Brakes, steering boxes, books, food trucks and finding more sponsors for Bussfest!

Brakes!

So I began looking how to go about the installation of the dual circuit brake servo -
I got mine from the talented and very helpful VW Jim - UK along with a bunch of fitting parts who I can totally recommend.  here is a link to Jims very handy site and his own "how too"  VW JIM

Once fitted and set up this vacuum assisted servo should provide much more power assistance to the brakes.

First I need to find a place to fit the servo, I was thinking about how the hoses and hard brake lines connect, I found the area suggested in Jims how to to be perfect, just behind the beam on the passenger side - I test fitted as I was a little worried that the drill holes would end up in some awkward place in the locker area under the seat, but I was lucky and everything looked ok.

Finding a suitable place and then marking the positioning.

 

 Then removed the mounting bracket and marked where the bolts will go through the floor.

 Then dot punched                                                    and drilled.

 After drilling out to the size, I painted the bare metal with some black paint.

 All thats needed now is an extra pair of hands to tighten the nuts, bolts and washers.

I then moved on to looking at the steering box, to do this I needed to fit the parcel tray which goes under the dash, the old self tapped welded nuts were missing so I have used some nylock nuts and washers on the back side, after a bit of fiddling I had the shelf in place.

 Then I tipped the bus on its side and slid in the steering box, loosely fitted in place to see how it lines up, it was a little over to the left of the dash pod, but I think I can adjust this and center it by sliding the steering box in the bracket on the under side.

 Looked good, so then I removed the box again and dismantled it, cleaned out the dirt and sand which had accumulated using petrol, made up a shaft with a piece of sponge to clean the inside of the shaft.

 checked the inner shaft, bearings and cup are all new.

 clean inside, then greased it a little using the same make shift cleaning rod.

 Then I took apart the box, cleaned everything in petrol and slightly sanded the mating surfaces, after this I re-greased the bearings and re installed the lot.

 cleaned up the worm gear

 All good, new bushes and seal

 Looked on the net about whats best to pack the box with, going to go with gerbox 90 grade oil once I have the new gaskets.

 Here you can see the metal shims, I have 4 but 3 are broken, looking for new ones at the moment.

I also digged into the wiring loom box and found the horn wire and installed this too, ready - the loom guy had made things nice and easy by carefully and thoughtfully labeling all the wires ; )



This week me and the boys went into town to grab a bite to eat at lunch, we headed straight for the food truck that was parked in the town square and what would you know! our book was there on display

 

 Also this week its been full force getting the last parts to the sponsoring of this year bussfest  in Båstad, Ive been busy ringing around and sending out emails trying to get some more sponsors for this years VW bus meet.

 

So far this year we have sponsors form VW Sweden, custom and speed parts-Sweden, The local VW dealer - michelsensbil.se, long time sponsor of tires - gusonibromma.se, and of course us -vwcampercookbook

Midsummer part 3

Summer time = Garage time

Despite the rain holding out today,  we didn't make it to the Sunday mini moto practice to ride as we still need to fix some of the issues from last weeks crash, Travis needs a new visor to his helmet and a kill switch for the bike.

Me and Lewis took a trip anyway with out the bikes to the track in Västerås to check out a bigger set of leathers fro him, which worked out great, now he will be able to move a little easier then in the old tight set he has been riding in.

In the afternoon i got working a little more on the front fairing, sanding it down and finding out where it needs to be patched with fiberglass.

After rubbing that down for a while I switched my attention to the bus, I am working on the underside at the moment, all areas.

started seeing how the belly pans offered up, then began making them fit better.

 Also began seeing where I will fit the brake servo, vacuum pipe, brake pipes etc etc

needed to grind down the servo so the new bracket could fit nice.

 Great to be able to spin the bus over and work easily on the under side

Summer Holiday has begun 2015 part 2

So after all that drama in the spring now we are finally off from work and joing the summer feeling - relax! and now just a few days away from midsummer - plans after that are to continue fixing things with the under side of the bus, cables, brake lines, steering box, wiring etc etc

 installing sound damping and injection cavity protection and under seal are also on the to do list:

 Mean while there are plenty of Tuesdays and Sundays to go and play motorbikes at the track in Västerås

Travis and his DM

Lewis snapping rhubarb

Lewis taking baz bike for a blat

Road rash

look out for that tree!

Travis head down

Lots of Junior A class at this practice session

waiting in the pits

Lewis leathers and swagger

 

Summer Holiday has begun 2015 part 1

About 3 months since my last Blog post - here is why!

Time has been flying by at work, its been a busy and at the same time we have had many changes to deal with at home, we had to move out very quickly from our house due to water damage in the bathroom - we  found a water leek in the bathroom that had been there for sometime, so we needed to stop the leek and that meant smashing the wall down in our only bathroom, so soon as this was done we had to move out, so we lived for a week at our in-laws and mean looked for a place to live more permanently while the house gets fixed over the next months.
It was at this same time that we had booked a holiday and so we were soon escaping the chaos for a well earned holiday in the sun, luckily for us we found an apartment to rent just before we left Dubai - so the day before we left we were moving a few things into our new place in Enköping town, next to the library, cinema and town square - Perfect !

me and the boys - on moving day

 After the water damage had been found there was nothing for it then to get going on removing the bathroom floor and surrounding floor and walls, to start the long drying out process, the builders estimate around 4-6 months. So we found a place to rent and very quickly moved most of our daily belongings to it, a hassle but we just felt lucky that we found somewhere to go to while the work gets under way.

our new apartment - 2 floors

big hole in the kitchen floor !

Then we were off - a week in Dubai,  to relax! it was fantastic and the service was 5 star

T& L in the dessert

Room with a view - Atlantis Palm hotel - out of this world good

while we were there we went time on jet skis, dune bashing in 4x4 in the desert, camel riding in the dark? and spent many days in the water park on the palm, it was amazing! The room, food and service at the palm Atlantis hotel was amazing!

hotel aquarium - BIG!

Dubai mall - another huge aquarium

At work - some special events to cater for - but now its summer holidays - schools out !

We also sold the boys electric oset bikes and brought everything to go racing 2 stroke Mini-moto!

Travis and his brother Lewis checking out the yoga possibilities on his new DM /BZM  bike

we managed to get some new very light weight special designed for kids - helmets x 2 thanks to strarol racing Enköping

race boots arrived

and gloves

Bikes looking good before first outing - soon they will be scratched up !

After race dad turns into bike re-builder and straightener

whole family at the track

Rooker bro´s waiting to go !

Team Crazy Rooker racing?

Bikes in the boot, lets go racing - notice Lewis missing front teeth ; )

Lewis GRC MINI 40cc, Travis DM midi 40cc, and Baz Gag bike yamaha 50cc

After another practice and more stuff for Pappa Steve to fix ; )

Watching the masters of GP

With all that going on its hard to find the time to move on with the bus, but I have found a few sacred hours here and there during the weeks -An hour or two to pop over to the garage and restore the karma in the soul.

 I managed to get the bus back on the tip girl, but not for long as it was not at all perfect and so I needed to get the bus down again and re set how it was attached to the frame, now it is all correct and feels much easier to rotate.

re aligned the bus on the tip girl with the help of Lelle

test fitting the semas

tappin threads

Trial Fitting foot control parts