Hi all,

About 4 weeks ago we took a step towards the road to outback
freedom in Australia...we purchased a 73 Kombi.  My first 
ever VW (after telling myself and everyone I know that I
would never buy a vehicle that old).  It was cheap relative
to other possibilites and cost-wise fits in the category of 
'Rust Bucket' here in Perth.  It is suprisingly clean however, 
with only various small rust spots along gutters and scattered 
elsewhere about the body.  Underneath it is virtually rust free 
though, much to my amazement.

So, now I'm thrust into the role of VW mechanic.  I've worked
on cars before and thought those days were over...nope, they
are just starting.   I've replaced the plugs, cap, rotor, points,
and figured out how to time it statically.  It runs much better,
but it backfires as it has since I got it.  Also, I'll be 
adjusting the valves this weekend.  It has a 1600 cc air
cooled engine.  The heater boxes have been removed and the ducts
coming off the fan housing have been plugged.  I plugged the
corresponding holes in the tin (with silicon and the lids to
cans of refried beans - prewashed of course) and it now runs much
(MUCH) cooler.  The EGR setup coming off the exhaust has been 
disconnected and in fact the exhaust manifold has been replaced 
and there is no outlet from the current pipes for the EGR to hook 
up to.  The EGR feed pipes are not plugged.  Finally, I have checked 
and tightened all of the nuts and bolts on the exhaust system and 
have found no holes anywhere.  For a muffler, the previous owner 
installed a used header which the local VW shop down the road said 
looked OK (they are the ones who sold it), but it's not a great
muffler since it doesn't muffle very well.  

Anyway, it still backfires.  If anyone has any great suggestions as
to why it might be backfiring, and how to fix it, I would really 
like to hear from them since I hate loud/noisy engines.  

Other quick notes...as you might have suspected, this thing was in
bad shape when we got it.  Unfortunately, the clutch may need replacing 
soon.  It came with 5 different brands of tires, and 3 different sizes, 
all of which were car tires.  So we put on a set of Dunlop 185 R 14 
8 ply light truck tires, they are a dream on this vehicle, even 
though a bit pricey.  And we just got the refridgerator to work 
this weekend, turns out a relay wasn't working which is not
supposed to be there in the first place.  And the wife made great
looking curtains for it (not to slight her - she is the one who wants
to do the work on the clutch in our driveway!), so we are now ready 
to see what Australia has to offer!

A couple of yankees down under...

bill and heather linderfelt
bill@per.dwr.csiro.au