Date: Mon, 24 Jul 2000 09:20:16 -0400
Reply-To: Matthew Bulley <gmbulley@bulley-hewlett.com>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Matthew Bulley <gmbulley@bulley-hewlett.com>
Subject: Re: High altitude power loss
Aren't we over analyzing an inconsequential and predictable fault?
In the original post on this subject, the conditions described were (not
verbatim):"...going down a long hill where I was mostly coasting...then I
would begin a climb and the engine would sputter, loose power...." This
is nothing complicated.
The pickup tube in the fuel tank is at lower rear portion of the tank. In
normal driving on flat or rolling terrain, even a tiny amount of fuel will
immerse the pick-up frequently enough to maintain fuel pressure; usually it
is completely submerged. If however you consistently descending a slope,
and you have less than half a tank of fuel, it is entirely possible (thanks
to the pancake fuel tank design) that less-than-enough fuel splashed across
the pick-up, and only enough pressure was available for idle/coasting.
Upon acceleration on the following climb, you were caught in the delay as
the huge bubble in you fuel system made its way through the fuel loop.
With most modern mechanical devices, (VW at the top of this list) it is
most frequently the simplest fault that causes defalcations. Look for the
simplest first.
G. Matthew Bulley
Bulley-Hewlett
Mount Olive, NC USA
877.658.1278 Tollfree
www.bulley-hewlett.com
My Agenda: Stop Suburban Sprawl.
My Methods: Revitalize older, highly-dense, urban towns. Champion
mass/rapid transit and fast Internet service to these towns. Demand
replacement of archaic, "separationist" zoning laws with neo-traditional
dense/mixed use zoning.
The Result: All Americans obtain superior living opportunities; sprawl is
restrained; and dense, beautiful, interlinked towns become our children's
inheritance.
Find out more at http://www.cnu.org
-----Original Message-----
From: The Gunnings [SMTP:ngunn@landmarknet.net]
Sent: Monday, July 24, 2000 8:15 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: High altitude power loss
Thank you David. It's always so much fun deferring to a more better
informed opinion. One of the great things about this list is learning
something new all the time. So, the old problem I had which would be fixed
by turning off the key and restarting the engine might have been fixed by
this snazzy wiring harness extension if I had used it before replacing the
old AFM w/ a rebuilt? AH, ok. And the new IPL that I am experiencing,
which is not solved by restarting the engine, is not being caused by the
new
AFM and is being caused by some other factor. Makes sense. And begins to
verify the idea that the "intermittent power loss" syndrome may be the
result of a sequence of casually linked events,.being caused by several
factors at the same time. Hence, it may not be a situation where you fix
one thing and cure the problem. No magic bullet. Makes sense. How you
making-out w/ the smoking problem? I think I must have missed if it is
black smoke or blue.
Regards,
David Gunning &
Sammy da Dog