Date:         Sat, 2 Aug 2003 16:48:15 -0600
Reply-To:     Eric and Marica <eric.clarke@SHAW.CA>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Eric and Marica <eric.clarke@SHAW.CA>
Subject:      80 Vanagon Fuel Pump Buzzing Saga - Fixed (?) but now bogging
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Good Afternoon Everyone,

I'm hoping for a little advice. I have a 80 Westie and last week a
buzzing started under the back seat. Turned out to be the fuel pump
making the noise. It got louder and louder and as the engine cut power
when accelerating (in fact, anything beyond idle caused a hesitation
followed by bogging.

Being an Optimist, I first removed and replaced the fuel filter (which
was pretty clogged). The buzzing in the fuel pump remained however so I
did the Bentley / Haynes test for pump output (should produce a minimum
of 500 ml in 30 seconds with the air sensor disconnected). It only
produced about 200 ml so I replaced the pump.

Now for the problem - the new pump is making the same noise!  I am
thinking that I should drop the tank and flush it out.

I can still drive it and the buzzing isn't as bad (although audible). It
still hesitates and bogs down when I accelerate hard. The engine is
slightly underpowered (to what it was last week) and I need to get it
fixed soon as it's now my daily errand-driver (I bike to work).

Any ideas / similar experiences?  I was wondering if this was the result
of bad gas or grime in the tank.   I haven't checked the output of the
new pump (and I really should I guess).

This may be related or not but I had to splice in about 4 inches of
rubber vacuum line on the thin solid plastic (yellow?) vacuum line that
runs from the pressure regulator (diaphragm) on the front drivers-side
corner of the engine compartment to the passenger side of the intake
manifold vacuum port. It's on there pretty tight and the new hose is
solid - no chance of it collapsing under vacuum pressure.

Any hints / directions would be invaluable.

Thanks,

Eric
'80 Westie "Rusty"