Date:         Thu, 4 Aug 2005 09:33:38 -0400
Reply-To:     Christopher Gronski <gronski@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Christopher Gronski <gronski@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Intermittent power loss
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

I had a great trip out to Lake Superior this weekend, but the trip
home was marred by my van bucking on the way home. I would be driving
along at 4000 rpms and suddenly would loose 800 (or sometimes 1200
rpms) and the van lurched as it lost power.I was able to limp home.
and sometimes the van would drive for an hour without loosing power
but eventually it would happen again.

This actually started before I left on my trip, but went away and did
not occur the whole way up (1000 km at least). I just had the exhaust
replaced and they said the O2 sensor was not connected to the cat, I
figured that was the problem again, but the connection (on the cat
end) looks OK to me.

I also thought it could have been an unrelated problem maybe due to
bad fuel from Wawa, because it went away after one of the fuel stops,
but then started up again at the next fuel stop (in a relatively
populated area of Michigan so I think I can trust the fuel quality).

Lastly I thought it may be related to the various interior accessory
wires I have hanging about. I pulled most of my interior to do a
repaint and I have not reinstalled them. They are all taped off well,
but could this be a ground issue?

The van is a 1986 syncro could this be vanagon syndrome? Your thoughts
are appreciated...

Chris