begin as hesitation and what seemed like missing. Once the symptoms set in, I opened the engine cover and wiggled the spark plug wires and coil. When I just touched the wires coming out of the distributor (the hall sender wires) it died immediately. I started it back up, again touched the wires and it immediately died. This seemed like a pretty good indication that I had a problem with the ignition wires. I ordered a new ignition harnes from Kyle at kyleautomotice specialists and a couple days later a beautiful new harness with new plugs and perfect wires arrived in the mail. After putting in a new ignition wire harness into the 1.9 waterboxer (as well as a new coil and new spark plug wire set which I may or may not have needed), I went off for a test drive. It was obviously missing. I pulled the plugs and number three was wet. I pulled the spark plug wire off number three while running and no difference. I checked number three for spark by cranking the engine with the plug pulled and a spark plug put into the wire and held near the engine block to ground (rather than through your body) and confirmed spark. I pulled the fuel injector and cranked the engine to confirm a pulsing cone shaped spray and no dripping after turned off. All those checked out so I checked compression in #3 and found 0 compression. I pulled the valve cover off and found a broken compression spring. This was a problem and hopefully my only current problem.

I have a couple of spare heads complete with valves and springs from the engine that broke a connecting rod, but I did not know how to remove the valves and the springs. After reviewing the Samba forum and receiving some response to a post, I had enough to tackle the project. The samba is an amazing source of VW information, technical guidance, moral support and inspiration.

Working with engines and particular older engines sometimes requires the exact tool. A great deal of the work on the 1.9 and 2.1 waterboxers can be accomplished with a 13mm socket but there are somethings that you just cannot do easily without the right tool. A valve spring compressor is essential to free up the keepers that hold the valve in place. It is available at a FLAPS (friendly local auto parts store) and is shown above.
The valve is held closed by the pressure of the springs. The flare part of the valve seals against the underside of the head and closed off the piston cylinder creating compression. I had no compression in cylinder three because of the broken spring. On the waterboxer, there are actually two springs, a thick outer and a thinner inner spring. The stem of the valve runs through the springs, is capped with a holder/washer and the holder/washer is held on with a keeper. The keeper is actually two wedge shaped semi circles that catch the ringed grooves in the stem and then jam in the holder/washer. At right is a picture of the parts of the valve and spring assembly.

Here is a close up of the keepers and the valve stem

The valve compressor takes the pressure off the keepers and allows the washer/holder to be pushed down so the keepers can be removed. If removing the valves from an in place engine, the valve must be held up to allow the washer/holder to be pushed down and expose the keepers. If the valve is not held up, compressing the spring just lets the valve open. Two methods can keep the valve up - compressed air into the cylinder through the spark plug hole or a length of thin line fed into the spark plug hole and rotation of the engine to bring the piston up smashing the rope into the head, filling the cylinder and preventing the valve from opening. On a disassembled engine, you can hold the valve closed or put a roll of electrical tape between the bench and the valve. Once the valve spring is compressed, a little tap on the compressor and spinning the whole deal back and forth may be necessary to unstick the keepers from the washer/holder. Here is a picture of the compressor on the valve spring on the removed head and a close up that shows, a bit blurred, the keeper popping above the washer/holder.

The inner and outer spring create a bit of a problem. The jaws of this compressor only reach the outer spring so there is still some pressure on the washer/holder but not so much that it cannot be overcome with a little hand pressure. It does create a three hand challenge which is made easier with a pick like this to pop the keepers out. Be careful because the keepers are small and they will fly.

I used a washer cut into a "U" to extend the reach of the jaws to grab the inner and outer springs. It did help, but there was still some spring pressure left. Here is a picture of the washer that hopefully shows how it should work. A little larger washer would have worked better.

With a little patience and the right tool, you can free the valve from the springs without damaging anything.

Next I will remove the broken spring from the engine that is in the vanagon and replace it with one of the spares.