Vanagon EuroVan
Previous messageNext messagePrevious in topicNext in topicPrevious by same authorNext by same authorPrevious page (March 2004, week 1)Back to main VANAGON pageJoin or leave VANAGON (or change settings)ReplyPost a new messageSearchProportional fontNon-proportional font
Date:         Mon, 1 Mar 2004 09:14:48 -0700
Reply-To:     Ryan Mark Shankland <mark.shank@COMCAST.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Ryan Mark Shankland <mark.shank@COMCAST.NET>
Subject:      Re: 87 Westy has loss of power, also '87 westy O2 sensor...
In-Reply-To:  <005401c3ff2e$1a92c270$fbef79a5@jw1dy3621>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Thanks to Joel and everyone; I think the tapping helped. I ended up tearing the guts end of the o2 sensor off with an adjustable wrench and heating the flange with the mapp gas until it was glowing hot, then banging on the closed-end wrench with a hammer to slowly work the sensor out while red-hot sparks dropped on my hands-- fun. This took some repeats of heating and the threads are mostly intact but need some cleaning. It looks like whomever did it last cross-threaded it in there, then it did a great job of seizing in place. Use the anti- sieze, please! I think of myself as a fairly mechanical guy but no mechanic, I just praise the VW designers for giving enough room to work on this one. A simple job but it could have been botched easily, costing me a new catalytic converter as well, and the o2 sensor wasn't cheap.

Thanks again, Mark

-----Original Message----- From: Joel Walker [mailto:jwalker17@earthlink.net] Sent: Sunday, February 29, 2004 6:40 PM To: Ryan Mark Shankland Subject: Re: Re: 87 Westy has loss of power, also '87 westy O2 sensor...

> I need some advice before I shear the threads off of my first oxygen > sensor, I have an '87 7-pass with the 2.1, pretty easy access to the o2 > sensor that won't budge! I've tried it cold, at temperature and with > Mapp gas on the flange, and cut the wires to fit a motorcycle wrench > entirely around the unit to avoid shearing it and hammered on the > wrench, still no movement! Please help, I need this by early tomorrow if > possible-- it is bathing in WD40 again as we speak-- I didn't want to > Mapp gas the sensor in case I had to rewire it to get to a shop-- or > otherwise damage it further. Advice?

tap it (hard) with a hammer and punch ... or a socket extension. just some solid piece of metal that you can place against the sensor flange (the part where you are trying to unscrew) and bang it with a hammer. not whack it, but just hit it kinda hard. move to each face of the flange you can get to and bang it. do this MANY times ... like 40 to 50 times. that often loosens the rusted threads and allows the nut/flange/whatever to be screwed off.

good luck! joel p.s. wd-40 is NOT the right stuff. you want Liquid Wrench.


Back to: Top of message | Previous page | Main VANAGON page

Please note - During the past 17 years of operation, several gigabytes of Vanagon mail messages have been archived. Searching the entire collection will take up to five minutes to complete. Please be patient!


Return to the archives @ gerry.vanagon.com


The vanagon mailing list archives are copyright (c) 1994-2011, and may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the list administrators. Posting messages to this mailing list grants a license to the mailing list administrators to reproduce the message in a compilation, either printed or electronic. All compilations will be not-for-profit, with any excess proceeds going to the Vanagon mailing list.

Any profits from list compilations go exclusively towards the management and operation of the Vanagon mailing list and vanagon mailing list web site.