Date:         Mon, 16 Jul 2001 07:20:22 -0700
Reply-To:     Shawn Wright <swright@SLS.BC.CA>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Shawn Wright <swright@SLS.BC.CA>
Subject:      Re: Thanks, and, uhhh, van misses
In-Reply-To:  <001c01c10cfc$87049180$7f71d1d1@mike>
Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII

On 15 Jul 2001, at 0:05, mike miller wrote:

> Dear wise listees [you can tell I want something]
>
> Thank you for the responses to the transmission problem.  Turned out to be a
> blown pilot bearing, apparently it hadn't been changed when the last clutch
> job or two were done.  Darn

Been there... Had to drive Hwy99 from Lilloet to Vancouver with a
seized pilot bearing - not a lot of fun.

> Missing.
>
> The van started missing under load on a trip to Southern California [from
> northern Cal.].  After the clutch job drove it once and it was fine.  Then
> as soon as I started back to Nor Cal it started missing again.  this time
> felt like it was running on 3 cylinders.  Then it would clear and  run fine,
> then back to missing.
>

Funny, I've been fighting an intermittent miss for the past 4 years,
and have tried everything including the capacitor fix on the airbox
to no avail. A few weeks back, after driving down, then up an
*incredibly* steep ramp down to a boat shop, the van started missing
*really* bad, to the point where it would stall if I put the clutch
in. Pulled over, checked everything, all looked ok. Thinking some
crud had slid down the tank and into the fuel filter, I headed for a
FLAPS, but the missing stopped after 10-15 minutes of driving. When I
replaced the filter, there was a lot of sediment in the gas that
drained out, and the last bit was *black*! I realized that I have
never changed the filter! I thought I had when we bought the van 5
years ago, but the mounting screw was stripped (I had to drill it out
- stupid philips head), so I must have forgot. I cut the filter open
(it was a german made KAYSER, with thick aluminum can) and found it
was very dirty looking. Now I'm wondering if this could have caused
the problems all these years... We'll find out when we head out in a
few days.

ps: If you cut the filter near one end, the large part makes a good
funnel to which you can attach small tubing for topping up coolant in
the rad, etc...

pps: Anyone know why the fuel filter is placed after the pump in the
digifant system? I hate to think of all that crud going through my
pump...


Shawn Wright, I.T. Manager
Shawnigan Lake School
swright@SLS.bc.ca
http://Zuiko.sls.bc.ca/swright
http://www.sls.bc.ca