Joe Ernest Posted November 10, 2015 Report Share Posted November 10, 2015 Red 1989 Vanagon Westfalia Syncro - rolled by then wife on IH880 Red van patched up and painted cheap white Silver 1988 Westfalia rescued from Kingman AZ junkyard now Green 1988 Wesffalia TDI, regeared Syncro locking transaxle installed, locking front diff and propshaft installation to come. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrethx Posted November 10, 2015 Report Share Posted November 10, 2015 very nice! square headlights mean late 80s - early 90s, right? (edit -- never mind, i just read the thread title again ) i don't remember if you said, but whereabouts are you located? andré Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Ernest Posted November 11, 2015 Author Report Share Posted November 11, 2015 TDISyncroWestfaliaSaga: Ohhhh, my Syncro Westfalia TDI……cue violins, grab Kleenex, remove drain plug from bank account…… Prologue: In my final undergraduate year my Dad had me buy a 1973 VW Microbus for the family to use in a post -graduation cross-country expedition from Lafayette, Louisiana to Los Angeles, CA, from where my parents would then fly back to Fiji. We got as far as Albuquerque, NM, before the engine locked up, courtesy of a bearing locator pin having been installed in an oil port by the rebuilder/van seller. My Dad had the local VW dealer install a new engine in the van, and a few days later they flew out from Albuquerque, and my brother and I drove the ‘Orange Peel’ back to Lafayette. Back in Lafayette I stuffed an undersized '69 camper interior into the van and added a plastic milk carton box as a courtesy step for the sliding door. Orange Peel took us on day trips with a friend’s handicapped father, to Friday night ‘Down-town Alive’ block parties where we drank cheap, cheap red wine from a cardboard carton because we didn't like and couldn't afford the $1 beer. The van was the unofficial International Student Association Airport bus/ welcome wagon, as well as the tour bus for all visiting parents, relatives and friends. I couldn't count the number of roommates, friends and classmates I moved in that van, and almost every semester each of us found an apartment that was either cheaper, closer to campus, or came with a different set of roommates. My closest friend (later my wife, now my ex-wife) used to call it the "Orange peel" - it was orange below the waist, white on top, with a cheap aluminium luggage rack and a fold down CB antenna. The back end was higher because the cheapest used tyres I could find to fit were off american luxo-yachts. I seem to remember the letter G being the tyre size. I also convinced myself that I got the additional bonus of an overdrive, and a Kamm-back aerodynamic effect. The PO had ripped out the 1800cc sized EFI and installed a 2300cc sized Ford Pinto carburettor, so it idled at about 1500 rpm. That increased to 1800 rpm when the remnants of the muffler system were replaced by a single unit, sized for a Ford LTD - because it was, again, the cheapest way to go. Even with the oversized tyres it would cruise at an indicated 85mph between College Cesspit, TX and Lafayette, LA, allowing me to almost keep up with traffic. This sustained high speed did apparently have a tendency to cause the piston rings to spin and align their gaps, losing engine compression, and out of ignorance, and lust for a Peugeot 504 Diesel Station Wagon, I sold the Orange Peel for a pittance to Rusty, my good friend, mechanic and owner of "Bugs & Bunnies Auto Repair”. Fortunately or unfortunately, Rusty sold it at a loss to his seldom sober sometimes mechanic so that he and his toothless common law wife would have a place to live in, with her 3 children. I had sold it so cheaply to Rusty because I had wanted him to have it to enjoy and was rather disappointed that he had sold it on, but I guess it was for a good cause. My last memory of the Orange Peel is seeing it wallow past me, shimmying on bent rims, body bent but unbroken from numerous drunken encounters with ditches, trees and gate-posts, carrying a full complement of happy, unclean and unkempt full time campers and all their worldly possessions. And the engine; it still ran like a top, idled at 1800 rpm, and you could hear the muffler, or inadequacy thereof, a good 5 blocks away. The Peugeot 504 was a dream to drive, as long as you were in no hurry to get anywhere. On the weekends we would cruise the surrounding towns searching for savoury kolaches, and whatever we might be able to afford at the swap meets and junk stores. As we climbed the steps to one such junk store, a wiry septuagenarian with a weathered face under a tattered straw hat queried “Is that one of them there Pooo-gots?” “Yessir, indeed, that there is ma Puggit.” He was quite pleased with himself, probably because even at 10 feet, he could still read the 3 inch tall letters emblazoned across the top of the windshield proclaiming its automotive manufacturer. My classmate, best friend and best man had named the 504 “The Amblance,” it now had a last name – The Amblance Poo-got. After several failed attempts to get the crankshaft rope seal properly installed, the Amblance and I parted ways. A couple of years later I escaped from Texas S&M, three years into an Environmental Engineering PhD sentence, and ended up in Nevada County, the county with the lowest per capita income in California. There I bought a 1980 Vanagon Country Homes camper from my boss. On our first trip, from Grass Valley to Los Angeles, the engine expired in Madera. I should have heeded my boss’ stern warning, “DO NOT drive this van until you have the engine rebuilt.” That van, with rebuilt engine, served us well for the next several years until engine issues started to crop up again with excessive frequency. Red Van: I sold the Country Homes van, again to a mechanic, and began the search for another. But I knew that this time air-conditioning and a more powerful, i.e. water-cooled engine, would be the minimum requirements. I stumbled across a van for sale in Idyllwild, CA, so we loaded up the 1985 Peugeot 505 S station wagon, I snicked it into first gear and let up the clutch. I had not been able to get any indication of price from the seller, and I had no cash, but I did have a blank check from Citibank, a cash advance on a new credit card, $6,000 limit. When the seller introduced himself to me as (Forgottenfirstname) Schumacher, my then 5 yr old son just about launched into cartwheels, “Are you Michael’s dad?” Mr. Schumacher was well aware of which Michael my son spoke. Mr. Schumacher told us he had bought his van to take his sons to Laguna Seca and similar venues to watch another Michael and his father, Mario, scream around the distorted circles. The Schumacher boys took annual camping ‘guy trips’ to the IndyCar/CART races until the sons’ interests changed. It was those changed interests and the resulting lack of use of the van that prompted its sale. With my son looking up at him with star-struck eyes, Mr. Schumacher finally revealed the price for his van. He offered it to me for the trade in value the dealership had offered him, less a few hundred dollars to fix a wheel arch that the dealership had dented, and fixed. The price sounded reasonable to me, and more importantly it was a few hundred bucks below the limit of my Citibank cash advance. I filled out the cheque. Mommy drove the Peugeot, and I drove the camper van. I had been monitoring the Vanagon email list and was aware of a VW campout in Pinnacles, and as Pinnacles was essentially on our way home, I decided to show up, unannounced and uninvited. Being friendly VW camper van types we were welcomed by them to the campout, and to the group. Of course they all had to inspect my recent purchase. A fellow camper offered me a trade – my van for a 1 year newer camper van with half the mileage of mine, plus double what I had paid for my van in cash. I thought he was either joking, or crazy. They then pointed to an emblem on the rear hatch – “Syncro” it read. I had just bought a Vanagon Westfalia Syncro. Of all the Vanagons imported to the US supposedly only 5,000 were blessed with the all-wheel drive Syncro system, and only 1,500 of those had been double blessed with both the Syncro drivetrain and Westfalia camping goodies. The good Mr. Schumacher had been very, very good to us. He was apparently happy that the van would continue its life with Formula 1 and camping enthusiasts, father and son. My son insisted on annual guy trips, to Syncro de Mayo, and Mom was more than happy to be excluded from the interminable de-coupler-viscous coupling debates. “Red Van” took us everywhere, including me to work each day. All through the 1990s we travelled frequently, far and wide – Interstate Highway 10 East to Courir de Mardi Gras, I-20, I-40, Chaco Canyon, Hovenweep, Canyon Tsegi, Los Padres National Forest, Crater Lake, Meteor Crater, Nanaimo, Redwoods, Yellowstone, Mt. Rushmore, Grand Canyon, Vasalopet, Hwy 50 – the Loneliest Highway, across the top of The Great Lakes to Toronto and New York, and along the southern shores on the route back. In October of 2005, Red Van met its end. A flip, a skip and a roll on Interstate 880 near Oakland led to Red Van being laid to rest under a blue tarp in the back yard. My wife had rolled Red Van on the IH-880 freeway in Hayward, with my son in it, blew a 0.23 BAC an hour later, and placed herself firmly on the path to ex-dom. Endanger my son and I have thoughts of divorce, kill my Westy Syncro and I’m dialing the divorce attorney. A lucky seven years later Red Van was stretchered to an automotive surgeon and some weeks later I returned to find that Red Van Westfalia was no more, but in its place lay pale look alike. The good doctor attached the cables and flipped the big switch, and there commenced a flash, a buzz, “Click,” a “roaaarrr,” and a then a steady “grrrrrrrr.” “It’s alive!” Frankenfalia was born! Soon rechristened “White Van,” as except for a little shoulder padding bondo on the outside, this was still very much Red Van. Indistinguishable on the inside – the same stove and sink, the same closets and cabinets, the same cozy cots. Yes, still Red Van to the core, despite the hastily applied whitewash on the exterior. The road calls, adventure awaits. Places to go, sights to see, people to meet. Having got the van beaten into a vaguely Vanagonny shape, with a used WBX stuck in the back, I headed for Syncro de Mayo. The luggage rack was trifurcated and flapping in the wind, the pop top was flared out and sunken, all the better to catch the wind. The A-pillars and door frames were not as friendly to each other as they ought to be and provided a velocity proportional whistle tone that turned into a roar at the slightest crosswind. But I made it to SdM in time to unlock the gates and prepare the site for the arriving Syncronauts. The morning trip into town to buy eggs was less successful, but arriving SdMers helped diagnose cracked wiring at the distributor sensor. And back at camp, there stood my Syncro Westy, beaten, bent, replete with herbiage sprouting from the rain gutters and poptop fiberglass texturized with a thick mat of moss. Beaten, but unbowed, my abomination, meine Frankenfalia, meine liebchen. But the van was a sad reminder of happier days, and the noise, the rattles and the creaks precluded the slightest semblance of joy. So I decided that a replacement van was in order, but with a TDI in the back of this one. I bought the 87 Sunroof Syncro that the vendor assured me was perfect for conversion, “Engine removed, transmission rebuilt & regeared, ready for TDI conversion. Minor rust, but much worse vans have been converted to TDI.” When I got it to California I saw that out west much nicer vans had been sent to the scrap yard, and that’s before we looked inside the van to see that a college fraternity and a rock band had partied in there and trashed it before inviting homeless folks to take up residence. Assuming the syncro drivetrain was serviceable, I began the hunt for a rust free body to transplant the drivetrain into. I found a lovely Carat with a blown head gasket - perfect, until my chosen mechanic reversed his stance and said converting a lowered automatic Carat to a Syncro would be too much work. The search continued, and I found a salvage yard rescue, totally rust free 1988 Westfalia in Kingman , Arizona, but, ain’t there always buts? It had a salvage title from when the estate of the late previous owner disposed of it. No mind, I bought a tow dolly, hitched it to my Land Cruiser and headed for AZ. A day later I arrived in LA with my newly bifurcated tow dolly (courtesy of AAA towing) loaded in the back of my Land Cruiser, and the 88 Westy riding high on a tow truck (not AAA, read $$$.) From the driver's seat it looked no different to my 89......just a little closer to the road. (My Syncro Westy has 2" lift Syncro.org springs with OME shocks, making it almost 6” taller than a Carat.) The undercarriage of the 88 Westy was caked in red AZ dust, a quick wash revealed it to be absolutely rust free. The interior is remarkably good, not showroom, but very, very good, and identical in colour and condition to that in my 89 Syncro Westfaila, Red Van. Sitting in the 88 Westy just feels right to me – if a little low. But as both rear springs on the 87 rustbucket were broken, I had to buy a set of GoWesty 2 inch lift syncro springs, which should get it up to the same height as my 89 on its Syncro.org springs. As the work progressed on my 1989 Westy conversion to TDI and then Syncro, I began to wonder what to do with Frankenfalia. Surely my new TDI dream van would never venture into the hazards of Syncro de Mayo. But I'd have no qualms about off-roading an already beat up Frankenfalia, but that poor van is devoid of differential lockers. I have started the process of butching up Frankenfalia - I have a swing away spare tire carrier, a $20 brush guard from an 80s Chevy, a $15 tube bumper from a Ford Ranger, a double cardan drive shaft, an aggressive VC, a diff lock panel w/ switch and tubing, a vacuum actuator with TDI friendly bracket, and the most important parts, the differential lockers, have recently arrived from Germany. The Peugeot 505 SW TD: My 88 Westy had the TDI and Syncro transaxle physically installed, but the electronics, the induction and exhaust plumbing etc. were only just about done. Then on EBay I saw a 1986 Peugeot 505 SW TD, in LA! Oh! Be still my beating heart. And then a 1995 Range Rover LWB with 300 TDI engine popped up. Which one for me? In the end I bid on the Peugeot, and won it for just over a grand. Sweet! I swapped Firefox tabs to look at the Range Rover, maybe I could get both, and choose which to keep, but the Rangie was gone, bidding closed early. When I picked up the 505, I found out that it smoked like crazy on start up, so maybe after the rebuild (which appears necessary) the cost will approach that of the Range Rover. Oh well. Back to the Vanagon - Years ago I bought a Carver/Propex P4 heater that I never had installed. I’m even looking at installing a compressor type Truckfridge and house battery. Yep, I’m going whole hog on this baby. I bet you’re now regretting ever asking me the status of my project!! I only gave you the Cliff Notes version, the devil truly is in the sadly hilarious details. Do you know any country song writers? ;-) JoE Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Ernest Posted November 11, 2015 Author Report Share Posted November 11, 2015 I'm in Fresno CA. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bean Posted November 12, 2015 Report Share Posted November 12, 2015 Joe - I absolutely LOVED this post! Best part of owning a Peugeot? The community of owners that are some of the coolest people I know and you my friend fit right in! Very happy you joined the forum and I hope you keep is updated on all projects! Reading about your family adventures is a big reason I've been gravitating to an adventure build of my 86' TD wagon. Nothing absurd, but a 2" suspension lift, Cooper AT3 tires, roof tent, and a modded XD3TE should be plenty for most trails and most campsites. I've always loved Westy's and have gotten close a couple times, but I should have bought them years ago because now the prices are up there. As for your TD - I'd hold off on any thoughts of the engine needinging a rebuild until you get the basics done to get it in good tune. Head retorque, valve adjust, injection pump timed/advanced, and then get a compression test. Injector pop pressures set and possibly new nozzles if compression is good and that motor should be fine. If compression is low - only then should you consider a rebuild. Rabin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrethx Posted November 12, 2015 Report Share Posted November 12, 2015 excellent story, thanks for posting! but i gotta ask -- what the hell were you doing in lafayette? i was born in new iberia, my parents still live there.... andré Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Ernest Posted November 13, 2015 Author Report Share Posted November 13, 2015 HI Andre', I attended the University of Slow Learners, initially for Pre-Med/Computer Science (Yeah, My genius Dad's brainwave), then wildlife ecology, then ....finally I got a BSc in Civil Engineering, then grad school for Stream Quality Management, and work at the Center for Louisiana Inland Water Studies, then commuting to LA Dept or Environmental Quality in Baton Rouge (in a 1984 Peugeot 505 SW gas 3 spd auto), then a semester on the CIVE faculty back in Lafayette before accepting a PhD spot at TAMU alongside my brother Andrew. I received a paper USL diploma, and a vellum Universite de Louisiane diploma, in French, the only time it was ever awarded. New Siberia! My classmate, best friend, and best man, Neal P Robichaux is from there, though he now lives in Erath- I visited him during Festival International this year. My roommates in my 1st year out of the dorms were Kirk G Thibodeaux and his brother Darrel, both CIVE majors, also from New Iberia. In my first weeks at USL, a John Mahoney, a fellow pre-med student invited me to his folks house in, you guessed it, New Iberia. All the Mahoney boys were regulars at the First Assembly of God church there - a bit much for my conservative Roman Catholic upbringing. JoE Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrethx Posted November 13, 2015 Report Share Posted November 13, 2015 interesting! my brother got his undergrad degree in finance at UL back when it was USL, that would have been around 86 or 87...i went to LSU for my undergrad history degree (later, tulane law 91). my brother came to LSU and got his masters & phD in finance there; also in that program was our morgan city friend Shane Johnson, who now teaches finance at TAMU (and has a birthday coming up that i just forgot until now). what a small world! my last name is thibodeaux, kirk and darrel are probably distant relatives; my paternal grandmother comes from the humongous landry clan, so that makes me pretty much related to everybody in that area if you go back far enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SRDT Posted November 13, 2015 Report Share Posted November 13, 2015 Let's see if it's really a small world, does the Pelafigue family ring a bell? The catholic church is going to make Auguste "Nonco" Pelafigue a saint. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrethx Posted November 15, 2015 Report Share Posted November 15, 2015 yes, i'm from that part of the world -- i'm also roman catholic so i've heard of nonco. i knew that there was a movement to have him recognized as a saint but i hadn't heard that it was actually going to happen. he was from arnaudville, which is a bit north of new iberia and lafayette; it's between grand coteau and cecilia, if that means anything to anybody. when i was in middle school, we used to play cecilia in basketball... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SRDT Posted November 15, 2015 Report Share Posted November 15, 2015 My great-great-grandmother was his aunt. The house they lived on before going to america is still on the family. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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