Date: Fri, 29 Aug 2003 18:26:33 -0500
Reply-To: Larry Alofs <lalofs@RCN.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Larry Alofs <lalofs@RCN.COM>
Subject: Re: Buckin' Like a Bronco, Stalling
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed
Hi;
Did you replace the condenser when you did the points?
I had a bad one on my '80 that caused new points to burn very quickly.
Another very likely suspect on an air-cooled is the temperature sensor
on the head. It often goes intermittently bad depending on temp.
Larry A.
Anthony Hecht wrote:
> Hi everybody,
>
> So, we've been on the road here for about 7 months, and the old girl ('80
> Westy) is miraculously still running. Well, let me qualify that.
>
> She was still running quite well until about a week ago.
>
> Cruising up yet another red rock hill in southern Utah, downshifting from
> fourth to third, the car started to buck, like the engine was cutting out,
> coming back cutting out coming back, in rapid succession. This lasted a few
> seconds, then stopped. Since then it's been happening more and more often,
> and getting worse, until the car would completely cut out when we came to a
> stop, no idling.
>
> The thing is, this is intermittent. For long stretches things would be fine,
> and then all of a sudden it was like we were being rammed from behind, or
> the car was trying to jump off the road and do a somersault, tail over head.
> Some feathering of the gas seems to make it settle down, usually, but not
> always. The other thing is that it happens only after the car has warmed up.
> When we first start in the morning, or after a couple hour stop, it idles
> fine and runs pretty well for about 20 minutes or so, then the agony starts
> back up.
>
> Things we've already done: New cap, rotor, points, timing adjusted, new
> plugs, air filter. One look at the points and I thought this was the
> problem, they were all burned up. After this tune-up, she ran great for a
> while, and we celebrated this red herring with high-fives and huge sighs of
> relief. But then, 20-30 minutes later, it was at it again and progressively
> got worse, until we were stalling at a stop again.
>
> When we stall at a stop, it will start again after about 5 or 10 minutes,
> but not right away.
>
> And here's my final curveball: The muffler is looser than it's ever been, it
> seems to have broken between the converter and the muffler body, so the
> whole cylinder can rotate downward (so the tailpipe points toward the ground
> and not toward the people losing their minds in the cars behind us). I don't
> know if this could cause such dramatic problems, but thought I'd mention it.
>
> Any help would be GREATLY appreciated. We're in Las Vegas, it's hot, and
> we're starting to think the odds are against our bid to gamble away our
> woes.
>
> (I realize we're air-cooled, and I apologize for it, but this list has
> historically been so helpful...)
>
> ---------------------------------------------------
> Anthony Hecht & Liz Jones
> '80 Westy "Badunkadunk"
> Somewhere Between Virginia and Tuesday
> http://travelinvan.com
> ---------------------------------------------------
>
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