Date: Mon, 18 Oct 2004 11:34:42 -0400
Reply-To: dhaynes@OPTONLINE.NET
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Dennis Haynes <dhaynes@OPTONLINE.NET>
Subject: Re: The tale of the '87 Westy - Brand New! - Chapter 3 - Loss of
power
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Did you notice if there was black smoke coming from the exhaust? My bet is you have a lazy O2 sensor or a poor connection or the heater in it is not working. After a warm restart, the ECU tries to go closed loop in less than a minute. If the sensor is not working, the ECU will continually richen the mixture looking for the signal. It will enrich it enough to choke the engine. Look in the archives for more information. Thoroughly inspect all grounds and sensor connections. Most intermittent poor running conditions come down to the O2 or Temp 2 sensors or circuits.
Dennis
----- Original Message -----
From: William Alexander <william.alexander@GMAIL.COM>
Date: Monday, October 18, 2004 9:13 am
Subject: The tale of the '87 Westy - Brand New! - Chapter 3 - Loss of power
> 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
>
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