(Needed) Tinkering

There's an interesting suggestion in the Haynes manual in the fuel injection part of the guide that says "Needless Tinkering should be avoided."  Well I consider this section some important fixes (call it tinkering) that I made on other parts of the bus.  Little upgrades and fixes can go a long way.  Please, you see:

So the original stock glovebox was made out of some sort of paper material, which of course was toast when we got the van.  We ordered a replacement (made in Taiwan) that was luckily made out of plastic.  Well initial installation proved not so easy and the plastic cracked in two places (see black duct tape).  It wasn't until many months later on some idle morning that I finally muscled this silly plastic shell in there.  And since the metal band that originally held the glovebox up, replaced with some string lying around.  Viola!

On our trip around the USA/Canada, there was a lot more than just the reg and insurance, so I consider this a great success... if it can handle miscellaneous electronics, Ariana's personal health and makeup cabinet, numerous maps and AAA books, plus the sun visor, it's amazing how important a glove box is.  Only thing, this was pre-era on having a light inside it when the door opens, yeah, no a big problem.

Here's a good one: Spent the afternoon chasing vacuum leaks, and decided to follow some pics I've seen of Ratwell's VW engine, and clamped all the intake-plenum connections.

Here (horrors) you can see the aux air regulator unscrewed from the engine and hanging upside down (center right) because the stock elbow had numerous holes in it.  No local parts place has anything similar (I've since found this part on other VW sites), but for the time being I had to tilt it up to match the vacuum connection.  I've since learned that this valve allows more air into the engine to raise the RPM when cold to get it to operating temp as fast as possible.  I'm not sure if this valve is computer controlled (has a harness) or is heat controlled by its direct connection to the engine and the harness is for feedback.  When in doubt, go stock, which means, later I'll have to tack the elbow on an order.

When chasing a strange hiccup intermittent at cruise, which later turned out to be a junky BWD (PepBoys) coil, I found the connection to the cylinder head temp sensor was about to break (or at least giving incorrect resistance).  This part is so important that without a connection, the engine will not run (due to as I understand a full rich condition).  Happy it came out with not too much aluminum from the head yest I shant be able to screw in the new one:

Ain't she a beauty...  I think I ordered one that is compatible, but I wish I had read Ratwell's article before I part searched, since there is much variation in how it will affect the fuel mixture.

Since my (now RIP) Eagle Summit burned through two Engine Control Modules, I thought I'd check the condition of the capacitors and other of the bus ECU.  These cost about $500 rebuilt, but luckily everyone says that are mighty robust (and usually the "last suspect") in fuel injection diagnosis.  Here's my part number:  0280000178 and 039906021B and my bus is a 1979 VW Camp Mobile Federal 2.0.

 
Looks OK for a 30-year-old circuit board (they don't make 'em like they used to)...

In chasing a rich condition when trying to pass NJ emissions, I found injectors for $25 each (reman) on RockAuto.com, so I decided wouldn't hurt, especially if the coils were on their way out, or the spray pattern was not a "perfect cone".  Above are the old ones. It's amazing how relatively easy it is to pull the injectors (and change them) on this bus, took about an hour.  Of course this rich condition was related to incorrect valve adjustment which I could see with compression differentiation, but thought I had hydraulic valves (until I had an oil leak and pulled the covers).  It's amazing how the hydrocarbon emissions dropped to 100ppm when I pulled the harness on that one cylinder... problem was compression though.

Here's a little pic of one of the new injectors installed and the fuel rail open.  I also ordered new o-rings which gave some leak peace of mind.  See also in this pic the tap for the fuel pressure gauge.