That sounds too good to pass up.


Ha...blood, women, and beer....can't beat that!

 

Well, got back on the road today again, unfortunately, had to pass up mountain biking at whiteface for now. When you go cliff jumpin a bit buzzed, you tend to land bad and not really feel it til next morning, so I drove to Niagara falls. Finally got here at 1:30am. Left burlington around 12:30 in the afternoon.

I know I've mention how I've been having a few running issues with the bus lately, well today on the way over, it finally broke down completely. I pulled into the rest stop on I90 to get a drink, and it refused to start up again after that. I played around with it a bit, tried chaning the plugs, cleaning up electrical connections, a few other things, nothing was working.

I started to play around with my fuel lines, I unscrewed the hose clamp a tiny bit around the line after the fuel pump, instantly got fuel oozing out. I reprimed the lines, tried the same thing after the fuel filter, nothing came out. I called AAA at this point. Tow truck driver came and got me, asked me how my cap and rotor were, did I have gas, battery good, all that. He drove me to the local advance auto parts, and I bought a new filter, cap, and rotor. He then dropped me and the bus of at the local VW dealership, which was right down the road from advance.

I changed the filter, believe it was clogged, and the rotor, which was worn bad, and the cap. She fired back up, thank god! I was so stoked. So here I am, 13 hours later after I set off, its been a long day, going to get some sleep!

 

Well, the van is broke down again, I'm right outside of Niagara, NY. This thing cant make it a day without breaking, its quite ridiculous! It drove fine after I did that work yesterday, then after I parked, nothing, wouldn't start again! Grrr

 

oh man, that's rough Kyle! Should have taken the 82 Ford, haha!

 

My thoughts exactly....These repairs would've paid a pretty good chunk of the fuel bill...

 

Well when you finally make it into Canada you will have lots to do, see in Alberta and BC. Lake Louise and Banff are high on the list, but pricey as they are geared for tourists. Lots of remote hiking, biking in the rockies on either side, Alta, or BC.

When you say cliff jumping how high are you up?

 

Sucks about the VW, but at least it'll add to the legend of your road trip. Hope you get her running soon!

 

You have spark and fuel?

Check the valve clearances.
Sometimes if running long & hard the seats erode, they will tighten up and when the hot cylinders cool and contract the pushrods will hold the valves off their seats.
...Hopefully you haven't roasted the #3 exhaust valve.

Don't ask why I know...

 

Ah I know, this bus is one quirky machine!

Managed to get all my parts the other day for around 50 dollars!

Thanks for the tips! I've heard that Canada has some of the nicest biking in the world! I usually jump up to 70 feet!

Thanks, shes been giving me some legendary headaches!

I don't even wanna ask!

 

So here's a bit of an update! After being in a panera parking lot for 12 hours (I'm usually hunting down paneras for the wifi!) I got the bus running. I walked about 2 miles, each way to the local advance auto parts to order an ignition coil. The guys were kind enough to deliver it to me in the panera parking lot, instead of me walking there again.

Guy comes with the part a few hours later, The coils don't match. I'm thinkin, I'm really screwed now cause the correct coil when they looked it up, would take a few days to get in. So by some miracle, when I was back in the engine compartment, I found a spade terminal connection that had come undone. It wasn't visable before because the rubber boot that protects the connection, was big enough to hold it together, even though internally it was disconnected. I bumped m hand against it and it pulled apart the rest of the way when I was putting the old coil back on.

I hooked the wires together, boom, bus came back to life. Really dont know what this wire was for, don't care either, the bus is goin again! Fuel mileage, however now, is down from just under to 20mpg, to about 12mpg, I'm thinking all the failed starting maybe fouled m plugs good. More stuff for me to discover tomorrow.

I made it up to Niagara falls today, what a sight! Real beautiful there. After that, I drove over to cedar point here in sandusky ohio, which is where I am doing this update from. I've always anted to check out this place, so tomorrow is the day!

I'll get pics up soon, I'm runnin on about two hours of total sleep here, I need some rest!

 

Sounds like a simple fix Kyle.
Glad you were able to get back on the road so quickly.

I envy your youth and sense of adventure.
Back in the '70's I bought a rusted out Beetle for $50 and drove it to Key West.

 

So where are ya off to next?

 

Looks like up through Michigan & and the U.P..

 

Wow, that musta been a good ride! I've heard of people going cross country in beetles before. I am lucky I found that wire, Bust still had some bucking and jerking going on as usual, but not as much this ride.

After cedar point, I'll be heading up to Michigan!

Here's the photos from niagara. Really want to get back on the mountain bike, I think I'll have to wait until I hit the dakotas or montana to find some good biking though!
Niagara falls pictures by keyul87 - Photobucket

 

Nice slideshow.

Thanks for sharing!