Kellen, Look in your owners manual. It's in all likelihood the knob for a gasoline fired auxiliary heater. You push it in to activate it, then turn it to control heat output thermostatically. It makes a real funny humming noise when it runs and man, does it crank out heat. If you turn the ignition to on (Van does NOT have to be running), push the button it on and it doesn't come on, it may be because of worn wiring, or there is a circuit breaker that sits up under the dash roughly behind the knob on the firewall. It may be popped over and need resetting. Mine was on my previous 82 westy. Kicked it over and it fired right up. Advice: DO NOT turn this thing on for the first time without inspecting it first. Check fuel lines going into it, and the wiring. When you do fire it up, have someone watch the underside of your van for awhile to make sure that the thing doesn't catch fire. They're reputedly pretty safe, but I've read stories. Also, it's gonna stink like hell for awhile til it burns off old dust, oil etc. Do a list search for "auxiliary heater". There's plenty of info. If the knob ain't that, then I dunno. Maybe somebody put on a manual choke and a carbueretor. Chris Dixon |
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Vanagon mail messages have been archived.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.