Post by PICTUP on Jan 9, 2017 22:11:07 GMT -8
As most of you regulars here know, I have somewhat reluctantly put my 1978 Riviera Camper Bus on the market in the fall. I had been meaning to get to a couple of issues before I listed it, but couldn't seem to get to them. Well, since I have only had a couple "sorta serious" inquiries, I figured now would be a good time to put the ad on hold and try to take care of a couple niggling issues. The first is the minor exhaust leak that causes an irritating popping on deceleration. Some might be tempted to ignore it, but I think it actually discouraged me from driving it. However, since Russ helped me put together the exhaust on Laurie's ex Westy, I knew what seemed like a small leak was going to be a bigger job. My home garage is actually much better suited to working in now that I have changed everything around and sold off that first Saab(more on that in the Erik thread later).
I think I found the exhaust leak pretty quickly. You will notice a missing bolt here allowing the flanges to separate
Bad pic, but they sure aren't parallel!
Yeah, this gasket wasn't doing much
I am really lucky in the sense that this Camper is exceptionally rust free and low mileage to boot, unlike most Buses I have owned. But there are still a few bolts that are merely rusty remnants of their former selves. There have been tips on this forum on how to deal with rusted fasteners and I thought I'd show what has been working for me. I got lucky with some and all I needed was plenty-o-heat and the right purchase on the nut. This is very uncommon on these old Dubs. I have tried just a propane torch on them in the past with less than stellar results. I am too amateur to own a proper Oxy-Acetylene so far, so I went ahead and tried a garage sale torch I picked up some time ago. This is it here:
One can use it with Propane and Oxygen or MAP/Pro and Oxygen. Apparently the former isn't quite as hot as the latter, so I opted to get some MAP/Pro, which is in the yellow cylinder. It is an old set-up, but after some fiddling, it was able to heat up the nuts pretty well reddish and some actually came off! At a place like Bavarian, they wouldn't waste time like I ma doing here, and would just proceed to cut all the bolts. But it is learning experience for me so I am just allowing myself the time. However, some nuts have no hope of coming apart due to two factors, rust and location(impossible to get a wrench on them). This little torch is not much good at cutting, so what to do? For me so far it has been the Dremel to the rescue. I have a really aggressive metal removal bit that is compact and when used properly at high speed, is easy to control.
Here is what I started with
I remove the side of the nut down to the threads(note the rusty threads in the next pic)
Then I take a small cold chisel to both sides of where I think the bolt is to break the remaining nut free
At this point I use the chisel to free up the bolt
And out everything comes
I think I found the exhaust leak pretty quickly. You will notice a missing bolt here allowing the flanges to separate
Bad pic, but they sure aren't parallel!
Yeah, this gasket wasn't doing much
I am really lucky in the sense that this Camper is exceptionally rust free and low mileage to boot, unlike most Buses I have owned. But there are still a few bolts that are merely rusty remnants of their former selves. There have been tips on this forum on how to deal with rusted fasteners and I thought I'd show what has been working for me. I got lucky with some and all I needed was plenty-o-heat and the right purchase on the nut. This is very uncommon on these old Dubs. I have tried just a propane torch on them in the past with less than stellar results. I am too amateur to own a proper Oxy-Acetylene so far, so I went ahead and tried a garage sale torch I picked up some time ago. This is it here:
One can use it with Propane and Oxygen or MAP/Pro and Oxygen. Apparently the former isn't quite as hot as the latter, so I opted to get some MAP/Pro, which is in the yellow cylinder. It is an old set-up, but after some fiddling, it was able to heat up the nuts pretty well reddish and some actually came off! At a place like Bavarian, they wouldn't waste time like I ma doing here, and would just proceed to cut all the bolts. But it is learning experience for me so I am just allowing myself the time. However, some nuts have no hope of coming apart due to two factors, rust and location(impossible to get a wrench on them). This little torch is not much good at cutting, so what to do? For me so far it has been the Dremel to the rescue. I have a really aggressive metal removal bit that is compact and when used properly at high speed, is easy to control.
Here is what I started with
I remove the side of the nut down to the threads(note the rusty threads in the next pic)
Then I take a small cold chisel to both sides of where I think the bolt is to break the remaining nut free
At this point I use the chisel to free up the bolt
And out everything comes