Date:         Tue, 12 Nov 2002 19:40:07 -0500
Reply-To:     Marc Perdue <marcperdue@ADELPHIA.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Marc Perdue <marcperdue@ADELPHIA.NET>
Subject:      HELP!!  Stalling, rain, leaking gas tank...
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Hi all,

I've recently sent messages about my leaking gas tank and my fairly mild
idle problems.  Today, something different came up and I suspect it's
related.  We got 4 inches of rain today, three of which came down before
I went to work.  This is a good thing because of our drought situation
and on-going water restrictions, but perhaps not for my automatic '87
Westy.  After driving 15 miles into town, I was pulling away from a stop
light and the van started losing power.  I was frantically putting on
the hazard lights and finding a safe place to pull over and didn't
notice the two red lights that had come on on the dash.  When I realized
that the lights were on (hmm, which ones were they?  The ones on the
left.  Is that helpful enough?), I put the transmission in neutral and
restarted the van.  It started right up and I drove up to the next
traffic light where it did the same thing when I started to come to a
stop.  I restarted again, drove through the green light, turning left,
and headed up a small hill, where it did it a third time.  Got it
started, drove a block to the parking lot where I normally park, and it
happened a fourth time.  I coasted into a parking space and shut it
down.

Here's my suspicion as to what happened and please correct me if I'm
wrong.  Clearly I have a leak on the top of my gas tank (which was
mostly full, BTW).  I figured that water had gotten splashed up onto the
tank and into it and was causing my problem.  Does this sound like what
happened to you?  After work, I got some gas tank de-icer, poured it in
and drove home.  It stalled once, a block after I started out.  Question
is, will it run right tomorrow?

Thanks for any and all advice and/or suggestions,
Marc Perdue