VW Camper Burns

[Larrynwin]

A sad event for someone

Classic VW camper van gutted by fire on A47

A camper van was destroyed after it caught fire on the A47 at Hopton-on-Sea.

www.greatyarmouthmercury.co.uk

 

[Odd-no-more]

A terrible thing to happen to anyone, but at least nobody was hurt

 

[Landy Andy]

Shame. Used to happen a lot. Not ideal keeping fuel tank above the carburetor.

 

[EuroTrotters]

Oh dear, how sad.

Odd title though, "VW Camper Burns". I was thinking along the lines of carpet burns.

 

[Larrynwin]

Oh dear, how sad.

Odd title though, "VW Camper Burns". I was thinking along the lines of carpet burns.

and Vic Burns

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[deleted79651]

and Vic Burns

But Ralgex causes really Deep Heat ...

Steve

 

[Ian Bosman]

The cooling of these air cooled VW’s depended on the air stream coming in via the air intakes aft of the rear windows. If it was like the VW Variant estates of that era the cooling fan was bolted directly to the end of the crankshaft as has been known to come loose. Also standing them stationary with the engine running reduced the air flow a lot. If you had done a hot run it was advisable to run the engine down to a cooler temperature before switching off for about five minutes. I became of the issue when caught out in the middle of Zimbabwe when the hot engine gave rise to fuel vapour lock as the pump was on top of the engine in the middle of the crankcase. Got it started by flagging down someone who gave me a fast two to pull the fuel through. Fixing a loose fan requires a 36mm socket, if I recall correctly, still got it somewhere. mind you the back axle nuts require a four foot extension to a torque wrench to get them undone and done back up. Jack up the car insert the socket, drop the jack suddenly to undo. the jack was ineresting as it did not use a screw but a cam action which self locked, so you inserted the lever and pulled it off the cam to drop it. Brilliant bit of design.

 

[ChrisL]

This used to be a fairly common occurrence, I have over the years seen a few on fire. As has been said, the fuel tank is directly over the engine, and fuel has been known to leak from the fuel take off and run down the outside of the pipe onto a hot engine. When I had one back in the eighties I regularly inspected the union to ensure mine didn't go up in smoke.

 

[jockaneezer]

Aren't the engines made of magnesium alloy, same as WW11 incendiary bombs ?

 

[matt34]

always worried me owning alot of these vans,had a temperature guage added and always had a few stops to let the 3rd cylinder to cool as air flow over that one was always poor,spent a good 20 years working on these as a hobby never again

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