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Date:         Fri, 21 Jun 2002 23:38:08 -0700
Reply-To:     mark drillock <drillock@EARTHLINK.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         mark drillock <drillock@EARTHLINK.NET>
Subject:      Re: Vanagon stops and won't start
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

This thread points out the potential usefulness of the much discussed FAQ.

A quick keyword search of my list archives came up with numerous people who fixed a similar problem by repairing the Hall connector/wires at the distributor. Here are a few excerpts.

27 Oct 1999 Dave Bayer said: Re: Hall effect sender/ engine in '90 Vanagon cutting out

...of course, if it's just the elbow that has cracked and the uninsulated wires running thru it are what are grounding out (which I would assume it about 95% of the cases involving "bad" Hall senders), you can fix it a number of less costly ways. You can thread a piece of electrical tape under the wires (and between the distro body). This worked for me for 25K+ miles. Then when I was rebuilding the engine, I coated the wires in JB Weld as well as cementing the elbow in place. That will fix the problem for just about ever...

14 Apr 2000 Peter Cassidy said: Re: 85 GL No Spark-No Start

...the hall sender unit consists of a collar on the distro shaft and a plate in the distro with some electronics and then three wires connect it to the outside system. A positive 10 or 12 volt wire, a ground, and a signal wire. These three wires come out of the distro thru a plastic elbow near where cylinder 4 will be sparked. This elbow is a connector socket as well and so there are three spade connector type things in the elbow. It just so happens that these spade connectors attach to the wires of the hall sender plate over the metal bodyof the distro. Thus, when the elbow ages and cracks with use, the three uninsulated spade connectors are free to contact the distro body which grounds out at least the signal wire. Without this signal, the ECU and tach do not get a timing/rpm signal and thus think that the engine is not turning and never getting to a point where a spark should be delivered...

14 Apr 2000 Marc Theune said:

...It's the Hall sender folks. The plastic connector is broken right where it passes through the distributor body. Inside, the plastic was split into two pieces which were just hanging, exposing the pin of the black wire to the distributor body. I guess that's why the van had a tendancy to cut out when turning corners, as the loose sender would shift and thereby ground the pin on the distributor (duh).

31 Mar 2002 Keith Hughes said Re: my van keeps dying..... Suggestions?

... I've had similar 'interesting' problems on my '86... once was an intermittent short/open in one of the wires connecting to the Hall sender in the distributor (this one was especially fun to finally find)....

mark drillock wrote: > > The broken hall connector body is a common problem. The engine and tach > die when the bare metal of one of the hall connector pins shorts out to > the metal of the distributor. May happen when driving over a bump or > making a sharp turn or at a certain rpm or seemingly at random. > > Mark > > Myron Lind wrote: > > > > I am trying to help my neighbor with his 1990 Westy. > > > > He says it runs fine for a while then dies and won't start. When it dies, > > the tach drops to 0 if he is driving. It cranks and cranks but won't fire. > > (I would guess no spark if the tach is dropping to 0 as it dies.) After > > sitting 20-40 minutes it will start right back up and go for a while again. > > > > I noticed his hall sensor plug (I think that's what it is) going into the > > distributor is broken and flopping around. Seems to me this would be a > > problem when cold as well as warm. > > > > I am an air cooled and diesel guy. Any help on this? > > > > He is not on the list, you can reply to me. > > > > Thanks, > > Myron Lind


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