Date: Sun, 10 Jun 2001 01:19:03 -0500
Reply-To: Mark Ingalls <ingalls_mark@HOTMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Mark Ingalls <ingalls_mark@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: On being well grounded
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
In the past it has been suggested to add a ground on the top left cylinder
head towards the front. There is already a unused tapped bolt hole there.
Look, you'll see it.
Darrell Boheler who has done a lot of work with the ECUs also recommended
adding a ground to the Digijet ECU case. The digijet ECU grounds through the
case to the frame of the van.
So I ground down to bare metal on the upper ECU mounting screw area (where
the ECU mounts to it's holder) and hooked a wire there with the appropriate
eyelet. Then I brought that wire around and connected it to the new bolt on
the left cylinder head. From there I brought the wire around to the right
front side of the engine bay where the power steering and AC solenoids sit.
I cleaned that to bare metal and used that to ground the ECU and cylinder
head to the van frame.
Hope this is of some help to someone.
Mark Ingalls
Nebraska City, Nebraska
85 Vanagon GL 'Aimee Airheart'
75 Beetle 'Salvation'
----- Original Message -----
From: John Haddad <jgh3rd@MINDSPRING.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Saturday, June 09, 2001 2:25 PM
Subject: Re: On being well grounded
> All,
>
> Thanks for all of your responses/ideas.
>
> I seem to have solved the fickle-idle disorder. I believe that cleaning
> the grounds really well and fine tuning the throttle switch did the trick.
> I took a flat file and removed material from the flat area on the
driver
> side of the block with 2 bolts with various ground wires attached until it
> shined. Then I did the same to the wire terminals. I also made sure that
> where the bolt touches the terminals it also was shiny. A good cleaning
> and coating with battery terminal spray (mostly petrolatum) and tightening
> and I was all set.
>
> For '85 owners, the throttle switch is different too. Starting at 24.35
> in the Bentley, there are some good pictures and procedures. This took a
> while for me to do, but basically the switch should only read 0 Ohms when
> the throttle is at rest and full throttle positions. When I first checked
> this on mine (from the brain), it was giving a fluctuation of 0.5 and 0
> Ohms. I just adjusted the switch with the meter hooked up until it stayed
> at 0, then got my wife to floor the accelerator pedal to check it at that
> position too. This is a very fine adjustment, so my only advice is to
> just loosen the adjustment screw just enough so that you can't move the
> plate radically.
>
> However, my original problem is still there.
>
> David suggested following the resistance down the harness until I find the
> problem, which I'll try. How do I do this without cutting the loom's
> insulation? Could the tranny to body ground be insufficient? To Joel's
> message: I'm going by Bentley pp. 24.20 & 21 for my resistance specs for a
> Digijet. Which book do you have that says 14-18 Ohms is within spec?
>
> John Haddad
>
