Hapy Turns 50

Quick post to commemorate Hapy the wonderbus turning 50 years old. Totally unrelated, but a fascinating video, here is a company in the UK looking at building an internal combustion engine that runs on hydrogen. Cool stuff. On to the celebration...

How 50?

I guess we start where I did with every person who asked "how do you know his exact birthdate?". I refer you to this post where I deciphered the manufacturing codes aka M-codes. Basically, every VW of this vintage has the planned manufacturing date imprinted on the plate. So, based on week number and day number, you can determine your vehicle's manufacturing date. Hapy has been in the family for less than half of his life, though.

When I received him, his engine had been replaced, but the interior, exterior, wiring, and everything else was 100% original. Consider "original" does not always mean "good". There was mold in the upholstery, the seats were shot, the pop-top bellows were dry-rotten and torn. But, I made use of him, in his original condition, even trying to return many of the systems to spec. Ultimately, though, safety concerns for my then-young kids started me down the trail I have documented here.

First, it was the sink/icebox unit blocking the handle to the sliding door. I considered the "what if" of getting into an accident that renders me unconscious while my kids are trapped in the back, unable to open the slider because their arm's aren't long enough to reach around the sink. So, that got pulled, and down the rabbit hole I went.

Park Play

To celebrate Hapy, and honestly any excuse to celebrate this year is a fairly good one, we reserved 5 camping spots in nearby LL Stub Stewart State Park. Our long time friends GratefulEd, lovely wife Dawn, and Belle joined us, as did my brother Eric, who rented a Eurovan from Road Trip Oregon for the special occasion with his 2 daughters (K4 and K5). Many other friends and family were on-hand on Saturday for the big party and many of them stayed overnight. We also had arranged a duo to play some jazz and old country in one of the reserved campsites in the center of the reserved spots. Unfortunately, the park rangers shut the duo down before they completed the jazz portion of their set. So, they completed their performance sans-amplification. Undeterred, Boo rolled out a stack of subs, a couple of coolers of bev's and a couple trays of VW-emblazoned cupcakes for a singing of Hapy Birthday. Yes, yes we did.

One of our gests had set up cornhole, another had set up badminton and Eric set up croquet. So, we played yard games while the acoustic duo played. It was the hottest day of the weekend, so impromptu shade was set up. When the official music completed, many of the day-trippers, and our official musicians, headed home. Those who remained shifted from the "venue" campsite to Hapy's front door for some (also mostly acoustic) jamming. For this, we were joined by friends from the Hillsboro bluegrass scene (some pictured, some not). We played until we were shut down by the park rangers again (silence expected at 10:PM), but not before our neighbors had joined us, demonstrating again that we all need a little more joy, and few things bring joy like live music and a small crowd laughing. After we stopped playing, we continued to visit (read: drink) for a while, and we broke up by midnight.

Everyone other than Boo, Hapy and me left the next day. Boo had rented some electric-assist bikes so we took a ride that afternoon after everyone left. There is a paved trail from Manning to Vernonia that passes right through the state park, and we explored a small section of it. That evening, we gazed at the stars through a borrowed telescope. With the lack of white noise from the city lights and no visible moon, there are just so many stars to see. We pointed the telescope first at single noticeable stars, but found it much more interesting to point it at a relatively uninteresting area of space and then see how many stars appeared. We both caught a shooting star through the lens that way, while also noting that in an otherwise uninteresting area of space there are still hundreds of stars visible through a non-commercial tri-pod'd telescope.

There and Back

No trip in Hapy is complete without a review of how well the bus handled. The drive out was late afternoon on a Thursday. Traffic wanted to go faster than Hapy did. Hapy still did well, driving into an on-angle headwind. The handling was much better after the shock-absorber adjustment, though the increased speed and headwind caused his engine temps to run a little high (topped at 198*F). We did not experience meaningful engine stumbling in either direction, nor did we throw a code. So, I think that much of the stumble was some bad fuel or a partially clogged clean filter (which I replaced after 4Peaks) or both. I will still be looking into other causes. The trip back was even better than the drive out. Whatever wind there was, it must have been at least partially behind us. Hapy's temperature rarely ticked above 186*F, and he was happily cruising at 55-60mph*. I had the stereo blasting an old Jerry Garcia Band bootleg, my elbow resting on the open window, and we just cruised with one hand on the wheel. The merge from 47 onto US26 was effortless with the bigger nozzles and chipped computer allowing Hapy to scoot into traffic. Honestly, it was the easiest drive home I can remember.

*: I use the asterisk here because Boo was following in a chase car, and was able to tell me just how fast I was going when... and when Hapy's speedo says "50" I am going 55. When his speedo says "55", I am going 62. So, the speedo is definitely at least 10% off, showing 10% slower than I really am. This is consistent with the odometer checks I have done along the freeway, showing the odometer is closer to .8 of a mile when the mile marker says a full mile. Since my mpg has been getting calculated without this extra math, the mpg is even more impressive. I have been getting just shy of 30mpg with the odometer reading at least 10% low. So, I'm really getting 33mpg or better.... in a bus that's loaded for camping 95% of the time.

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

Throw-back to embedded picture captions like I used to do:

top - meadow between the Dairy Creek campgrounds

next from top - (L-to-R) Stevan on Mandolin, Rose (standing) on fiddle, Rodney (back turned) on guitar, Joe (standing) on guitar, Dawn (seated can only see top of her head/hat), Mo (standing), me (back turned) on bass, Ed (back turned) on guitar. Joey (mostly obscured by Ed)

next from bottom - Ed and Belle in full-fest-form

bottom - Boo on the bike trail

And, here are some other pictures:

(L-to-R) Rose, Boo, Joe, Mo
and me (back-turned)

Boo and I sharing
the lot couch

LL Stub Stewart camping

(L-to-R) Rodney, Stevan, Joey,
Joe, Boo (back turned),
Mo (obscured) and
me (back turned)

Hapy Rides Again

My last 2 posts have been about my efforts to resolve the electrical melt-down we had on the way home from 4Peaks. Today, we hit bottom and work our way back to operational.


No Start
With so many good signals, I wanted to try starting the engine. So, I turned the key to run and nothing happened. At first, this was because the wire to the starter (circuit 50) out of the ignition wasn't connected. Once that was solved, things got worse. I tried the start again and everything went dead. Nothing worked. I went around to check the voltage on the battery and it was crazy low, like 5V. Huh? While watching the voltmeter, it climbed back up to 12.5V. I checked other circuits and they started to show 12V too. By the time I had worked by way to the front of the bus, everything was working again.

I was able to demonstrate this a few times, and it seemed like no matter what wires I tested, I couldn't find a new burned wire. "Could the starter have fried," Boo asked. Why, yes. Yes, it could have. Since so much power routes through the positive post on the starter, the electrical fry that smoked between my knees could have caused a short there too. So, I pulled the starter and tried a ShadeTree starter test.

ShadeTree Starter Test

First, I checked for resistance between the positive and negative sides of the starter solenoid. It was infinite, which told me that the solenoid was probably fine. Still, I couldn't find a good recommendation for testing the starter motor on the internet. Most folks encouraged various tests while the starter was in the car. Mine was on the ground, and I wanted to test just the starter motor without all the other variables. So, I tried my own ShadeTree bench test. I grabbed an old battery that I had lying around. It had around 9V charge. That's enough to trigger the start, but not enough to do much else.

I took my jumper cables, and clipped one black end to the mounting ear (ground) and the negative battery post. I clipped one red end to the positive post on the starter and the positive battery post. I double checked the voltage. No change, indicating again that the solenoid is not blown. If it had been the solenoid, I would have expected current to travel through the starter all the time (solenoid broken with the current open) or none of the time. I worked the leads for the multi-meter into the clips on the starter so I could see how voltage changed when I triggered the start. Using a short section of insulated wire, I touched one stripped copper end to the positive post on the starter and the other stripped copper end to the trigger tab.

The starter did not fire, but the voltage dropped to almost 0. I immediately removed the trigger wire and watched multi-meter. The voltage climbed slowly, but steadily back to 9V. Yep. That starter got toasted, but the solenoid was doing it's job: open the circuit to fire the starter when 12V (or in this case 9V) is applied to the switch. I phoned over to the no-longer-local VW Friendly Auto Parts Store and they had one for me on the following Monday.

Assuming the starter was fried during the initial issue, replacing it should be fine. What if the starter was fried by my test-start because something else was still wrong? Then, the next test-start will cause the new starter to fry as well, right? Eek.

Re-Start-er
My fears, ultimately, were not realized. I swapped out the rebuilt Bosch I installed less than 3 months earlier with another rebuilt Bosch from Discount Import Parts (still only on the east side... and still not Hapy about it). I followed the instructions I laid out back then, and the test start provided the same disheartening click noise. So, I removed the starter and performed a very similar ShadeTree test. I used the battery and battery-to-starter cable from the bus for the positive side. I clamped a black jumper cable on the negative battery post and to the mounting ear on the starter for the negative side. Using the same little jumper wire from before, I triggered the starter and it fired. So, I haven't re-fried a starter and so maybe some of the wiring has been improved. But something remained. So, I looked at what was still an unknown around the starter while I re-installed it again.

Wiring

There's the 30 circuit (always hot) that runs to the front of the bus from the positive post and there's the trigger signal plug (circuit 50). I checked the 30 circuit first next because I felt it would be easy to rule it out. The 30-circuit is a red-with-white-stripe wire that runs from the starter positive post to the fuse box. In the Bentley book it is labeled as a "4" thick. That's in cubic millimeters and translated to AWG 12 (see my handy conversion reference here). The plastic on the wire near the fuse box was a little melted or swollen from the ignition failure, but I assumed (possibly a mistake) that it was just from being near the issues and that it was fine. To prove it wasn't an issue, I tried a few things. First, I did a continuity test to show that the wire didn't have a break in it. I believed that wasn't the case and the continuity test proved it. Resistance tests didn't show anything either (very low resistance). I didn't want to run voltage through that wire again, so I ran a long wire from the positive post on the battery along the ground under the bus through the driver door and into the same spot on the fuse box as the red-white stripped wire. This eliminated that wire from the equation as a variable. Then, I tried to start again. Just a "click" again. I tried swapping out the "50" wire that triggers the starter to fire. "Click".

Clumping the Circuits
In the interests of reducing variables, I considered the wiring as 3 large units or clumps.
There's "front-of-bus": that's the original wiring, including the ignition switch, fuse box,etc.
There's the "back-of-bus": that's the '98 NewBeetle engine related wiring. I include the battery in the back-of-bus not because its in the back, but because there are lots of wires routing to the NewBeetle stuff and only one heading to the front-of-bus.
Last, there's the "accessory" that is the deep cycle battery that powers the cabin lights. The accessory is completely separate, only connected by a common ground: the bus chassis. So, we rule that out.
If we consider that the front and the back only connect through a few wires, and I just tested replacements for them above, maybe we can unplug those and test. So, I disconnected the trigger wire for the starter (50), the always hot wire from the starter (30) and the signal wire for switched power (15) from the front-to-back connections, completely separating the clumps. Using my remote starter, I tried to start. "Click". From this, I concluded that the issue was not a front-of-bus problem nor a connection between problem. It resided squarely in the back. That's when Boo dropped by to see how things were going. "Could the battery have gotten affected," she asked. I had been checking voltage and it had been consistently 12.5V, but maybe there just isn't power (amps) behind that voltage. So, following that question, I put the battery on the charger.

Start
I left the battery charging at low amps (2A setting) overnight while Boo and I went to catch the new Incredibles movie. The next day, I re-set all my wiring was back at normal (front-to-back returned, nothing left unplugged, etc), and verified that the battery charger was complete. Everything looked good. So, I tried the new key. It fired right up. Ahh... much rejoicing.

Dollars and Sense

old housing,
melted and hammered

In the end, we add one starter ($160) to the total of the running costs from the last post, and we're approaching $1000. That's pretty darn expensive, but I can't say it was because of either owner neglect nor because of the engine upgrade. The interfaces between the front and rear of bus are very few, insulated with fuses or relays and weren't part of the problem. Ultimately, 50 year old wiring eventually fails. I need to commit to a complete rewire one of these days... but not while there's camping to be had this Summer. As to the total cost, if I remove the wiring harness I didn't need, the cost of the hotel that was just a bad timing thing and the steering wheel I chipped due to being dumb, this electrical repair cost me $295US ($85 for new housing and switch, $25 sub-harness, $25 headlight switch which is another whole story, $160 new starter) plus a $300 tow.

I do want to point out that the 2 major failures found along the way after the original ignition was solved were both identified by Boo. Obviously, she's amazing, but this also serves to illustrate something so important on projects like this: this is a team sport. You need input from a random friend leaning against the fender while drinking a beer pointing at stuff and asking questions. Or, a helpful wife wandering over with a lemonade innocently asking if the starter or battery could have been affected. I'm looking at trees, and she asked about the forest. Brilliant.

That's the end of the ignition smoked saga. While we may have missed String Cheese in the bus, it looks like our other musical (and simple summering) events can include Hapy. Thanks, as always, for following along.