Post by vwkarl on Dec 16, 2014 9:43:28 GMT -8
Thought I would share a story..... So it was about 15 years ago in mid February give or take... Decided to go to California with a bunch of VW parts pre sold on the internet and drop them off along the way to fund our trip. We loaded up our 79 westy and headed off. Stopped in Vancouver Washington for a meal and to drop off a westy middle box seat. Left there satisfied and headed south just out of Portland the van started hiccupping intermittently so pulled over in a rest stop and checked it out. Keep in mind we are full of parts and getting at that engine hatch is a feet. Everything looked good . Plug wires all attached Distributor bails still latched and all injectors looked fine plugged in and no stray burnt wiring etc.. Decided to carry on let it develop. Well got to Portland in the thick of all the unders overs bridges etc. on the middle of a narrow bridge pop and the biggest smell of gas you ever did smell. Slammed on the brakes and pulled over fast as I could . Never saw my wife run that fast. Both ran probably 200 feet back and stood there to watch for something to happen. Keep in mind we are on a narrow bridge with 2 lanes doing 60-70 mph and no one stopping to assist. So we stood there for seemed like an eternity watching for the flames that never happened . My wife stayed behind and I cautiously walked back. Took all the trinket crap off the hatch had a look and there it was #1 plug with insulator laying on top of motor. Thinking oh when I changed the plugs before leaving on the trip I guess I must have forgot to tighten it. Easy fix got it all back together quickly and off we went running good. By the way no one ever stopped to help. Got to the other end of Portland past all that bridge stuff and it happened again. By now it's about 8-830 at night. So I pulled over and the same thing plug laying on top of motor. Did a little investigating and determined that the #1 sparkplug hole threads are stripped. Now what?? There goes the trip and lots of disappointed VW buyers. Nope!! It pays to travel with Zap straps. I screwed the plug in (funny it tightened up normally you wouldn't think there was a problem at all) So I was able to zap strap the heck out of it and it never gave us another lick of problems again.
Same trip while in Cali. Had to go up to Idle wise in the mountains near L.A. to deliver the 2 big items 2 pressed bumpers for early splits. It decided to snow (late Feb) No prob. we got snow tires and a VW. Half way up and 4 inches on the road...all the Subaru 4x4s and suv's were pulling over for me to blaze the trail for them in the fresh snow. ?? Guess they saw the BC plates and thought we all live in igloos anyways. ......
