What did you do "IN" your garage today?

[niget2002]

The direction the motor is correct. It turns towards the operator, if it was reversed your turning tool would not cut into the wood but skip over it. Most of the debris ends up in the front of your work area or better yet down the dust collection tube. I find that a good quantity of the dust and wood chips ends up in my smock pockets.

I didn't mean the rotation of spin. I meant the motor housing being to the left instead of going to the right. But if the motor direction can't be reversed then it doesn't matter.

My lathe throws wood shavings everywhere when I'm cutting. My dust collector port is mounted behind the rails on mine and catches a lot of what gets thrown. I can move it left<>right depending on where I'm cutting. This is farther to the right than I usually keep it as I was replacing the capacitor on the motor and had to push it out of the way. I really want to build a new stand with an opening under the bed rails for the heavier shavings to fall through and something like a metal lathe across the back for shavings to fall down, but I know me and I know I'd be dropping tools down it constantly.

Picture for comparison

 

[Beerhippie]

Some interior pics of the Vanaru:



No cracks in the windshield! That's unusual for Eastern Oregon and maybe a first for me. Unfortunately, likely doomed. Gravel for ice control....

And wing vents! Those should never have gone away.



The "jump seats" fold up and are easily removable--which they will be, either for sale or storage. Rear seat folds up and out to make a full bed and the table folds flush.

Vanagons, typical of the '90s (and earlier), came with no cup holders, but an ash tray for every seat. A PO added cup holders--and I won't complain.

It ain't your grandfather's Vanagon:



Very clean Subaru EJ 2.5 install.

 

[bmwrd0]

Nice! My brother had a Vanagon Synchro and the only thing slower than it was my Datsun diesel pickup. That should help get it moving.

 

[Beerhippie]

Nice! My brother had a Vanagon Synchro and the only thing slower than it was my Datsun diesel pickup. That should help get it moving.

It pulled sixty-five on the straights up a 6% grade! Seventy-five on the highway--with a headwind strong enough for the wind farms to be spinning.

 

[Thisistimm]

Finally got my rear suspension on my model A project to a point where I can sit it back on the ground. Ladder bars and adjustable quarter elliptic springs are in place now onto the rear panhard bar and shocks/mounts.

 

[Mr.zippy]

It pulled sixty-five on the straights on a 6% grade! Seventy-five on the highway--with a headwind strong enough for the wind farms to be spinning.

Is that a third pedal I see? Nice!

 

[Beerhippie]

Is that a third pedal I see? Nice!

Nothin' but manual, baby! In fact, it's about as manual as a vehicle can get. You don't drive this like a car, you operate it like a piece of equipment. 100% of your attention at all times on the highway. Big tires and a lift don't make highway driving any easier. It has no cruise control and a very stiff skinny pedal, so attention needs be paid constantly to maintain a constant speed. Brakes take some thinking ahead, etc.

It probably won't be seeing a lot of Interstate driving in the future. I plan on keeping it as much as possible on backroads and trails.

 

[Wrench97]

Some interior pics of the Vanaru:



No cracks in the windshield! That's unusual for Eastern Oregon and maybe a first for me. Unfortunately, likely doomed. Gravel for ice control....

And wing vents! Those should never have gone away.



The "jump seats" fold up and are easily removable--which they will be, either for sale or storage. Rear seat folds up and out to make a full bed and the table folds flush.

Vanagons, typical of the '90s (and earlier), came with no cup holders, but an ash tray for every seat. A PO added cup holders--and I won't complain.

It ain't your grandfather's Vanagon:



Very clean Subaru EJ 2.5 install.

I'm curious where the radiator and coolant pipes get installed and what you do for heat/defrost?

 

[GreenIron]

Camo my rifle stock.

 

[930dreamer]

I installed a new oil dipstick tube adapter on the 7.3. Strictly Diesel set up where you drop the factory adapter into the oil pan and install this one.

 

[micromind]

A friend ran me over in his sister's Chevy...

Were you injured??

Lol.

 

[Beerhippie]

I'm curious where the radiator and coolant pipes get installed and what you do for heat/defrost?

Vanagons post-late '83 are all Wasserboxers--water-cooled with near-five gallon cooling system. Takes a while for the heat to get working.

 

[micromind]

Some interior pics of the Vanaru:



No cracks in the windshield! That's unusual for Eastern Oregon and maybe a first for me. Unfortunately, likely doomed. Gravel for ice control....

And wing vents! Those should never have gone away.



The "jump seats" fold up and are easily removable--which they will be, either for sale or storage. Rear seat folds up and out to make a full bed and the table folds flush.

Vanagons, typical of the '90s (and earlier), came with no cup holders, but an ash tray for every seat. A PO added cup holders--and I won't complain.

It ain't your grandfather's Vanagon:



Very clean Subaru EJ 2.5 install.

We had an 87 model, half-camper.

It was a great rig, steady on the highway even with crosswinds, easy to drive but yes, it was a drivers vehicle and not very tolerant of inattention.

The electronic fuel injection never worked very well and finally at about 130,000 miles I had had enough so I removed all the computer and intake plumbing and the distributor. I am now looking at an engine with 4 intake ports, a hole for the distributor and a throttle cable.

I discovered that the distributor drive has been the same for many years so installing a points type was easy.

I also found that two manifolds and carburetors from an air-cooled model fit the intake ports but with a bit of machining.

I made a series of bellcranks and linkage to get the throttle cable to operate the throttles of both carbs.

I used electric chokes powered from the ignition coil circuit.

It ran for another 30,000 miles or so until that poor little 4 banger just got tired of pushing that big box down the road.

It ran better than with the electronic **** and gas mileage was about the same but HP was less.

 

[Beerhippie]

Here's the Vanagaru thread: https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/threads/1990-1999-a-vanagaru-odyssey.553072/

 

[Beerhippie]

We had an 87 model, half-camper.

It was a great rig, steady on the highway even with crosswinds, easy to drive but yes, it was a drivers vehicle and not very tolerant of inattention.

The electronic fuel injection never worked very well and finally at about 130,000 miles I had had enough so I removed all the computer and intake plumbing and the distributor. I am now looking at an engine with 4 intake ports, a hole for the distributor and a throttle cable.

I discovered that the distributor drive has been the same for many years so installing a points type was easy.

I also found that two manifolds and carburetors from an air-cooled model fit the intake ports but with a bit of machining.

I made a series of bellcranks and linkage to get the throttle cable to operate the throttles of both carbs.

I used electric chokes powered from the ignition coil circuit.

It ran for another 30,000 miles or so until that poor little 4 banger just got tired of pushing that big box down the road.

It ran better than with the electronic **** and gas mileage was about the same but HP was less.

Had a Squareback long ago--glaciers still covered the Northern Tier of states--'66 or '67. It was the first model sold in the US with EFI. Bosch-made. IIRC, still had a distro and points. It was a strange time.

It was horrible. I ended up getting a set of dual PICT 28 Solex from a junkyard Beetle. It ran great after that. It did have a funny hump in the rear deck to accommodate the carbs. Finally killed it in some probably epic way....

 

[Miss the Pontiacs]

I didn't mean the rotation of spin. I meant the motor housing being to the left instead of going to the right. But if the motor direction can't be reversed then it doesn't matter.

My lathe throws wood shavings everywhere when I'm cutting. My dust collector port is mounted behind the rails on mine and catches a lot of what gets thrown. I can move it left<>right depending on where I'm cutting. This is farther to the right than I usually keep it as I was replacing the capacitor on the motor and had to push it out of the way. I really want to build a new stand with an opening under the bed rails for the heavier shavings to fall through and something like a metal lathe across the back for shavings to fall down, but I know me and I know I'd be dropping tools down it constantly.

Picture for comparison

Gotcha Would have liked to mount beneath the bench top as well. With 2x6s on side didn’t want to take the chance of placing a hole for the belt in the x place. I had a double headed grinder similar to this.

Placed motor on a wood base and used a hinge mounted to the underside. The hinge allowed for the perfect tension with the weight of the motor to run the grinder smoothly.
I might find some kind of shield/covering to eliminate the chips flying near the motor. You got me thinking I’ll come up with something. I do have some plexiglass, hmmm! I kind of like the look of the motor. I know form over function.

I like your lathe,. Any idea when it was manufactured?

 

[kaymccampbell]

It's been a few days. Fiddled in lightburn. Freshened some pipe threads on a radiator. Fixed some little broken ****. Opened some packages. Dropped **** on the bench.

 

[bmwrd0]

The most interesting VW motor swap I have seen lately:

 

[Outlawmws]

Spent WAY too much time chasing a whole section of the pre-lit tree's LED's being out. I tested ecery single lamp in that section! I found two more cat-bit wires (a third was fixed a prior year) after I pulled it apart (its not decorated yet) and getting that bottom section on the kitchen table with added light so I could see and not kill my back... That fixed most of it, then I was chasing three 8 lamp sections; but that's lamps or seating, and it was all getting the "bad" lamp in the sections seated better.

Reassembled the tree, and another 8 lamp section on the bottom is out and one 8 lamp section of the middle is also out. That's a tomorrow job...

Also got two of the small trees, and SWMBO's "snowman collection" out of the garage wall/loft area.

 

[kaymccampbell]

Spent WAY too much time chasing a whole section of the pre-lit tree's LED's being out. I tested ecery single lamp in that section! I found two more cat-bit wires (a third was fixed a prior year) after I pulled it apart (its not decorated yet) and getting that bottom section on the kitchen table with added light so I could see and not kill my back... That fixed most of it, then I was chasing three 8 lamp sections; but that's lamps or seating, and it was all getting the "bad" lamp in the sections seated better.

Reassembled the tree, and another 8 lamp section on the bottom is out and one 8 lamp section of the middle is also out. That's a tomorrow job...

Also got two of the small trees, and SWMBO's "snowman collection" out of the garage wall/loft area.

I wound up cutting all the half dead pre-lit sets off my tree, and replaced them with the regular drape-on type.

 

[2001ZR2]

The front end rebuild on the Blazer continues. Got the lower control arms assembled with bushings and ball joints. Prior installing knocked out the remaining sections of the CV axles and installed them. Price was about double from the ones I bought previously.

Installed lower control arms and torsion bars. Along with a another step on the rattle restoration of the upper control arms called it a day.

 

[Outlawmws]

I wound up cutting all the half dead pre-lit sets off my tree, and replaced them with the regular drape-on type.

Maybe another year. Tracking one of 8 lamps is generally no big deal.

 

[PhantomEB]

Winning the battle vs my trucks rear lights. Shortened and relocated the grounds back there.

waiting on another LED license plate light but kinda wondering if I shoulda went with a stock replacement light bulb there and make sure I got all running lights back there before going with LEDs. Sure loving having a plate lit up like No tomorrow.

Told the wife I wanted a licence plate frame for the truck. But not sure if she could find a sticker of the old Pirate4x4 double flip off emoji guy To put on it with Haulin n Crawlin.

sure need to find a plug to fill that hole. I got 17000 lbs capability with the super hitch under there.

 

[Beerhippie]

Winning the battle vs my trucks rear lights. Shortened and relocated the grounds back there.

waiting on another LED license plate light but kinda wondering if I shoulda went with a stock replacement light bulb there and make sure I got all running lights back there before going with LEDs. Sure loving having a plate lit up like No tomorrow.

Told the wife I wanted a licence plate frame for the truck. But not sure if she could find a sticker of the old Pirate4x4 double flip off emoji guy To put on it with Haulin n Crawlin.

sure need to find a plug to fill that hole. I got 17000 lbs capability with the super hitch under there.

I put replacement LED plate lights on my Toyota. They're brighter than the back-up lights!

 

[PhantomEB]

I put replacement LED plate lights on my Toyota. They're brighter than the back-up lights!

Like my brother says at least the lights possibly will ’faze out’ any chance of a photo radar getting ya…..

 

[Beerhippie]

Like my brother says at least the lights possibly will ’faze out’ any chance of a photo radar getting ya…..

I'd have to drive a few hundred miles to find out.

 

[M.Brane]

Walked in, and out more times than I can count retrieving/returning tools, fasteners, and beer. Blew all the **** out that had blown in while the doors were open. Closed up before it got cold.

 

[Jeff Ivers]

Put in a few hours on some recycling chores. Had scrapped a number of bicycles over the years and saved various components in case I wanted to restore a bike some day. Today I took the overflowing tote and started sorting thru the contents selecting items I no longer want to save and then separating the aluminum and steel.

 

[Beerhippie]

F'in with the new Vanagaru. Inventoried the spares it came with, made sure the stuff that should be in it is. Checked the CV joints and they seem perfect--which *****, as that means the noise is in the transaxle. Hope it's the diff--that I can fix myself.

Need to unfurl the awning at some point, but too much wind today. Awning will sure be nice when camping.

 

[Outlawmws]

Sorted one of the two 8 lamp sections on the tree. I discovered that section was OK for the colored LED and dead on only the white side, so I also figured out these lamps are bidirectional and the white/color switch is simply reversing the polarity. scavenged a good bulb from the bottom dead section and will need to retest those bulbs in two directions...

Went looking for these exact type and finally found a place on-line that sells them, (most do not), and they are out of stock for 2025 -try again in 2026..." Not a single brick and mortar store stocks any replacement LED or other Christmas string light lamps any more. The local Ace (recently changed hands) only had C9 incandescent lamps.

So that section is facing the wall and I'll see about getting those replacements at a later date. (one guy on Eprey had them but labeled "Not working or for repair" so Eff that -not buying used junk for this.

 

[BonzoHansen]

Put the Christmas inflatable minions on the porch. I need to replace LEDs in 3 of them.

 

[Jay__Dub]

Brought the old Fergie in for a final once over, before the snow really starts flying. Dressed the new belt. Tires are staying inflated, no more leaking around the base of the valves. Black sillycone did the trick.

All systems go. Well, until it's go time, then I know something will come up.

 

[kaymccampbell]

Turned a bucket of hideous little gingerbread men into earrings for Judy. Worked in lightburn.

 

[bmwrd0]

Took a load to the Restore (mildly irritated that they did not know what an old oscilloscope was, and thus refused to take it. Take My Old Junk!), went to a couple estate sales to get more old junk, and started working on a mount to put a drum switch on the Logan.

Was supposed to go Xmas tree shopping with the wife later, but she is developing a cold, so that will get postponed until next weekend most likely. And by then I will have a cold.

 

[Prospecter]

Put in a few hours on some recycling chores. Had scrapped a number of bicycles over the years and saved various components in case I wanted to restore a bike some day. Today I took the overflowing tote and started sorting thru the contents selecting items I no longer want to save and then separating the aluminum and steel.

I find that oddly satisfying.

 

[PhantomEB]

Kept at it along, now I got all lights except running lights. Hope the licence plate light fixes that last issue.

gonna order up a trailer plug like the dual 4 pin/7 pin In the bumper so I can run the light bar from inside the box as I don’t want exposed wires. Time for more upgrades to my ultimate Ram3500.

can hold off on any camper if need to. Just gotta make the truck comfy to camp out of.

 

[Spikes]

Baby got new shoes:

I run those Vredestein Quatracs on the back of my motorcycle. Good tires.

 

[PhantomEB]

Chipmunk (my S.O.) is chittering away about swapping the spare room and the office for ‘more room’. And rearranging the living room……where’s my Amazon package……

 

[bmwrd0]

The wife has made noises like that recently, mostly as she thinks my office is too cluttered, and that I "never use it anyway". I have to keep reminding her that while she wants an uncluttered house, I would have this place packed to the rafters with stuff, as I like a cluttered, messy house. So, I need a couple spots where I can be as cluttered as I want, with books piled up, every spare inch of wall having a picture or something, and so on.

 

[Outlawmws]

The wife has made noises like that recently, mostly as she thinks my office is too cluttered, and that I "never use it anyway". I have to keep reminding her that while she wants an uncluttered house, I would have this place packed to the rafters with stuff, as I like a cluttered, messy house. So, I need a couple spots where I can be as cluttered as I want, with books piled up, every spare inch of wall having a picture or something, and so on.

I've said it for years: I'd rather live in a museum that a hotel room. Luckily, SWMBO agrees with me for the most part.