The SA 2.6i Microbus thread

[silverbullet]

New bed tested overnight and it's as comfy as anything I've slept on! I slept like a log and considering the clear skies Sat night and hard frost this morning in the Banbury area (no night heater in this bus - yet) I was snug as a bug

[silverbullet]

And it's broken down again...pics later

[toomanytoys]

I'll giver a ton for it.....

[silverbullet]

Temperamental supermodel that it is...rain stopped, dash came out. It's familiar, but not the same:



Cruise control module fell to the floor (never been fixed to bulkhead), high oil pressure switch has been earthed...plenty to do here



I'll replace this while I'm in there, feed is burned out. Can't be done from the outside

[toomanytoys]

Oh, its that bad.... I retract my offer..

Heater fan HAS to be done v soon.... I really am dreading it tho... its a time thing...

[silverbullet]

I got this dash out in 2 hours and that's with the extra SA bits and no book to tell me what to unscrew! The column security bolts were still in too; I cheated and unbolted the stays at the top end, lifted the dash out complete with the upper column. Then I can loosen off the stays with some elbow room to work!

You could do the doka heater blower, all done and dusted, in a morning Si...

[toomanytoys]

You reckon?? I suppose I better order one then.. and the special fuse for the 2nd stage of the rad fan... as it looks like its a dash out job to get to that..

[silverbullet]

I did the syncro one as a newbie! Only the very early heater cases are glued/ultrasonically welded afaik, all the later ones seem to have clips. The resistor pack is inside the housing too, so it overheats on low speeds and melts the casing like on mine. Nice one VW...

[silverbullet]

It lives! But I don't know why... I removed the SA-made "Conlog" cruise control module (very sketchy installation) and then tested the starting/running with a new ignition switch. Started and revved up no problem. Realized that I should have checked one thing at a time, so I re-tested it with the old switch. Still OK

I will have to try disturbing one plug at a time on the back of the relay board to see if there's a marginal connection somewhere, but a least I can drive it up onto ramps now.

Also time to try out my new terminal pin tools (thanks Elvis for the heads up on Pole-volt) and change the damaged 28-pin engine bay connector to see if the fault is on the body side of the loom plug.

When it's dry enough to get under the bus

On the plus side I now have a working 4-speed blower and a heater control that actually moves the valve

[toomanytoys]

[silverbullet]

Bloody hell, what an epic mission! I knew that the bad news would be on the one part of the loom that I hadn't looked at closely (the body-side of the multiplug, in the offside corner of the engine bay) and I wasn't disappointed.

These two are the ecu fused supply (brown/yellow) and the alternator warning lamp feed. Note the arcing where they crossed:



There was also a stray wire emerging from the loom just behind the petrol tank (tell-tale insulating tape) and plumbed into the multi-plug. It's the other ecu +12v supply!



Looks like it had to be cut out at some point, maybe when the ecu blew/ shorted on the original owner? Anyway, I mangaed to successfully thread about 3 foot of heavy garden wire down the loom and pull a new wire back through to repair it properly

Then I managed to accidentally swap two of the wires for the cruddy import fog lamp and fried some earth wiring in the loom behind the column So out came the column again, fusebox out, open up the loom, check out how far the damage went (not too far thankfully, damage stopped before it went behind the heater) wrap it all up again, put the fusebox back in etc etc. Then modify the offside rear lamp for OEM foglamp and test for continuity before powering up

Then I just happened to glance across at the tailpipe hanger. Bollox!



Longlife my ar$3 There's only a weld on one side! Off to John tomorrow lunchtime for a bit of stainless MIG and an extra stay, to stop this happening again I reckon.

[silverbullet]

Rear hanger sorted last week and I've put around 160 miles on it now,things are looking up...

[silverbullet]

I've had enough of the crappy Type 2 window winders, so I got some of these as a "period" upgrade. Nice and solid, less than a fiver delivered off ebay

[silverbullet]

It's been so reliable (Shhhh!!!!) there hasn't been a thing to report. The new interior layout has proved to be pretty versatile, the kids seem to love the "train seating" for playing games on journeys, but I must stop abusing the bus like this

[toomanytoys]

and the 5 pot soundtrack.. addictive......