Date:         Fri, 11 Oct 2002 16:44:44 -0400
Reply-To:     "G.M.Bulley" <gmbulley@BULLEY-HEWLETT.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         "G.M.Bulley" <gmbulley@BULLEY-HEWLETT.COM>
Organization: Bulley-Hewlett
Subject:      Rare Occurance, Bulley on the roadside.
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Today was interesting. I actually had some sort of motor problem on the
road.

Honestly, I've been driving our Jetta Turbo Diesel for so long while our
1982 Westy had 'issues', I'd forgotten what it was like to have an
ignition system. Further, since we had swapped out the ol' timey "points
and contraption" bit from our distributor it has been a few years since
I'd given the ignition set up much thought, other than new plugs from
time to time, and clean-up of the cap/rotor.

After driving a few hundred miles to and from local towns, today was my
first long highway trip in the Westfalia since our rebuild. My nail beds
were finally clean, and I had a client meeting this morning in Cary,
about 80 miles away. On mile #56 of the trip, she exhibited a vague
bucking. Sickening to feel.  Especially as we are prepping for
camping/leaf-color season. I thought everything was *fixed*.

As I looked down at the speedometer, it dropped slowly, although my foot
was headed toward the floor. 75...70.68..65..62..sh*t. Then it "fixed"
itself, right back up to 75-80 like an arrow. had to let off the
accelerator.

Overpass ahead. Pull under the protection of the bridge. NC was getting
its first real rain since Andy Griffith was Sheriff, and I didn't want
my starched shirt sullied or my tie puckered. So, with rain slicker on,
out into the deluge I pottered. I checked everything, and everything
checked out. This was tight, and so was that. None of this was leaking,
and those were all firmly plugged in. everything in its place. Nothing
smoking or dripping. Hmmm. Started up fine. Ran like a top. Gremlins.

So off I went. Mile #65.same bucking. 75, 70, 68, then fixed itself..
Then again. then fixed. Then it dawned on me. CRAP this thing has an
ignition system!!!

Make a long story short, the weatherman made my day. As we got the first
precipitation in months, I also got a reminder to swap out my plug
wires, even though they only "technically" have 20k on them, they were
beaten all to Hecht's during the motor-pull and rebuild, but I just
wiped them clean, and re-intalled.

The tiny amount of air-borne spray that made it to the motor box (and it
is truly almost nil, even in a downpour, because I replaced the surround
seal, and it seals completely) was sufficient to allow a couple of HT
leaks somewhere on the plug wires. It ran fine during the dry, and 99.9%
of the time when damp, but heavy acceleration with wet wires, one of
them arbitrarily went to ground rather than to the plug. I'll be out to
the agent in the morning to round up another set of wires.

Just thought youze with old ignition wires ought to know about one set
of symptoms.
Bringing your ideas to life,
G. Matthew Bulley
Bulley-Hewlett
Business: www.bulley-hewlett.com <http://bulley-hewlett.com/>
AIM = IExplain4u
Phone: +1.919.658.1278