Date: Sun, 18 Aug 2002 18:07:52 -0600
Reply-To: jbrush@AROS.NET
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: John Brush <jbrush@AROS.NET>
Subject: why didn't my van start??
In-Reply-To: <DAV50z5seu5EjkEqG0M00023ed1@hotmail.com>
81 Air cooled. Runs flawlessly. Until a few hours ago.......
Today it failed me for the first time in ten years and I don't understand
what it could have been.
Its around 90 degrees today, and I drove about 20 miles to pick up my son.
Turned the van off, and spoke with some folks for about 10 minutes. When I
got back in and tried to start it up, it sounded okay for a split second,
like it was about to fire up, and then it just cranked and cranked and
refused to start.
I think most of us know how our vehicles sound when all is well, and for
an instant, it was okay, and then sort of, well, stopped firing and never
did start up.
Cranked just fine. In fact, it spun the engine pretty fast, almost faster
than when it is cranking up to start. No sign of any ignition taking
place. Hope that makes sense. :)
I got spark out of the distributor, although I only checked one of the
four wires.
At that point, I realized that I know nothing about these engines with
regards to troubleshooting a no start.
I waited, in the heat, for about 10 minutes, and tried again. Same result,
just a fast cranking, but absolutely no sign of any ignition happening, or
any chance of it catching. Just cranking along.
I called a friend and when he arrived, after about 30 more minutes, I
tried again. Still nothing. Just spinning over and over.
He rope towed me home. What an adventure. I thought I would need the
truck escape lane at one point :) and when I rolled up in front of my
house, after about a 50 minute tow, I tried it again, and after a longer
than normal cranking, it started up. Right in front of the guy I took
away from Sunday dinner....... :( Probably should have waited till he
left.
I will be buying lunch for Joe tomorrow, but we won't be going in the van,
as I have no idea what happened, how to check out a no start scenario, and
if it happened once, I assume it can/will happen again, at the worst
possible moment. It has been a lot hotter around here and its never failed
me, but it is still very warm if that might contribute to the situation.
<shrug>
Can anyone make suggestions or offer an opinion of what might have gone
wrong? I can't see driving it again until I can get some sort of warm and
fuzzy about what happened.
Out in the middle of nowhere, with some tools at my disposal, what steps
should I have taken to try and find the problem.
Can fuel injection suffer vapor lock? With carbs, sometimes cranking with
the pedal to the floor will clear it out. What does one do with FI?
Much obliged for any words of wisdom I can apply.
Thanks for reading this far!
Regards,
John