Date:         Mon, 18 Oct 2004 09:13:50 -0400
Reply-To:     William Alexander <william.alexander@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         William Alexander <william.alexander@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      The tale of the '87 Westy - Brand New! - Chapter 3 - Loss of power
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A few more of my missing things have been replaced this weekend -
replaced the water pump for the sink, which is totally cool now that
it works (anyone else have a water faucet that runs in more positions
than "T"? cause mine does...) and also replaced the rear heater which
was just plain missing. Got a used one on the Samba for $25! Thought
that was a good deal. But check out this weirdness...

Piled in the van for its inaugural first ride with new rear heater,
and turn the fan on low back there so Amber can warm her socked little
feet. Ride 3 miles or so to my sister's house, pick her up and head
off to El Toreo. 100 yards from her house the van loses all power..
only comparison I can make is I once had an engine fire in a Chevy
truck and as the plug wires melted it lost power - never died until I
pulled over, turned it off, looked under the truck and saw fire
falling off of the motor! 18 yrs old.. Iput the fire out by scrounging
for leftover mellow yellow from the bed of the truck.. geez...

Anyway after satisfying myself that there was no fire, I opened the
seat and did this: Moved the small fan I had wedged in between the
wooden box over the heater and the black box on kitchen side of the
seat compartment. Is that the ECU? Then I took the box off of the
heater and unplugged it, and switched the lever on the heater that I
assume stops the coolant flow through the heater core. Fired'er back
up and have driven maybe 100 miles since with no problems.

So did I just overheat my ECU? Is running the rear heater at the risk
of overheating the computer? Or was it just because I had restricted
its airflow by wedging that fan in next to it? Or was it some weird
electrical thing having to do with plugging the heater in?

Thanks for any help...

William in Roanoke, Va