Date:         Tue, 12 Sep 2000 18:46:45 EDT
Reply-To:     kenneth d lewis <kdlewis@JUNO.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         kenneth d lewis <kdlewis@JUNO.COM>
Subject:      Re: Cutting Out Problem
Comments: To: techrat@VM.COM

Brian;
        The burning smell is possibly what he is smoking. #;-/
Bad grounds maybe but the metal not conducting? Weird science.
         My 86 died yesterday also, first time in the 100k+ miles I have
owned it. I tried kick starting while I had the momentum, but no go. I
coasted into a parking lot and wiggled the wires to the distributor,
SNAP!!! the plastic holder broke exposing the three wires. Damn. But, it
started right up. I JBWelded it, and how, latter that day. I doubt it was
related.
        Don't forget the solder joint fatigued problem in the ECU. There
are several large components in there that developed hair line cracks
around their connections due to vibrations. I re-soldered mine years ago.
check it out.

Drive Safely & Good Luck
Ken Lewis    <Kernersville,NC>
86 VW crewcab;60 356B Coupe
--------------------------------------------------

On Tue, 12 Sep 2000 17:32:43 -0400 Brian Cirulnick <techrat@VM.COM>
writes:
>Howdy all;
>
>I thought I'd throw my 2 cents in so far, because this just started
>happening to me last week. On Saturday night of the Labor day weekend,
>I was
>returning home from my brother's place on Long Island. My Vanagon died
>on
>Canal Street in Manhattan and would not restart. Stalled for no reason
>that
>I could see. At first, I thought it was the fuel filter or something
>else
>clogged.
>
>Anyhow, after a few hours of cooling off, it started up and I
>continued to
>drive it home into New Jersey.
>
>Here's what we (me and my mechanic (Jamie in North Bergen
>201-866-6664, he's
>real good!)) have found so far.
>
>#1) It's possibly electrical in nature. One thing to think about is
>that as
>our metal bodies get older, they don't conduct electricity as well.
>Corrosion builds up resistance in the circuit, and, as everything is
>connected to ground, there might not be enough juice for everything to
>get
>getting what it needs. One thing we are trying is to run a wire from
>the
>battery closer to the engine so that everything isn't trying to go
>through
>the body.
>
>#2) It's also heat related. When the machine is cold, it runs fine.
>When it
>starts getting hot, then is when you're most likely to have the
>problem.
>He's running all over it with a voltmeter and going through everything
>step
>by step. He described to me an electrical burning smell he thinks he
>can
>detect after running the engine for a while.
>
>He's working on it right now, and I'll try and keep you all updated on
>what
>he finds.
>
>BTW: If anybody is going to Englishtown NJ on Oct 1st, I'll be there!
>
>TTYL - Brian Cirulnick
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------
>   E-mail: techrat@vm.com                 URL: http://www.vm.com/
>     http://www.obsolyte.com  --  where the antique is elYte!!

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