Hapy Update

Today I could continue the dissertation on the effort to move the furnace in our 1948 farmhouse. Instead, I actually have something car related... the check-in on Hapy that I said I was going to do in a prior post and then flat-forgot. Remember Hapy? He's the 1972 VW camperbus that launched this blog. I meant to post this yesterday, time got away from me.

Hapy No Start Returns

A few weeks ago, as the weather turned cold, Hapy became increasingly difficult to start. Again. I figured it was the same issue as last time (See Hapy No Start Again), and started checking things with my multi-meter. I started where the old problem was: the main fuse for the glow plugs. Nope, there's a clean over-12V signal there. Then, I checked the voltage at the relay, and it was fine there too. Same for the resistance in the wire and the fuse.. no issues. So, I started thinking about the glow plugs themselves. I swapped this set in when I put in the chipped CPU and bigger nozzles, but not because there was anything wrong with the ones that were in there. I had this set of plugs that I had lying around for a few years, and I was selling Flash. Flash had failing glow plugs (resistance tests between the plugs were not within a few ohms of each other). So, rather than put the new set into Flash, I got selfish and put Hapy's nothing-wrong-with-them plugs into Flash and installed the new-never-opened plugs into Hapy. Looking back, I don't think these plugs were nearly as good. I think we have had starting-while-cool problems from the beginning, but it was Summer when I did the swap and never thought about it. Until now.

I pulled the rear-most plug (#4?) and tested it by resting the glow plug threads against a grounded bit of steel on the engine and triggering the ignition to "run". After a 3 count, the tip of the plug started to glow orange. After another 3 count, I could hear the relay click off, and the tip returned to black. I did this a few times and each time it took a few seconds for the plug to respond and even then it was only the very tip. Based on some internet imagery, I concluded that those plugs were insufficient and bought a fresh set.

A few days prior to installing the new set, I started hitting the in-engine plugs with some Kroil penetrating oil at dinnertime. I did not want a plug to break off or damage the head during removal. Whether it was necessary or not, the plugs removed relatively easily. All of them had soot on them when they were removed. Into the trash they went. For each of the new ones, I applied some anti-seize onto the threads prior to installing and then only snugged them down (did not torque the snot out of them).

Unfortunately, my efforts to start Hapy when the glow plugs were not working did a number on the starter. Again. So, my attempt to start him after replacing the glow plugs was not fruitful. Since I did the glow plug swap around the furnace work, and the furnace still is not operational, I self-limited my time to just swapping the plugs and then getting back under the house. I returned the following weekend (bumming rides and car-sharing with Boo the week between) to remove and inspect the starter.

should be 1 part, not 2

I admit, I expected the starter to just need a remove / re-install cycle. I was wrong. This rebuilt starter was installed in June 2023. After a summer of being my "daily driver", the starter was cycled well less than 500 times. I guess rebuilt Bosch starters are not all the same. Maybe the starter was a Bosch but the rebuild was done with cheap-o parts, leaving just the case as a Bosch unit. Regardless, it did not take very long to notice that the seal on the end (which is supposed to go around the shaft which juts out when 12V is applied) wasn't there anymore. It had potato-chipped inside the little pocket where the nose of the starter goes. Neat! So, off to the internets I went looking for a suitable replacement. I decided to get a new one from MetalManParts. Run by MetalNerd, his site only sells things that he personally fabricated or installed into his own vehicle. I have purchased both types of things from him before and have no regrets. Since Bosch was sold off to Seg Automotive, he now supplies new starters from them. I trust that if he is selling them, he is using them.

Sadly, the install of a starter has become fairly rote, since I've done it so many times. I simply put a 19mm socket, 13mm socket, a ratchet and a couple extensions into my pocket, slide under the bus with the starter and it's installed in less than 15 minutes now. If the rear sway bar were not there, I could probably have it done half that time. Of course, I ran the battery down with all my glow plug testing, so it got a spell on the battery charger before I could test my handiwork. Once that was resolved, I turned the key to "run", counted to 6 (for the glow plugs, it's 45*F here) and returned the key to "off". I repeated and then tried to start. Fired right up! I let him run a few minutes to top off the battery and now he is back to being my daily driver.

Hapy Heat Not Heat

Remember all that effort I went through to install the Vanagon rear heater under the bus for some heat? While that was fun, the result is not much heat. I described the lack of warm on the drive to and from the Cascade Equinox festival. Beyond the lack of detectable warmth, opening the valve to try to get heat has resulted in a coolant leak. I can attribute no other source for why Hapy's coolant level is suddenly not holding. So, I turned the valve back off and will be replacing the Vanagon rear seat heater with something else: a Maradyne Fans Stoker heater.

Maradyne, but could be any

There are lots of auxiliary fans which all look the same and have the same spec's (300cfm, 40k BTU - airflow and heating capacity, respectively). JEGS has their own, for example, that looks identical. Since I am unsure who is the originator, I went with a manufacturer with a known, solid reputation. There is little documentation and hardly any photos of this particular unit on the interwebs, making this choice perhaps a little more risky. I find the 40k BTU number everyone is using to be gross hyperbole, but I don't know how to test that nor the 300cfm number. I will bench test to get some amp-draw numbers before I install it. The amp-draw might be useful information for the next person since even Maradyne doesn't list this detail on their product page. And, it could be one more thing that is exactly the same on all of these units. For future reference, the JEGS unit draws 5.5, 7.1 and 11.6 amps (for low, medium and high settings respectively). I had relays in-place for the medium and high draw switch positions for the Vanagon unit. I don't know if I  will re-use them. Perhaps the amp-draw numbers will help me decide.

One other thing to point out: none of these heaters ship with a coolant control valve. Since I was leveraging the valve in the Vanagon, I have to add one of these or the heat will be on maximum all the time. I included this "vintage" control valve in my order. I thought about going with an electric one, but decided that I would really like to re-use one of the big original heat-sliders on the dash to control the amount of coolant flowing into the heater core. That feels more authentic than another knob attached to the bottom of the dash. Of course, I haven't ever had that control cable, so I will be running this either full-on or full-off until I do.

For now, this means that trips in Hapy will be just like all the other trips I've ever made with him in the not-Summer. They will be cold. It will be like driving around in an ice-fishing shed, unless I can either install that heater soon-ish -OR- get the little Chinese diesel heater/furnace working.... or both. Since I do not have a garage and I barely have a 4-meter square piece of concrete to work on... and I have a house furnace to fix, I do not think Hapy's heat will get addressed terribly soon. At least I have the parts for when I do. Of course, now that he is my daily-driver again, I may decide another week without a furnace might be a fair trade for some heat, any heat, in Hapy.

That's it for today. Thanks, as always, for following along-