Here's Whirligig at Mason Lake (Cyn's Parents' property) in camper mode... note the playa dust still covering the pop-top canvas.
At any rate, I'm driving home from work yesterday, tooling down TV Highway (Tualatin Valley, not Television), I go to accelerate, and *bam*, the gas pedal just drops to the floor. "Crap!"... think fast... throttle cable must've broken. I had enough speed to coast a bit, so I turned left onto a side road and pulled over.
I knew I had a spare throttle cable under the back seat that had come with the bus. I popped the engine cover, found the throttle, and there's this little metal bar sticking off it... "hmm.. that looks like it could be a cable end." Looked around until I saw the end of the cable sticking out of its little tube. Crawled under the front, popped off the metal plate that covers the underside of the pedals. Yep, the cable is loose, so I pulled it out of the tube that runs to the back, and threaded the new one in. There's a point where a metal tube meets a rubber tube where it popped out and I had to crawl under the back and re-thread it, but in the end, after about 45 minutes, I attached the cable end to the throttle, fired up the bus, and drove on home.
One of the main things I love about this car is that everything is mechanical. No electronic throttle, anti-lock brakes, assisted steering, none of that. There is literally a cable running from my gas pedal that goes under the bus and attaches to the throttle on top of the engine. S imple and uncomplicated. The engine doesn't even use water - it's basically a glorified lawn mower engine. If you have the part, the tools, and maybe a book or two, you can pretty much fix everything yourself. I love German engineering, the thing is literally made to be taken apart and put back together with simple tools.
I've been driving her for five years, and this is the first time she's broken down on me on the road. She even made it to the middle of the Nevada desert and back with nothing more than a flaky blinker.
Plus, I love her 'cause she's bright freakin' orange, and really obnoxious. I love parking her next to the Mercedes, Corvettes, and other high-end cars at work. I've seen a Delorian pulling in and out a couple times.. if I can manage to park next to that I'm gonna take a picture.
Oh, and btw, I finally completed my "probationary period" at work, so I guess I'm an official employee now. It's weird working for a company that's not a startup, and most likely won't go under anytime soon. This is the first time I've had actual vacation time I could count on, and it's strange to be able to plan a "career", and think more than about three months ahead. It's all weird, and I feel really lucky to be there. I almost feel like a responsible adult... don't tell anyone though.
2 comments:
God bless old VWs. I know what you mean. I love it that even I can work on them (to a limited degree) because they have no computerized powered crap to confuse you. I also hate it that they have no computerized, powered crap to make them easier to drive. You pay the price, I guess. But hey, when I can drive half way to Lake Mason on 3 cylinders, and only notice because the bus is kinda loud...
I was talking about my bus to some people the other day (their fault, they asked) and one of them was talking about a friend who had an old bug and was telling him what kind of mechanic you want to find to work on your VW. I said, "Yeah, basically you want somebody who followed the Dead until about '80, then had to get a real job." :)
Congrats on making it past the probationary period. Yay! You're all relieved that for the first time in awhile you have a stable job, and I'm relieved that for the first time in years I don't.
Hey you! I totally understand what you mean about the simplicity of a VW bus. It expresses itself in different ways for me (leaving mechanical things to Matt - oh god).
Congrats on the FT status switch! Now that you have vacation and stuff - we'll have to do a joint one, one of these years. :)
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