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Date:         Sun, 3 Nov 2002 11:11:34 -0500
Reply-To:     Laurence Smith <laurence@ALANASMITH.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Laurence Smith <laurence@ALANASMITH.COM>
Subject:      Re: YAHOOOO (well, almost)
Comments: To: john cianci <jcessence@HOTMAIL.COM>
In-Reply-To:  <F66eKi0K41uSBoYXWVr000021fe@hotmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Hard to beleive isn't it? One small ground wire can cause so much frustration and expense.

My theory is that the Vanagon mechanics who are well versed at changing the heads or the engine never have this problem. When changing out a head or the engine, thay are forced to reattach the ground wire back on the head and make it a good connection. Thus, when a Vanagon mechanic is presented with a running rich problem, the bad ground is at the bottom of the list of possibilities. How can a simple ground cause such a catastrophic drivability problem? they would say. Must be a digifant component....

When I had my running rich problem, I changed EVERY digifant component and it was only when I was reviewing the grounds AGAIN, that the ECU terminal 19 ground came to focus. Running a new one fixed it for good.

For the archives:

If you have a chronic running rich problem you have likely already changed out or tested many of the digifant components (otherwise you would not be reading these archives in desparation). Do this: Check and re-check the ground wire attached to the head. If it looks okay, run a new one from terminal 19 on the ECU.

- Laurence

------------------------- Laurence Smith Hamilton, Ontario, Canada 90 Westy (fanumbos) 87 GL -------------------------

-----Original Message----- From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM]On Behalf Of john cianci Sent: Sunday, November 03, 2002 10:08 AM To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM Subject: YAHOOOO (well, almost)

THE WESTY IS RUNNING!!! Thanx so much to all the list members for all the help with the running rich problem...Laurence, I spliced in the number 19 ground and ran a second ground from the control unit back to the engine bay and upon the next test drive...NO RICH RUNNING PROBLEMS. I don't exactly know if this was the precise answer but this "ground point check" I went through them again and found that the #25 was sloppy in the harness and may have been intermittent, I also spliced out a bad looking sectio n of my injector wires that was hidden behind a mess of tape. and replaced the O2 sesor plug again. I am going to spend my time and replace a lot of the not so good wires and hopefully avoid this problem again. NOW (the almost). The bus surges a little bit when it starts up to say 3000 rpms and then settles normal and runs fine....I can deal with this for the time being and work through it, you guys rock. Thanks again. Great to hear you got the #18 ground fixed Chris, she is! getting replaced as well

John Cianci

www.hydratek.org check it out, I am avoiding corporate America

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