Date:         Fri, 14 Apr 2000 10:42:47 +0100
Reply-To:     Peter Cassidy <pcassidy@APPLE.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Peter Cassidy <pcassidy@APPLE.COM>
Subject:      Re: 85 GL No Spark-No Start
Comments: To: Marc Theune <mtheune@EMORY.EDU>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

[snip]

>The only test that seemed to fail is that there is no voltage at
>terminal 86 of the power supply relay.  87 and 30 are good but nothing
>on 86.  The test sheet said to check for ground on 85 in this case, but
>I'm not exactly sure how to do that with my new multimeter and am afraid
>I might really mess something up messing around in there.  Should I just
>go ahead and replace this relay?

I haven't a clue about the voltage on terminal 86 (Bentley's at home), but
if you want to check for a ground with your MM, connect the positive lead
to a known good positive & tip the ground lead of the meter onto terminal
85. It should read 12V-ish. You can do this with a lamp, too ....

>I discounted the Hall sender since there is no spark from the rotor.  Is
>that a mistake?

The hall sensor can kill your van stone-dead. Our old '81 airsucker had
this problem. There's a really dodgy connector on the outside of the
distributor. The wires from this leading inside the distributor to the
hall sensor get flexed as the connector jiggles around. These wires are
really thin & can either break or short out to ground. My van would
be cruising down the freeway & just suddenly die. I'd get out & jiggle
the connector while Lynda cranked it over. *Vrooom*. Eventually, I
re-wired the sensor & replaced the outside connector. No problems ever
again.

> Could some problem with the AFM be causing no spark?

Nope.

>Could this be the infamous ignition switch problem even though there's
>battery voltage at the + side of the coil?

If you've got + at the coil, your ign switch should be OK.

> How do I check the injectors
>and do I need to?

You can unscrew each side pair off the intake & bend them out of the way.
Crank over the engine & watch them squirt into a container (make sure
to disable the coil!).

>Right now I'm pretty lost. Any help would be greatly appreciated, as I
>am very inexperienced at this.  I want to avoid the garage sharks at all
>costs and want to discount everything before getting a new ECU.

One other thing - there's a bunch of ground connections on the engine.
These are usually a group of spade terminals clustered around one stud.
Both the stud and the terminals can work loose, causing untold problems.
Check all these while you're at it ....

Pete C

--
Peter Cassidy,                   pcassidy@apple.com
Sr. Test Dev. Engineer             +353-21-284316
WW Operations
Apple, Cork.