Last Edition, possible purchase!

Hello all, first post here. I'm going to look at a last edition today, so will come back and let you all know if I get it. If I do I intend to blog about my progress in perfecting it and doing a camper conversion over time.

Paul

Favguy wrote:

Hello all, first post here. I'm going to look at a last edition today, so will come back and let you all know if I get it. If I do I intend to blog about my progress in perfecting it and doing a camper conversion over time.

Paul

Good luck Paul

Hope it goes well today

Some First Editions must have very low mileage.
We pass a house with one very often but it always stands unused on the driveway.
By chance today we met it as it was driving home.
Standing and not running for long periods can adversely affect the tyres - not sure what else?
osg

osg wrote:

Standing and not running for long periods can adversely affect the tyres - not sure what else?
osg

Agreed.

Batteries.....
Keys losing sync with immobilisers .....
Vermin eating away at the wiring ......
Brakes seizing.....

I've seen it all.

Well, I've ended up buying the Last edition Kombi, so I'll keep you all up to date on progress with it. Picking it up next Wednesday.

Favguy wrote:

Well, I've ended up buying the Last edition Kombi, so I'll keep you all up to date on progress with it. Picking it up next Wednesday.

Congratulations
Let the fun begin

Well done

Looking forward to your progress reports
osg

Well I picked up the bus yesterday! So far I absolutely love it, and hate it at the same time!

It's such a cool bus and overall in really excellent condition.

But... The drive home was harrowing to say the least, the steering and handling is absolutely horrific, not just the usual bus slackness, it's really too unsafe to drive anymore until I get it looked at. It might be a combination of the slack steering, ludicrously low profile wide tyres and very dropped suspension (that I think has been done badly). Then the exhaust drone, it's just awful, it's got a modified manifold, cat and exhaust that's been done to increase performance, but it sounds hideous. (It is pretty fast though, for a bus anyway)

Today I'll get it washed off and dried and put in the garage, then I can have a proper look at just how much of a money pit I've bought myself here!

But again, it's such a cool bus, I love it, just hope it doesn't bankrupt me.

What's the mileage on the bus? If it's rarely been used the steering should be spot on.

Still LHD or converted to RHD?

Factory wheels or other?

Oh hang on .... is this MD62 PXH?

TimV wrote:

Oh hang on .... is this MD62 PXH?

Yes... go on, you're going to tell me how you know it's got crap steering aren't you?!  

Joking aside, just over 8k miles at present, it's got a litesteer column fitted last January that I need to look at, am I right in thinking on the Brazilians they come complete with their own steering box? I'm thinking this might be part of the issue... I'll know more when I get it up in the air to have a look later today or tomorrow.

Favguy wrote:

TimV wrote:

Oh hang on .... is this MD62 PXH?

Yes... go on, you're going to tell me how you know it's got crap steering aren't you?!  

Joking aside, just over 8k miles at present, it's got a litesteer column fitted last January that I need to look at, am I right in thinking on the Brazilians they come complete with their own steering box? I'm thinking this might be the issue... I'll know more when I get it up in the air to have a look later today or tomorrow.

Those massive alloys don't help plus the raked stance of the bus.

So it got it's first proper wash and look over, I haven't found any more issues at all on the bodywork as you often do on the first proper clean, so that's a good start.

It's tucked up in the garage for now, I need to rearrange my working space then it's going up in the air on stands and the wheels are coming off to have a proper look at what we're dealing with. Sadly I can't get it on my lift, as it's not possible to drive onto the lift whilst clearing the garage door on a van, so I'm back to old school floor work, yuk!

TimV wrote:

Favguy wrote:

TimV wrote:

Oh hang on .... is this MD62 PXH?

Yes... go on, you're going to tell me how you know it's got crap steering aren't you?!  

Joking aside, just over 8k miles at present, it's got a litesteer column fitted last January that I need to look at, am I right in thinking on the Brazilians they come complete with their own steering box? I'm thinking this might be the issue... I'll know more when I get it up in the air to have a look later today or tomorrow.

Those massive alloys don't help plus the raked stance of the bus.

Yeah, I think it's a combination of things, it's frankly a death trap to drive at the moment, I'm not even kidding about that, a driver only used to modern stuff may not have made it back! I came across a very undulating A road on the way up through lincolnshire that caught me unawares and it damn nearly threw me into a ditch!  The steering & suspension set up is absolutely hideous.

I'll humour you all some more later when it's up on stands and I can see it all properly.

TimV wrote:

Oh hang on .... is this MD62 PXH?

Hey Tim, are you VW Kampers? If so, you fitted the Litesteer to this bus!

Favguy wrote:

TimV wrote:

Oh hang on .... is this MD62 PXH?

Hey Tim, are you VW Campers? If so, you fitted the litesteer to this bus!

VW Kampers. Indeed we did.

TimV wrote:

Favguy wrote:

TimV wrote:

Oh hang on .... is this MD62 PXH?

Hey Tim, are you VW Campers? If so, you fitted the litesteer to this bus!

VW Kampers.  Indeed we did.

Small world this Brazilian lark!

How long are the Lite-steer units warrantied for? There appears to be some oil weeping from the bottom of the box on mine, it's relatively slight, so it might just need the 4 bolts on the bottom plate nipping up to tighten the gasket, but never the less is worrying to see at only 3800 miles since fitting last February.

I'm going to check it properly for play tomorrow along with the rest of the system and check the oil level. Are these units prone to needing an adjustment to take up play after an initial running in period at all?

Some progress. So I've got the bus up in the air now and the wheels off and had a better look at it. Good to see there is no rust at all on the chassis, it does appear to have been quite well undersealed. There are however a lot of rubbing marks under the front tubs from wheel contact!

I measured the ride height whilst on level ground before I started any jacking and established it's currently riding 6" lower than standard at the front and 4" lower at the rear!

It looks like good news that my worst fears of a torsion leaf hack to lower the front wasn't done either as there are adjusters welded to the beam, and the welding looks to have been quite well done too. This is pleasing, as I still want to retain a gentle lowering of 1 to 2 inches and this means I can achieve that with just a re-adjustment and fitting a set of 1 or 2 inch dropped rear spring plates. Lets hope the adjusters actually adjust OK!

Talking of spring plates, do we all want a laugh? What you are about to see may shock you, so avert your eyes if easily offended.

Behold the current rear spring plates, have you ever seen anything so diabolically S***e!




The right hand side spring plate appears to have been made up from parts of 3 other spring plates welded together, with a part of a broken adjusted left on it just for fun. The left hand side appears to be still utilizing a badly made adapter that has been badly welded on, causing a hole through most of the piece of plate it's attached to, it looks like it could collapse at any minute if it hit a large pothole. Scary to think the last owner drove to Spain and back with it like this!!

I can't wait to get them off and in the recycling pile, but it's going to be a while, as new plates have a lead time of about 2 months!

Back soon.

Well, I've been over the steering system now. Everything was nice and tight as it really should be at this mileage, except for the steering box, which did have lots of play with the steering set at the centre position, when there shouldn't be any. I've adjusted it properly and the slop has almost entirely gone from the system now. I also tightened up the 4 bottom plate bolts on the box, which were quite loose, this seems to have been the cause of oil seepage through the gasket, but was clearly just seepage rather than an actual leak, so I've thoroughly cleaned it and will keep a look out for any further oil seepage. So good news in that I've probably reduced the overall terrible steering and handling somewhat. Next job is to move on to raising the front axle height to a more sensible level.

I am going to talk with Lite-steer and/or VW Kampers as well regarding this, as the amount of looseness in the steering box at such a minimal time and mileage from fitting is of concern. I'm hoping it's just a lack of correct setting up and adjustment rather than premature wear.

So lets have a look at the current front lowering...

As previously mentioned, the bus has beam adjusters fitted, but looking at the current setting, I'm unable to raise the bus by adjusting these, as they're already set close to their lowest position, so these can only allow for further lowering at the moment. Now this shouldn't be the case, so there must be something else going on here...

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So what else is going on? Dropped spindles are in attendance as well is what! But can you spot the weird thing about them?



Spotted it yet? Let me know below if you can see it.

Blog decisions...

Hi all, I'm not sure this is the right forum for a blog like this one, so I'll be continuing one on thesamba.com, so here is where this one ends.

I'll still be around here for following and interacting in general chat.

For those interested, you can follow along at:

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=780362