Date:         Fri, 16 Dec 2005 10:17:49 -0500
Reply-To:     Wil Haslup <wil@CHARMFX.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Wil Haslup <wil@CHARMFX.COM>
Subject:      Re: Could hot starting problems be caused by a defective ignition
              swich?
In-Reply-To:  <8C7D0699F4C81A4-1840-CC8D@mblk-r16.sysops.aol.com>
Content-type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

George Goff wrote:
> -----Original Message-----
> From: The Bus Depot <vanagon@BUSDEPOT.COM>
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Sent: Fri, 16 Dec 2005 00:08:08 -0500
>  Subject: Re: Could hot starting problems be caused by a defective
> ignition swich?
>
>  > I have been trying to solve the problem where my 84 Vanagon
>  > doesn't want to start after several stops. I assumed that
>  > this was a hot start problem, and have replaced most
>  > everything that might cause the problem, coil, temp sender,
>  > fuel pressure regulator, air box, idle stabilizer.
>
>
>  If it were the most common hot-start problem, the most likely culprit
> would be the starter (or more specifically the starter solenoid), or
> its associated wiring. Yet you don't mention the starter, solenoid, or
> associated wiring among the items you replaced.
>
> ****Because he has a HOT START PROBLEM , not a NO CRANK PROBLEM.****
>
>  In this scenario, the solenoid would tend to stick because the heat
> from the engine caused the sleeve around it to contract, requiring more
> current to kick it when the engine is hot than when it's cold.
>
>  ****A Nobel Prize is in order here because Ron has unearthed a metal
> which CONTRACTS with temperature. Damn, and I was so close in thinking
> that the slug of the solenoid expanded with heat soak and that, along
> with the gummy ca-ca which forms in the solenoid over a period of time,
> causes the slug to stick.****
>
>
>  We also sell an inexpensive relay kit, part # WR1, which can often
> solve this symptom in a different manner; it shortens the signal path
> by providing a direct feed from battery to starter (using the ignition
> switch merely as a trigger, rather than sending the starter's entire
> current through it).
>
> - Ron Salmon

After replacing my starter/solenoid and then replacing my ignition
switch....when the problem arose again in a bit more than 2 years I
opted for the relay kit from Bus Depot and haven't had a problem since.
I recommend it.

>  ****If the starter's current draw were routed through the ignition
> switch, then the ignition switch would be the size of a three pound
> Maxwell House coffee can. Anyway, why cover the symptom with a Band-Aid
> instead of curing the disease?****
>
>  ****To answer the question posed by the original poster: yes, a
> defective ignition switch could cause an intermittent open in the
> IGNITION circuit.****
>
> ****George****
>
>
>


--

Wil


-- http://www.charmfx.com/

"If I had my life to live over again, I'd be a plumber."
--  Albert Einstein