Date:         Tue, 4 Jan 2000 13:46:01 -0500
Reply-To:     Richard C Welsh <welshcu@PB.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Richard C Welsh <welshcu@PB.COM>
Subject:      Dashboard hell, day 7
Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

it started with a defroster fan redo 2 weeks ago.  While everything was out,
decided to install a CD player and fix the heater box wires and then some
sketchy dashboard light connections.  I was doing the fuel lines out back too,
as well as a filter.  In the process I unpugged the wires at fuel pump so I
could spin tunes, test the fade and balance, and not squirt fuel everywhere
while I waited for parts to arrive.  Got the dash stiched up, bolted in, and
then decided to test the coroded fuel pump wires for continuity, etc.  Funny
things began to happen:  with the ignition on, and terst light in hand, there
was no power to the pump.  Hmmm.  OK, I must have left something diconnected out
back.  An hour of poking and proding in the engine still didn't give me fuel
pump power with ignition on.  Hmmm.  At this point I'm certain of 2 things: A)
I'm not going skiing this weekend, and B) I cut or disconnected or de grounded
or did something terrible up under the dash.  Out it came (again).  More
searching/frustration turned up nothing.  Finally, in desperation, I reconnected
everything, cranked the ignition on, and, with the cd player silent this time,
heard the sweet 5 second whine of the pump.

Now this is weird:  it appears the fuel pump kicks on at igniiton for 5 seconds,
then cuts out untill the engine is running.  I wasn't getting a signal with test
light because it was taking me about 2 minutes to climb over all the parts I had
taken out of the van and get around the other side.  SO, in the end, I got to
take my dash out not once, not twice, but three times.
(See the next post "why you shouldn't forget to plug in the radio Antennae".)