Referring back to my earlier post, My DIY Coolant Tank , discussion around the various welded aluminum pressure tanks had some asking a good question: In a box tank, would repeated pressure cycles flexing the flat walls eventually compromise the edge welds? . I...
When I built the instrument panel shown in an earlier post, I chose an electronic programmable speedometer. This type in general requires a low-voltage waveform signal driven by a wheel or driveshaft. Then to program it you make it sample the frequency-to-speed or...
To bench test a Hall generator, you need a low-voltage DC power source, a voltmeter or volt-ohm meter (VOM), and a piece of sheet steel thin enough to fit thru the gap. . Here the Hall gen is one from a VW ignition distributor. I had cut the base plate down, riveted...
I had a used narrowband oxygen sensor I wanted to check, so I shot a clip of the bench test. . Here the sensor hex is clamped in a vise. I have a digital and analog VOM’s in view. Both have their negative probes connected to the vise jaw, so are common with the...
This question comes up from time to time, people often believe that when refilling an engine cooling system they should have to do something special to ensure the heater circuit is refilled and purged of air. They apparently think of air as a frictionless fluid, when...
Antifreeze is mainly glycol at typically more than 95%, but it also has additives that provide pH buffering, anticorrosion, and other protections that are absolutely critical to long-term operation of water-based cooling systems in general. These have evolved over...
Full floating wrist pins, the installations where the pin is not a press or shrink fit in either the rod or piston but instead a circlip at each end of the piston bore retains the pin, are usually pretty difficult to withdraw after even fairly low mileages. This is...
The main wear and service items in vehicle alternators are the brushes and bearings. These can undergo several replacements before you exhaust the long service life of the other working parts, which are the stator and rotor windings, rotor slip rings, and the...
There’s been much speculation as to the intent and actual function of the Vanagon Waterboxer engine’s Positive Crankcase Ventilation (PCV) tower and its internal control valve, often called in VW and Bentley the “crankcase breather”. It’s...
Saw an years-old thread on a popular forum come up, highlighting some remarks of mine covering a some obscure details of the T3 Vanagon cooling/heating systems, and realised I had forgot to add one other interesting observation to fill out the picture. But I’m...
Like the VW Type4 engines, the waterboxers used 24mm wrist pins, needlessly. Many engines of all different brands and types making many times the power run 22mm or even smaller pins. Whatever, just add this one to the long list of VW design decisions lacking any...
Some thoughts on portable jacks. . There are many subjects one could bring up for discussion (these days it may tip over into most), where myriad thinly-supported yet highly calcified opinions quickly stink up the place. This post pertains to when the subject being...
A Syncro owner had this complaint after driving a long distance and parking: . When I went to go drive it 30 minutes later there was a massive vibration, so much that I am not comfortable driving. Most violent at ~5 mph, diminishes as I speed up, but still feels like...
I used to be a ‘splainer on a few of the popular online vehicle forums, but my desire to do it wore out, for many reasons but one above all others: It’s nearly impossible to pry an erroneous notion out of a grasshopper’s mind, when said notion seems...
I’ve sometimes had an application that needs a latching relay that can be toggled by a remote momentary button switch. If you search for this kind of thing, on many DC DIY electrical websites you’ll find a description of a logic array that requires 4...
A few pics and some details on the drop-down tabletop shown in my last post. This was built at the same time as the overall interior remodel, when I installed the ABS panels, using stuff I had around. A lucky scrap of 1/2″ oak plywood in the shed was already...
This was a little project I did to make the GL rear bench seat, which can be pulled forward to convert into a really comfy, nearly queen-size bed, usable as a bench seat when it’s in bed mode without needing to heave the whole heavy bed assembly back. All...
The lightish royal blue interior my Syncro came with was another blechhh kinda thing; I mean, if you’re gonna do blue, commit! Deep navy, at least. Midnight? even better! But not this mamby-pamby watery bullshit blue. . But I’m someone for whom aesthetics...
I compiled this list long ago by going thru the ’86+ fuse panel wiring diagrams to help people with questions about powering extra instruments and other accessories. It’s been copied many times by others, usually without attribution, which is pretty rude,...
Did two minor comfort/aesthetic additions recently. I’m not the kind that’s much concerned with how things look, within reason anyway. But to my eye, the stock Vanagon steering wheel has always been a kind of throwaway, uninspired, “bleah” design. But that alone...
