Re: Lessons to be learnt (long)

["Kenik Hassel" <kenik@telisphere.com>]

You think that's fun?  I had a distributor button DISINTEGRATE inside the
distributor in the middle of nowhere.  Loctite just would not do the trick.
 My solution is carry a complete turnkey motor on your roofrack (if you
have one) ;).  Good advive though, brother.

kenik

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> From: Adriaan Loedolff <Adriaan@NORTON.CTECH.AC.ZA>
> To: type-3@umich.edu
> Subject: Lessons to be learnt (long)
> Date: Monday, October 27, 1997 4:15 AM
> 
> Hi folks
> 
> Just a short note to tell you about my VW weekend.
> 
> Saturday morning saw me following up a lead on a 196? model 
> Squareback that a friend spotted in a junkyard. This required me to 
> make a 70 mile round trip to a little town called Malmesbury on our 
> west coast. The trip there passed uneventful with my Variant purring 
> contentedly. When I turned off the motorway I noticed that she was 
> idling a bit rough. "No problem there" I said to myself as it had 
> happened before from time to time. It always sorts itself out within 
> a few miles or so. 
> 
> Anyway, got to the yard, found the Square - victim of a severe 
> frontal impact, chassis buckled and all that, looks like the 
> passenger or someting went through the windshield etc. I managed to 
> salvage a few electrical bits off it, the rest being stripped 
> already. Paid for it and set off for home.
> 
> About 30 miles from Cape Town I catch up with a clapped out and 
> smoking '57 (I think) type 2 panel van doing a little over 35 mph. I 
> have to sit behind it for a while as there are double white lines and 
> a truck approaching. Got to a stretch where a passing lane has 
> been made for slower vehicles - bus doesn't move over. I flash 
> my headlamps at it and get a rude sign waved at me, etc I got 
> pissed off and overtook the bus at the next oppertunity, waving some 
> other signs at the driver. Just as there was about a mile or so 
> between us I was going over a rise and my car suddenly lost power, 
> ran on three cylinders for a bit, coughed out some smoke and gave up 
> completely.
> 
> Beautifull!!!!!!!
> 
> So I pulled off the roadway, switched the hazards on and went to have 
> a look at the engine. No obvious damage, no oil dripping out from 
> below, fuel squirting down the carbs as I open the throttle. Must be 
> ignition then... By this time the old bus comes rumbling by - the 
> driver having this smug grin on his face - and hoots as he passes. 
> "F#ck you too mate! " I'm saying.
> 
> Anyway, took the distributer cap off, Ignitor looks and smells fine, 
> rotor arm looks OK, all the electrical connections are there, the 
> coil gets power..... what the hell is wrong here? So I turn the 
> engine over by hand a few times. Turns fine, nothing that indicates 
> serious trouble so I turn on to TDC." Hang on here, why can't I find 
> TDC? Why is this rotor pointing the wrong way?"
> 
> Not only was it pointing the wrong way, but it could turn all the 
> way around the shaft. Hmmmmm. Pulled the rotor off. Bingo! The tab 
> that holds it to the distributer shaft had broken off. 
> 
> And you guessed it - I didn't have a spare rotor on me!!!!!   
> 
> "What are you going to do now genius?" I'm wondering.
> 
> "Loctite - the stuff one uses to prevent nuts and bolts from working 
> themselves loose. That should work - I hope!!!!"
> 
> After a generous application of Loctite to the inside of the rotor I 
> managed to get it to fit almost right on to the shaft. Gave it a few 
> minutes to dry and tried starting the engine. Fired right up!! I set 
> the timing by ear (Not recomended unless you are realy desperate!!!) 
> packed up my tools and set off for home again.
> 
> Managed to limp back to Cape Town at about 50mph. She just wouldn't 
> do any more. Didn't catch the old bus again either.
> 
> So there are lessons to be learned from all of this:
> 
> 1.)	Never laugh at someone else's clapped out VW. There might be a 
> time when his is running and yours not.
> 
> 2.)	Always carry a spare rotor arm.You'll probably never need it but 
> you never know.
> 
> I have heard of points collapsing, distributer caps breaking but a 
> rotor - wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it!!!!!
> 
> 
> 
> Regards
> 
> Adriaan Loedolff
> adriaan@norton.ctech.ac.za
> '69 Variant Automatic (200 000 miles + and still cruisin' after all of
these years!)