Not sure of all the processes, and finding the workshop manual good to reference, if you knew what you where doing in the first place, I researched the internet. The local Kombi forum came up with some gems which I’ll reference here.

Pushrod tube seal replacement

http://forums.kombiclub.com/showthread.php?p=277803

Tappet adjustment

http://forums.kombiclub.com/showthread.php?t=33976

These gave me the confidence to set aside a few days and order the parts required. These came from Just Kampers http://www.justkampersaustralia.com

These guys had all the bits, although i had to wait for a container to arrive, but everything got here before the Christmas break.

So I replaced the pushrods and their seals, adjusted the tappets, put reconditioned tappet covers (painted blue) in-place of the old ones, removed, re-painted and re-fitted the exhaust with new gaskets and bolts, and I’m currently re-painting the bumper and its support bracket, for installation in the next day or so.

The exhaust was rusted to the tail pipe and needed a blow torch to loosen the bolts. Otherwise all good, and a solid wire brushing was all that was needed before several coats of heat resistant muffler paint went on.

Pity the new paint job will be hidden by the bumper bar!

The pushrods were very well seated in place and needed a huge amount of effort to extract. I ended up wrapping a webbing strap around the tube several times, threading the ends out over the heat exchangers and attaching them to a bar from the weight lifting kit. Bracing against the rear wheel I then used all my strength to pull the tube out of its place. I was sure something else would break given the force used, but nothing did and the old tubes look like they will clean up into good spares.

webbing strap pushrod puller

New seals were set in the new tubes and everything was put back in place.

Tappet covers off, rockers exposed

Rockers and pushrods out

rockers, pushrods and retaining spring laid out

Shiny new pushrod tubes

The tappets proved to be much less trouble and I didn’t need the spare adjuster screws or nuts which I had ordered for the job. I used the workshop manual specs for my 1800 (now 2000 after re-build) as opposed to the clearance specs referred to the in the Kombi forum post which could have been for the 1700 motor. I also referred to the manual to ensure I knew which rocker set was for the inlet and exhaust value. The forum post got this a little confused I think. Not an issue when clearances are the same for both, but important when they aren’t!

Shiny blue, reconditioned tappet covers were put back on and the Kombi was ready for a test fire up. All seemed to work as expected and sounded good. Will try a road test in few days when everything is back in place.

The bumper bar was old, twisted and chipped, with a dodgy paint job I did 13 years ago when I first bought the car. It took alot of wire brushing (brush on the angle grinder) to get the old paint off the bumper section, but the finish is looking pretty good. The steel bracket was also given a quick brush and got a coat of rust proof gloss black as well as the insides of the bumper. I’ll fit the thing together before painting the outside of the bumper, as I’m sure there will be a bit of bashing and twisting required to get it all back together!

Black gloss on the under car bumper parts

The bumper support bracket even gets a facelift!

One addition I do like is the cheap plastic timing scale which I dressed up with white paint on the numbers (easy to do as they are raised) and a coat of clear gloss. Looks good around the cleaned up fan. Pity I haven’t found a new or better fan grill cover yet.

Simple but effective dress up – useful too when setting timing

Here’s to a happy summer of Kombi cruising! More maintenance stories to come as I work my way through a rather long list.

The engine bay so far...

Looking a bit smarter under there now!

Brian.

My main focus now is to keep going and keep healthy. I’m no longer interested in competition, although i may become a little competitive at times!

Cycling is the main activity, with 3 rides programmed each week. Lately that has been happening regularly and I can feel the results building up. Now I’m a bit older than when I was competitive, I notice how quickly any fitness seems to disappear when I have a break. It only takes a week off to need a good three weeks to get the condition back again!

the old 7 speed cluster on my bike

Each ride is about 30-40 kms at 27-28 kms/hr speed. Nothing too hard really, except for the occasional hill. When my regular riding partner is absent, I do often do repeat hill climbs on a nearby slope. At 4kms long it is a good workout, with a steady build up to a couple of steep pitches that put me in my low gear and near maximum heart rate.

Speaking of which, I’ve recently been putting the heart rate monitor back on, after a few years of not bothering. It seems harder to get the intensity up to push my heart rate to the levels I used to. Now 160+ seems about the limit. I took it up to 165 on the hill climb the other day. Perhaps more practice at the intensive stuff will help? I still remember as a teenager taking it past 200 on the ECG machine at the ANU. That was pre AIS days and the set up was the only one in Canberra. Ah, those were the days…

You can follow my cycling training on Daily Mile, an online training diary. There’s a widget on the sidebar below the tag cloud.

My other formal training is weights at the “Club Sky” gymnasium. Club Sky is the name we give the weights machine and free weights we have out in the back yard. Clearly it is under the sky, and the weights are painted a lovely sky blue colour! Some of the local gyms are named after colours, so this is our little play on the idea.

I like the set up. Nothing too fancy, clean or pretentious. I always liked the old Police Citizens club gym we used to use in the early eighties. Boxing rings, punching bags, rusty weights, no machines, except a “Smith Machine” which is not a machine in the modern sense of things, but a specialised piece of lifting gear.

old rusty weights in "Club Sky"

I do two or three sessions a week. Sometimes a full body session, and sometimes I split the routine. The current split is chest/shoulders/triceps one day, back/shoulders/biceps the other. I’m building maximum weight at the moment, but will cycle that with a period of intense, full body sessions when things feel like they are plateauing. I’m pretty comfortable with my weights routines now, having been doing it for the best part of 30 years now. (wow, that sounds like a long time!) The intense session is something I established recently to get maximum benefit from minimum time. 12 supersets, with 1 minute for each, a 1 minute break after 4 sets, to change gear around and all over in 14 minutes. Super set back and chest, shoulders, then triceps and biceps. I’ll do a separate blog on this when I start doing them again. They completely knacker you, but it’s over quick!

Other exercise and activity is informal and just involves playing sport with the kids, work in the garden, and getting out of the house and doing things. I prefer to be outside if there is no work to do, or blogs to write.

My goal is to keep going. Missing a few sessions or even weeks, is not a great stress as I know I will get back and keep going again. Usually, a break sees me keener and ready to get back into things again with more focus. These activities have become such a routine over the last 10 years that I don’t really notice them, until I wonder why I feel so good that day, or don’t feel right, somehow, because I have missed a session.

I’ll post some specific articles on training theory and details soon. And maybe more pics?

Brian.

On inspecting the piece in our Kombi it was clearly perished, but then so was the connector on the right hand breather tube, and the hose from the t-piece to the air filter wasn’t even there! The fitting on the air filter was a little cracked too. Time for a replacement I thought.

A new t-piece was ordered, but in the meantime I set up a replacement using fuel hose on hand and turned up a couple of pieces on the mini lathe to replicate the old t-piece and the airfilter fitting.

finished replacement parts, ready to install

It’s all fitted in place now, with just a road test to come.

More Kombi adventures coming this summer!

Brian.

Not sure of the answers to either of these questions but we seem to be going through rather a lot lately.  Smoothies in the morning, fruit for morning tea, fruit for lunch, afternoon tea, after dinner, snacks…

Here’s a sample of our supply. Hope it lasts out the week!

the table is overflowing with our fruit

apples and oranges fill the fruit boxes

We need to find a better way of storing it all to. The table and fruit boxes are overflowing.

Have a great week…

Brian.

flue and top plate

Most of the smoke seems to go up the flue. Should be better once a door is made.

smoke up the flue

And the baffle works well to retain the flames and direct the rest up the flue.

baffle in fire box retains flames, and directs excess up the flue

The door latch has been made, just waiting on a hinge design and production now. I think some more air intakes in the base will help things too. Airflow will be less once the door is installed.

More to come.

Brian.

marked and drilled mini cylinder

Purging the old cylinder of any remaining gas was my main concern. I burnt off the last of the gas using the camp BBQ then opened the filling vent fully. This allowed me to fill the cylinder with water and then drill out a couple of small holes to completely fill, drain and re-fill the cylinder again. Confident that any remaining gas was gone, I drilled the bigger holes next.

Vent and fire grate holes in base

Holding the cylinder steady without a big vice was a problem. When the larger drill bits, 8-10mm, grabbed and dug into the metal, the cylinder, drill bit and power drill were in danger of becoming a wild, spinning missile!

Bolts stop spinning in sand pit vice

Never one to be easily deterred, I considered my options. Hence, the newly invented and awaiting patent, sand pit vice. A brick either side with the sand packed in behind, held the cylinder securely for the drilling of 10mm holes around the base to act as air intakes. These then allowed for bolts to be pushed through and act to stop the cylinder spinning when drilling out the top holes for the flue pipe. Holes drilled!
The sand pit vice then helped hold the cylinder still for the cutting out of the door panel.
Once tidied up, it was time for a quick test and paint burn off.

Test fire and paint burn off

The small fire proved tricky to keep alight, as it’s heat was quickly dissipated. Much of it through the flue hole by all appearances.

Flames and heat out the flue hole

Next steps include working out a flue and baffle system and door hinge and latching design.
Stay tuned!
Brian.

loaded into the kombi

In use they make a good cooking station, with everything handy.

set up under the tarp

We also put a basket rack on the roof to take some of the pressure off the inside space in the Kombi.
Wood was in plentiful supply near the campsite so we didn’t need to burn the new campboxes in desperation!
A fellow camper had a beauty of a wood burner in his kit. A gas cylinder “piggy” which broke down into a small package for transport.

"piggy" at work on a rainy spring day

Enough to inspire a design of my own. Stay tuned for updates on that project!

good from any angle

More camping stories to come.
Brian.

Cyclone damage early this year has meant that bananas are in short supply, and expensive! So we’ve been making our smoothies without bananas.

Until this weekend however. The need for bananas overcame the cost factor, and we splurged on a few. Still @$11/kg!

Spinach, orange juice and bananas

This makes an awesome colour smoothie!

awesome colour!

A blender full is made from the juice of 8 small oranges, half a bunch of spinach and two bananas. Breakfast for two.

breakfast in the garden

The proof is in the drinking… yummy!

change your life!

Happy smoothie making and drinking. Try it, it will change your life.

Brian.

top and fronts of drawers get the "shiny" treatment

I made the handle the same as the previous versions, although I had to settle for smaller gauge reo bar than I wanted as it was all I had on hand. An upgrade later?

handles as for previous versions

Once the varnish was dry, all the camping boxes were stacked up for inspection.

The full set of camping boxes!

Camp chief and kitchen boss decided that this was too high for practical cooking however!

Cooker high on the stack of boxes!

So an alternative configuration will need to be used once in camp. Maybe something like this?

alternate configuration

Now we just need to fill up the remaining spaces and work out how to fit them into the Kombi. I’ll try to remember some pictures this time to show traveling and camping set-ups.

Here’s to happy campers.

Brian.

Drawers made!

I still need to drill the finger hole handles. Then a good sanding and several coats of varnish.

And handles too…

I feel significant progress has been made now. Until things start to look like they are meant to I always think I’m a long way off finishing. Deadline is end of September for October camping trip.

Brian.