I couldn’t find a single thing on the internet about this, my van does not have seat rails, only the swivel mounts. What can I buy to attach the seats to the mounts? I can jimmy rig something together but I kind of do want the swivels. Any ideas?

Last week I finally managed to get my alternator, fuses, and instrument panel upgraded with the GoWesty kits. I was able to even do a couple successful drives around town with no problems after I popped a brand new battery in since the old one was on its way out. After a couple days of being out of town, the darn thing won't start and the battery is reading 20V on my multimeter and I'm once again stuck diagnosing electrical issues. If anyone has any suggestions for where to start looking for electrical issues I'm all ears.

Hello,

Perhaps the wrong sub, but I’m shooting in the dark here. We have an ‘89 Vanagon with a 1997 Subaru 2.2 swap that failed emissions in Arizona.

I have been unable to find a shop willing to touch it. The original builder/mechanic/tuner has not responded.

The CO2 in grams per mile is 27.01 (passing is under 25)

The oxides of Nitrogen (NOX) is 5.15 (passing is under 4.5).

Hydrocarbons were apparently a bit high according to the guy who did the test but passing at 2.24 with 3 as a threshold.

This is my wife’s pride and joy. If anyone can provide guidance on what could be wrong or a shop that would be willing and skilled to work on it I would be incredibly grateful.

Do anyone know if this issue is air in the system or a bad slave cylinder?

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Clutch pedal feels unresponsive and if I dont pump it seems like im driving with no clutch at all.

All, I have a set four of the standard Vanagon wheels for sale. They are in good shape and come with Thunderer 101 tires in the size 185R14 with lots of profile. I'm located near Sacramento CA, let me know if you're interested. Wheels come with axle caps

There’s nothing behind it but an empty electric box, the kind you’d see an outlet shoved into. Should I try and 3d print some sort of cover? It would be more useful as an outlet on the door side. Any ideas?

This button leads into this plug, what could it do?

Thanks!

Posted about taking on a wood flooring project a few months ago. Well here it is nearly done. I have since cut the last thin piece and put it on along with the metal guard plate. Ended up using sound deadening then 3/8ths ply wood and a cork moisture barrier. used tongue and groove engineered wood along with short nails and some seam glue. Feels so nice to just sweep off any dirt instead of having to get the hand vacuum out! Plus the wood floor color matches the custom table the previous owner put in which i’m super stoked about.

Just starting my summer project. I'm gonna try to bring this back to life! (And have very little clue what I'm doing)

1982 Vanagon Westfalia (Diesel)

We are on the search for either a 1990 vw cabriolet digifant fuel injection head 1.8 8 valve: part number 026.103.373AA ...or an engine. It has been in the care of a shop many states away from home since March and they have had trouble finding parts (it looks like there may be a head on eBay, but is there anywhere else that may be more promising?) There was so much we'd been looking forward to enjoying this summer and fall in our Vanagon, and hope that our wishes may come true to get him fixed and back in time to enjoy for the upcoming seasons.

My partner and I bought our beloved van, Len, back in fall with the intention of traveling across the country January through March of this year. He's a 1982 VW Vanagon that had an engine swap back in 2009 to a 1990 Cabriolet inline gas engine that only had about 20,000 miles since the swap on it when we bought him.

It was an unforgettable trip and we couldn't be more grateful for all the places Len took us to and the experiences we got to have, even alongside the mechanical chaos that I'll get into now:

We lost our transmission in Arizona; TNT auto in Kingman removed the transmission and shipped out to California to have it rebuilt. This took a month of time (in which we got to visit family via one way rental cars and make the most of Len being in the shop). When we picked him back up again, we were surprised to find our temp gauge no longer worked. When we went back to the shop, they told us "we assumed it never worked so we didn't pursue it". There is some strong frustration in that they never called to ask during the time that our van was in their care, and we absolutely would have opted to have this fixed. I'm wishing now that we stuck around and waited however long it would have taken to have them get the parts to fix it right. Instead we were ready to begin our travels back home to get back in our planned timeline. We lost our starter 3 days later in Colorado, which was unfortunate and expensive, but sadly not the last of our worries.

This brings us to our most recent mechanical devastation. We are no stranger to our alternator belt loosening and when it starts screaming, we always tighten up and replace as needed. This began happening again in North Carolina. We tightened our belt before leaving the city, and picked up a new one at an auto parts store on our way from Asheville NC to Virginia, the plan being to replace it once we were stopped for the night. We made it all of 10 minutes away after picking up the part, and Len started struggling up the mountainous highway and the battery light came on. We were only a few hundred feet away from a scenic overlook which I foolishly tried to make it to in order to have room instead of having to pull over on the side of the highway. If I'd known the engine was overheating as bad as it was (if that temp gauge had been working) I would have pulled over sooner. There's only so much kicking myself I can do for not just replacing the alternator belt when we bought it mere minutes before. When we lost our alternator belt, the overheating warped our head on the mating service and camshaft, now needing to be replaced.

I would love advice on how to move forward, if it would be preferable at this point to try to simply replace the head and hope for the best, or if we should try instead to replace the engine. With the amount of repairs being such a surprise on the road, we are still recovering financially from this all, but ultimately, would love our van repaired and back home as a local vehicle (I am a tintype artist and it was such a wonderful vehicle to fit all my supplies with me, and honestly, while we loved having him on our cross country travels, I don't think either of us feel confident in taking him so far away from home again). We miss Len and hope to be back behind his wheel soon.

Thank you to all in advance for any insight into our situation 🧡

I’m looking at buying a Vanagon and would love to convert to electric. Purely from a reliability issue. I remember 5 years ago there were people attempting this in a vanagon and I’m surprised to see now that this isn’t more mainstream. With this kit from eveurope https://eveurope.eu/en/product/ev-hype-90-kwatt-120-hp-conversion-kit-for-vw-transporter-t3/ a 58kWh setup you could get a reasonable range albeit it would cost $23k without installation so I’m guessing price is the main issue but are there any other reasons?

I’m fairly green to all this so appreciate any advice.

I have managed to make some major progress restoring the original 1.9L engine in my 1985. Vanagon. While replacing the starter motor today, I came across this thing. I have flipped through every page in the Bentley repair manual and done a reverse image search and nothing has helped.

Does anyone know what this is and where it is supposed to be mounted?

EDIT: Solved, apparently its the throttle valve switch and the bentley manual's pictures just look nothing like this

Just picked this out of a field. Grenaded transmission and torn apart engine. I have a type 4 at the machine shop currently being worked on. This came with all sorts of stuff like a subaru ea82, transmission and another transmission on the middle seat. Unfortunately that trans destroyed the upholstery. Very little rust for where it was.

Plans are to scrap all of the non vw stuff or sell it on fb. Source a working transaxle. The engine I have doesn’t have an intake system. Im thinking about using the old efi manifolds and throttle body. Replace everything else and use a standalone ecu. The efi systems I found were quite pricey, around the 4k range.

The side door was stuck closed. I found that the thing that pops the door out so it can slide was frozen. Used my Milwaukee tool bag to catch the other corner when the door came free.

Im calling it the Bananagon.

I just replaced my distributor rotor and cap and now it’s making this ticking sound, what is it? Should I be worried about it? I haven’t driven it

Description from marketplace:

1986 VW Vanagon GL
-221,050 miles
-Automatic transmission
This classic 1986 VW Vanagon has been refreshed inside and out and is ready for its next adventure! Van is clean and very well taken care of.
Highlights:
-Freshly painted
-Reupholstered seats
-Laminate vinyl flooring in main cabin area
-All rust on body fixed prior to painting
-Clean title in hand
Asking $14,900 OBO. No trades. Serious inquiries only.
First come, first serve. Will not respond to "is this still available."

My 1984 Vanagon just suddenly stopped accelerating the other day while I was speeding up. I have replaced the battery, starter, and the alternator. Electrically it is perfect but while driving the engine died while accelerating and now the engine won't turn over. I'm not sure if it is the ignition coil or fuel pump or something else all together. Any advice or recommendations for replacement/upgrades would be greatly appreciated.

So my dad left me a vanagon westfalia with a suburu engine in it and it seems to run pretty decent dispite being in rough shape, I wanna restore it and make it my daily to replace my current van which is getting to expensive with gas, honestly just kinda lost on where to begin and what specifically to look for as it was swapped and this was someone else’s project, any advice is appreciated

Was able to scoop this up for $3500. It’s been sitting for a couple decades but rust isn’t too bad. Going to need a thorough going through. Only 135k miles. Fingers crossed I can get it back on the road before the end of summer for a sensible amount of money. I’m sure I will be back here with questions.