Since I bought my 86 Vanagon, it's been giving me one problem after another. I get one thing figured out, then it runs fine for a while, and something else comes up. Then problems seem to fix themselves, or just disappear magically. But I refuse to get rid of it, because when it's running well, I love it.

I had that "cold idle mystery" problem for a long time, then it seem to just suddenly go away yesterday morning when I started it up. I was really surprised. I have been tinkering with a few things here and there, I adjusted the afm a few times, only to find it runs best in the original position. I replaced the o2 sensor, and hooked it up to a 4-gas analyzer for a few hours the other day, adjusting the mixture. It seems to be getting better gas mileage, 18 mpg, which is not great, but better than before. I found a vacuum leak at one of the injector seals, but that didn't make much difference. I adjusted the valves, replaced the temp sensor and cleaned all the grounds.

Anyway my new problem, which just started about 4 days ago, is when I let off the gas pedal at slower speeds the van starts bucking. It does this when I'm driving around town, between stop signs, and when coming off the freeway, coasting to a stop in gear. Of course when I press the clutch it stops. It also does the same thing when I take off from a stop without giving it a lot of gas. Feels like clutch chatter, but right now I'm not assuming its a clutch problem because I just had the engine out a few weeks ago and the clutch disc looked like it had about 80% of life left.

I have had the van loaded with about 700 pounds of band equipment for the last few days. I wonder if that might have anything to do with it? Maybe I'll unload it and see if that changes anything. I'm wondering if maybe it has something to do with the throttle switch. Isn't it supposed to lean out the fuel mixture when you let off the throttle? I don't know...I've been testing and adjusting everything I can think of, and now I'm stumped.

Has anyone had this problem and found a cure?

I've also been trying to diagnose the A/C problems. I think it just needs to be charged...I'm saving my money to buy either 2 lbs of R-12 or 1 conversion kit. But when I turn the A/C on, the idle goes WAY up. I'm talking about 2500-3000 RPM. I know it's supposed to go up when the A/C is on, but come on...3000 RPM??!! I've been told that this is caused by a bad idle stabilization unit. If it's bad, when the computer looks for a signal from the unit and finds an open circuit, it just goes crazy. But before I buy one of those, maybe I'll just charge the system. Maybe the compressor is working too hard when there's not enough refrigerant in there. Or something like that. Ahh, so many annoying problems...

Anyway I'll stop rambling. If you've read this far, thank you.

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