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Date:         Wed, 29 Sep 2004 17:55:47 -0500
Reply-To:     Aerowolf <aerowolf@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Aerowolf <aerowolf@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      85 1.9L misfiring
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII

Hey everyone... More trials and travails with my 85. This is the first time I've gotten the chance to get it out onto the open road for a while, and I've been noticing a couple of things...

First off, the new AFM I installed has actually exhibited Vanagon Syndrome once. (Driving, driving, driving... lose a little bit of power due to other issues, and then the resonance builds up and *BAM* no more contact in the AFM.) Ignition-off and re-crank solves the problem.

Second: I think I've /seriously/ mis-timed my van or something, because I can't get it to stop having detonation-stopping-cranking issues no matter how advanced or retarded I set the timing. I know (at least pretty much) how to resolve this -- I think I just messed up on the position of the distributor and the rotor when I put it in, and I know how to readjust it/remove it/replace it. But that leads into the third issue, which I'd like to tap the collective wisdom of the list for...

Third: I've been having misfires, which are causing intermittent power loss on the road. Sometimes it fires properly, and sometimes it doesn't -- and I'm trying to figure out what it could be. (It's been doing this power loss, with exactly the same behavior and symptoms, since I got the van -- I thought it was the AFM, but now that I know what the AFM does in its failure state, I can say authoritatively that it's not.) What I need to know is... is there any known failure state for the injectors after a certain time frame/mileage, where they stick open or otherwise have slow open/close cycles when they get warm? It certainly smells like my van's putting unburned fuel through the exhaust a lot of time, and I'm otherwise at a loss as to what it could be.

(A mechanic friend said it sounded like I was losing a cylinder, when I explained exactly what it did. However, the compression tests all came up perfectly normal, and the spark plugs are all brand new -- but on my #3 cylinder, when I pull the plug out, it's often wet with unburned fuel. I'm wondering if the mixture is too rich in that cylinder to combust -- and if that would be caused by the injector.)

As always, any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time!

-Kyle Hamilton


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