Do Sprinter's have a soul?

It'd be interesting to have a poll: How many of us owned a VW van?



I never drove my 74 far enough away from home to learn if it had a soul. I certainly learned a lot about wrenching from it, though. As did most VW owners I met



Owing a constant succession of vans since the early 70s, I gave nearly all of them names, nearly all of them male. (take that however you like, flman)

By far the bestest four wheel friend I've had is Frito. He never complains, never falters and, like the perfect travel companion, he's absent when you need solitude, always there for you when you need him.

I come from an air-cooled vw background and have read Muirs book cover to cover many times over. I carry many of his philosophies over to the Sprinter wrenching I do every day now.
I have driven LOTS of sprinters. Lots and lots of them. I would say that each has its own personality.
And I truly believe that they are the modern day vw bus. At least the T1Ns are. No disrespect to my NCV3 friends out there, nor do I want to start another "T1N or NCV3" debate.
I personally love breathing life back into these rusty carcasses and seeing owners drive away happy, ready for another adventure in their "baby".

Yes they do have souls. My vans have all been girls. Sophie the 87 westie, Busalope the 71 westie and now Blooper the '06 T1N. John Muir's books saw me through 3 air cooled VW's, a 68 bug, 71 squareback and a 71 westie. Learned a lot about cars and life. My favorite line in the book is "Come to kindly terms with your ass for it bears you"

glasseye said:

It'd be interesting to have a poll: How many of us owned a VW van?

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'71 bus. Successor to a POS '63 beetle with canvas sunroof (my first car).

glasseye said:

It'd be interesting to have a poll: How many of us owned a VW van?

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I had a 1966 window van. Purchased with a bad engine. Never had a 1500 engine after that.

It got a 36 hp engine after the 40 hp engine blew just outside Savannah GA heading back home from Miami. We froze that night sleeping while parked on the side of the road. The south isn't always warm.

A VW mechanic let me use his tools and his driveway to change the engine. Nice people those VW mechanics.

Lots of good trips in that van.


vic

This is Chuck (Charles Finley the 3rd). While he didn't have a soul, he sure as hell made me question sometimes. Mostly due to how inconsistent his performance was. There were times that I thought only something living could be this erratic...

Quaintly enough, i've never owned a VW bus ... four carbureted squarebacks, yes (only two were driven, one was a buy/fix/sell and the other a to-be-fixed car that never was). Plus one build of a Myers Manx off-road beastie that had melded bus front end and transfer-cased rear end onto the usual chopped VW floorpan. (so i guess i did own "bits of a bus")
Far too intimate acquaintance with friends' busses. (one air-cooled bus lives next door, even now)

But i've preferentially rented VW Kombis/campers in three countries.

In my short paid-mechanic career, i delved into deeper VW tranny work than Muir's book was willing to face. (replacing synchros was the most common task).

It was during my first test-drive of a cargo Sprinter (playing in an empty parking lot doing parking maneuvers) that its sheer bus-ed-ness called to me from every bit of its sheet metal (and turning radius). (plus the "too loud to hear anything" ambiance). I was "home".

--dick

autostaretx said:

I was "home".
--dick

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Heh. Me, too. Within a few hundred meters of test driving Frito on the streets of Mesa, AZ, I knew that, for me, this was the perfect vehicle.

This is my fave VW Bus pix. I shot it from the cab of my red 74. Somebody else was driving. I love the elbow out the window.


Both these guys have prints of this shot on their walls.

The forground bus was driven by Colin Kellog, otherwise known as "The Itinerant VW Mechanic". For the last ten years, he's earned his living by travelling the continent, teaching others how to keep their buses running. Cool guy. Cool gig.

Colin's bus was named "Road Warrior". It had nearly 200k miles on the clock when it met its demise in a head-on with a teenager who lost control while passing on a curve.

The lead bus is "Deer Hunter", whose career was nearly ended in a deer collision.

Glasseye, neat photo...#3 in your post #21.

No soul but I treat "Sprinty" like a pet. I actually talk to it (neither male or female) when no other people can hear me. Thus far, Sprinty has not answered back.

I had a red 68 bus for many years that was in the family since new..
I don't know if these vehicles have souls, but they certainly save souls like here in Butte County.

...and occasionally die in the line of duty (humans survived).

Absolutely horrifying, these images from California. We had our share of fires the last two years in B.C. but nothing like this. Our heartfelt sympathy from your northern neighbours.

Working in a service station in the early 70s, I saw too many air-cooled VWs with the #3 exhaust valve either buried in the piston crown or sitting in the crankcase. Never much cared for those flat fours. Only one I ever "owned" was, like autostaretx, just to flip -- a van, home-made into a very nice camper, that blew the engine while being several hundred miles from its home. Bought it, fixed it, sold it.

My '72 Blazer, OTOH, definitely had a personality. Kept that for over 30 years, many, many adventures. Her name was Tuula, and her sheetmetal was just as blue as the eyes of the gorgeous Finnish nurse with the same name I met --once upon a time-- while hanging out in Scandinavia in my younger days.... :roll eyes:

Not sure yet if our Sprinter has a personality... feels more like a computer than a mechanical thing.

Sprinter Steve said:

No soul but I treat "Sprinty" like a pet. I actually talk to it (neither male or female) when no other people can hear me. Thus far, Sprinty has not answered back.

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My shrink says it's perfectly okay to talk to cars, it when they talk back, you're in trouble.

In the mid 70s VW developed and successfully used the inline 3 and 4 cylinder water cooled engines. These became the basis for many successful audi and vw cars. In fact in 81 the I4 diesel was used in the vanagon (finally). Despite the much improved reliability and better power output, the buses still used the under powered and failure prone air cooled models. Eventually topping out at 90HP and 2 liters, the air cooled flat 4 engines had hit their limit. In europe the german postal service needed reliable low speed heat and better fuel economy. So VW equipped the vanagon/bus with the 1.6L turbodiesel. That was a good drivetrain by vw standards. Of course in america, we got the waterboxer water coooled flat 4. Basically a bastardization of the air cooled flat 4, using retrofitted water jackets and a rube goldberg cooling system. It is amazing that VW is remembered fondly, as they were well behind the curve once the Asian mfgs got in the game.

We crossed Cali in august, and it was bad with no end in sight. We actually got driven out by the Mendocino fire right as it started.

My condolences and appreciation to those who are out there in this.

My wife would say yes, but if it does then that has other implications and I'm not quite there. My first car was a '60 bug that taught me a lot. Got it up to 90 downhill with a load, immediately before the 36 hp engine blew up. Road trip. Had the clutch replaced an hour before. I did have a new '93 Westfalia for three months, but that probably doesn't count.

...and then there were all the broken clutch cables.
The hallmark of an experienced bus owner was his or her response when the clutch pedal slammed down to the floor on a busy city street:
Stay calm. Slow down and do a cluchless-shift to a lower gear but DON"T STOP--even at traffic lights. You get the badge if you make it to the relevant garage without stalling.

My experience was 15-years with type 1 Automatic. The weakness of Auto-shift was the wire, go figure, feeding a contact switch located in lower portion of gear shift lever. The switch activated a vacuum servo that actuated the clutch. The wire would chafe against the metal journal and eventually causing a short causing a rapid succession of clutch disengagements. Solution: replaced with DURABLE heat resistant wire used on SR-71 Blackbird (thank you very much Uncle Sam) and permanently eliminated issue.

The longer you own a vehicle the more you become acquainted with its quirks to the extent of performing some tasks completely using the braille method.

While traveling along 101 in Northern California, I stop to get gas and noticed two Hispanic ladies with four children loitering around a 68 type 1 with the engine HOOD up, obviously experiencing car problems. So, I went over and asked, and one of the ladies said the car wouldn't start. As a result, I instructed the lady to put the car in neutral, and engage parking brake. Using a small screwdriver, and completely by feel, I reached under the right side of the engine compartment and engaged the the starter motor. Instructed the lady don't turn the car off while getting gas.

tinman said:

My wife would say yes, but if it does then that has other implications and I'm not quite there. My first car was a '60 bug that taught me a lot. Got it up to 90 downhill with a load, immediately before the 36 hp engine blew up.

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The VW bus (frequently) had a spring-loaded extra butterfly valve in the intake airstream.
If the cylinders were sucking too much air, it closed to (try to) prevent overrunning the red line by quite so much...

The transfer gears at the end of the axles meant that engine saw more RPMs at any given speed than the bug did. "red line" was 65 mph ... adequate for the early 1960s, and certainly for 55 mph after 1973.

--dick

I never owned an air-cooled VW. Fixed a few, rode in a bunch. (Which is mainly how I came to fix a few.)

My air cooled ride in my younger days was a Corvair. Much like this one. Yes, the handling was unusual - not really bad, but unusual. Yes, I survived. The only time I spun it was when deliberately trying.

Spent quite a bit of time wrenching that Corvair. It was a daily driver for the family. Lots of good memories with that car.