MY BUS MOTOR CAUGHT FIRE.

[riffraff]

coronabus said:

How hard is it to replace an ignition switch?

Replacing the ignition switch is dead easy. The split bus may be the easiest vehicle ever built to change an ignition switch on BUT There are a couple things to pay heed to.
#1 - Unhook the battery and take it out of the bus. This cannot be overstated how important this is. Unhook both pos and neg and physically lift the battery out of the bus. Not only can you now hook it onto a trickle charger, but you will be certain to not fry your entire wiring harness. The spade connectors on the ignition switch are live and hot. One little slip and you have irrepairably cooked your wiring harness.
There is one small flathead screw that holds the ignition switch to the speedo pod. undo that and slide the ignition switch out and take a pic of the backside so you know how the wires came off.
Pull the spades off and you have emancipated your ignition switch.
Now, make sure you have a replacement switch with a key to go in there. They can be a little tough to find, and you will almost certainly have to get the wafers shuffled so that it works with your existing key.

[coronabus]

I got into the garage this weekend, installed my overhead (with some help) and spent alittle time on the bus. I charged the battery and went about removing the ignition switch. I then discovered one of the spade connectors fell off the I.S....odd. So I look it over, no burn marks, so I reconnect it.
I made a new batt/alt wire to replace previously burnt one. Reconnect the charged battery and turned it over. Sounded good, everything was working as it should. So I decided start it. After a few tries, she fired up. She was really cold! The only odd thing I noticed was for the first minute or so if I let go of the clutch, it would drop in rpm's and almost stall
Otherwise, it ran really smooth. SO I took it for a run around the neighbourhood (like I wasn't going to). I sure miss driving it! Almost forgot about my bad brakes!
So it appears I don't have any damage as a result of the fire and it's cause is still a mystery.

[Mowser]

coronabus said:

The only odd thing I noticed was for the first minute or so if I let go of the clutch, it would drop in rpm's and almost stall

Sounds like you had a best case scenario. Whew!!! As far as it almost stalling when you let off the clutch it's a normal thing. I had the same thing when I drove my beetle through the -40 winter of Medicine Hat. (a long time ago). Your tranny fluid is simply cold. If you sit there (on your frozen seat) for a while and nurse it with your foot off the clutch your tranny will warm up and then you can go inside and warm yourself up.

[riffraff]

Better get busy with that bad braking 4X4 Bucko, spring is WAY closer than you think!!!!!

You may want to be sure that that female spade connector is firmly gripping the male end. I found a few bad spade connectors while getting my 15 window resurrected. The problem was always that one side of the female connector had fatigued to the point where it would no longer grip, allowing the connector to easily come unslung (an unslung zero, some might say).
Could be yours just got yanked off, and if there was reasonable resistance offered when you reconnected it, you're probably OK. Just thought I would mention mine as you sure don't want wires arbitrarily falling off your ignition switch.

[coronabus]

Yeah I must have inadvertently yanked it off, because it went on quite snug. Now that I have the new garage completely closed in (with a functioning overhead door) I will actually be able to work comfortably in there. Sure is cool having my own garage!!
I guess CVD wants my bus in the WoW display this year, so I have to get crackin' on a few things (including brakes). I'd love to have it lowered by then too (sorry Shayna).