VANAGON archives -- September 2005, week 3 (#467)

Date: Wed, 21 Sep 2005 13:33:09 -0400 Reply-To: Eric Unrau <eunrau@YAHOO.CA> Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com> From: Eric Unrau <eunrau@YAHOO.CA> Subject: Losing power... Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

Hello all,

For the last week I have been experiencing a random loss of power in my ’89 Westy. Everything will seem normal as I am driving along, and then suddenly the power will drop off to about 40-50%.

The first time it happened, I pulled over the side of the road, shut the engine off and checked all the connectors at the plugs, coil, distributor, Hall sender, etc. I didn’t find anything that was noticeably loose but when I got back in the van it started up fine, so I though I might have pushed a wire into place that wasn’t obviously loose.

I continued driving and 10 minutes later the power drops off again. This time I pulled over and left the engine running/sputtering; checked the wires again and when I gently jiggled the connector on the Hall sender (it hangs somewhat loosely off the side of the distributor) I heard a buzzing sound (short cct?) and the engine stalled. Started it up again, sounded fine so I drove off – again all seemed normal. This happened a couple more times over the next 30 minutes of driving (did I mention my unhappy passenger/wife is 9 months + 2days pregnant?) and I continued to look for loose wires each time – and managed to stall the engine each time I wiggled the connection to the hall sender.

Assuming that the loose hall sender connection was the problem, the following day I wrapped 14 gauge wire around the distributor to immobilize the hall sender connector and then took it out for a test drive. All seemed good for the first five minutes or so until the power dropped off – apparently my brilliant fix wasn’t so smart. This time I was rolling along on a quiet street an it dawned on me that normal power always seems to be there when the engine is started, so I gave it a try. I shut the ignition off for 2 seconds and restarted as I was rolling along the street and sure enough the engine seemed to be running normally again. As I continued driving I experienced a couple more power loss cycles that were corrected immediately be turning the ignition off and restarting the engine.

Any and all suggestions on a diagnosis of this problem are welcome. The Hall sender connector has been hanging off the side of the distributor since I purchased the van from the PO but has never caused this problem in the past. Probably should replace it to eliminate it as a possibility, but if it is something else…

Thanks

Eric

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