Operator Error, Diagnostic Procedure, Cascade of Failures.

[Sandero]

Cascading failures in complex systems is a well known phenomena. They go *runaway* and can turn and often do into a total system collapse.

In boats with so little redundancy in sub systems it's mission critical to arrest a failure before it reverberates through the other systems.

[Tayana42]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

Busses are rare, Bus Campers even more so, verging on Unicorn status.
I wonder how many of us were previous Bug, Bus or Westphalia owners?

I started with a 1961 bug, then a 66 convertible, then the 71 camper bus. Still miss the camper. But, I don't miss adjusting valve lifters while laying on the floor of the garage in -20 degrees in Minnesota.


S/V B'Shert

[Stu Jackson]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

Busses are rare, Bus Campers even more so, verging on Unicorn status.
I wonder how many of us were previous Bug, Bus or Westphalia owners?

'71 Super Beetle, forest green. And I loved that book. Shoulda kept it.

On our trip up the coast in August/September, I almost pulled the fresh wster (domestic) pump.

Turned out operator error reared its ugly head for me, too:

The water pump saga: Was it operator error? Or just plain sheer stupidity? The pump’s working this morning. I’d filled up the aft tank when the pump started suckin’ air yesterday, and then it wouldn’t work. I switched tanks, still wouldn’t work. I did diagnostics, starting with jumpering at the panel to check the paddle switch. Last year, when we were in Canada, our good friend Len introduced me to a better water saver than the old Scandvik wand we used to have on our galley faucet. This new one is a simple pushbutton. Whether it was this button that was in instead of out, or whether the pump needed to reprime after filling the tank, when I “tried it one last time” this morning (before getting out the hammer as the one last resort before replacement!!!) the darn pump worked just fine. I am so very glad I am slow and deliberate when it comes to repairs, and didn’t just helter skelter rip the old pump out right away. Son Morgan suggests that the slow takes precedence. Can you imagine how much it would cost to pay a “trained marine professional” to rip out a perfectly good pump and put a new one in?

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

Busses are rare, Bus Campers even more so, verging on Unicorn status.
I wonder how many of us were previous Bug, Bus or Westphalia owners?

I had all of them:

Various bugs (my father's, but I grew up in them)
Karmann Ghia (my father traded an MGA for it, we used it for a while before selling it on).
1962 1500cc Bus, with the million windows. Drove all over the U.S.A. in it.
1970 1600cc Bus

1970 Westphalia Camper, also drove it all over the country.


From these I graduated to air-cooled Porsches:

1970 911S coupe

1978 911SC targa

1980 911SC targa driven for many years and 100,000 miles

1984 911 3.2 liter Carrera coupe

and back to a 1970 2.2 liter 911S targa, my favorite of all of them, which I only sold last year after 25 years of ownership and with great regret -- in order to buy new sails.


Air cooled rear engine cars are wonderful. The best of the best was the early 2.2 liter 911S -- what a machine. The best 911 of them all -- still had the dogleg racing style 1st gear, last year of the high (9.8:1) compression ratio, last year before the value engineering and all the cheap plastic engine parts. Kugelfischer mechanical engine -- 6 individual throttles and velocity stacks -- what a machine!

[uncle stinkybob]

If it ain't broke........fix it till it is! HA HA HA HA!!! The difference between a Mechanic and a part's changer? diagnostic's!!

[Cadence]

Everyone has owned at least one bug.

[Scaramanga F25]

I owned a white VW camper, WITH aftermarket A/C. LOL
There was a dash under the dash with outlets and the cooler was under the
frame/platform. When the engine belted compressor kicked in you could feel the drop in engine power.

[DeepFrz]

I was an apprentice mechanic on VWs in the late 50s and early 1960. Could pull an engine that had been out before in 10 mins and reinstall in 20.

I started with a 1961 bug, then a 66 convertible, then the 71 camper bus. Still miss the camper. But, I don't miss adjusting valve lifters while laying on the floor of the garage in -20 degrees in Minnesota.

Oh, yes.

[senormechanico]

OT, Never owned any bugs, but had several Corvairs.
1960 500, 1963 Monza, 1965 spyder turbo red convertible, 1965 140 hp coupe (also red), last one 1966 140hp coupe. All were 4 spd trans.
I was the local Corvair club president at one time.

My tailbone still hurts when I think about how cold it got while lying on my back to replace the clutch on a concrete slab (no garage) in the middle of the PNW's coldest winter in a 50 year history.

I graduated to a red 1972 Porsche 911T, then a PUMPKIN ORANGE 1969 911E. Thought I'd get a speeding ticket every day with that one, but never did.

[Cottontop]

Originally Posted by CaptTom

I thought *I* was the only one who'd ever heard of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I made an oblique reference to it in a blog post, and it turns out one of my best friends picked right up on the reference. Then I see it here, and everybody seems to know about it.

I'll have to re-read it too. Just finished re-reading Farley Mowat's The Boat Who Wouldn't Float for the first time since childhood. Next up is Two Years Before the Mast.

Zen is one of the best books ever, but I feel I have to comment that while it certainly has something to say about motorcycle maintenance, it is about so much more than that and should be read by everyone.

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by DeepFrz

I was an apprentice mechanic on VWs in the late 50s and early 1960. Could pull an engine that had been out before in 10 mins and reinstall in 20.


Oh, yes.

It was only four bolts. A gas line, a wire or two and yanking the axles which was easy. What did I miss? Was there a duct hose to the fan for the heater?

I only did it once. I did do a Corvair about the same. I'm bet we could get together and do a Porsche 911 or 365

[DeepFrz]

Two ducts. No need to remove the axles if just the engine was coming out for overhaul or clutch job. Man, that was a long time ago.

[roverhi]

Owned a '64, '69 camper, '71 and '73 buses as well as a '67 bug and a couple of imitation VW's called 356 Porches. They were simple cars, easy to work on, with no expensive systems that do nothing to make the wheels go round. If not seriously abused they ran forever and were easily repaired by a compleat idiot, me, if anything did go wrong.

The magic word here is simple. No generator, A/C, refrigeration, radar, electronics etc. that seem to have infected too many boats on this list. If you don't have all the toys you don't have to keep them working. Something to be said for simple. Have cruised with a simple boat and didn't miss all the toys and didn't have to waste time keeping the complications working.

The guy who wrote Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance bought a Westsail 32.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by DeepFrz

I was an apprentice mechanic on VWs in the late 50s and early 1960. Could pull an engine that had been out before in 10 mins and reinstall in 20.


Oh, yes.

Yes, I believe there were only three bolts holding one in, and one of those served double duty by holding in the starter, and it was a special bolt that held itself from rotating?
I quickly leaned to remove the distributor for an significant work, and to pull the engine for any real work, Valves? 5 min tops if I was lazy, heck the valve covers were even held on with a bent wire, off in 5 sec


Record R&R works starts 2 min in, up til then its just talk.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKF6dcKjLJo

How about just the fan belt? 5 sec.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQhfcdQf1QA

[TrentePieds]

Oh yesss! First was a 1955 beetle converted to a "camper" by making the front squabs detachable and bunging the baggage into the foot wells. A homemade roof rack (plywood) took the clobber while under way. Not comfortable, but it did the job.

Next was a 1953 while I lived seven miles from the Austin factory in Longbridge (Birmingham, Eng). Was the laughing stock of the neighbourhood until one cold, cold snowy New Year's day when I creamed them, all the Austins, all the Morrisses, all the Minis and the Rileys, on a rally going over Clee Hill into Wales. For two weeks I drove that car across the metropolis of Birmingham twice a day, from home to work and back again, with a broken clutch cable! THEN I found the money for a new cable :-)

Then a 1972 "Super Beetle" after return to Vancouver. Pushed 'er hard while overtaking an 18-wheeler and blew the engine out. Small matter. A re'n're (spare engine sitting about) took less than an hour :-)

The current "beetle" (MyBeloved's car) ain't a beetle at all, but a conventional FWD runathemill "ladies' car", unnecessarily complicated and unconscionably expensive.

TrentePieds