Date:         Tue, 21 Feb 2006 02:48:29 -0800
Reply-To:     Barry Muller <ekab_muller@SBCGLOBAL.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Barry Muller <ekab_muller@SBCGLOBAL.NET>
Subject:      Sticking throttle (long)
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

Hello All,

Yes I'm back after a 1/2-year hiatus.  But enough
chit-chat.  About a month ago, my 1991 Carat started
to add some excitement to my life by having the
throttle stick at full open.  Woo-hoo was that fun -
thank goodness it only happened on limited access
roads and in slow vehicle.

As the van has a slush box (don't all Carats?), I
checked out the "multispring cluster" on the
throttle-valve housing. Sure nuff, would stick at full
open.  The springs on the shaft that attaches to the
throttle valve looks dry and rusty.  Here is what I've
done to limited or no joy:

1) lubed the bejeezes out of thes pring on the
throttle-valve shaft (cannot find a ref name to this
substantial-looking object in Bentley - of course).

2) Tried to take the throttle valve housing off the
intake manifld to clean it thoroughly, inside and out.
 Failed to do this as the throttle valve housing
appears to welded onto the manifold (But, then why are
there two screws attaching it to the manifold, Bart?
Hmmm maybe it is only siezed onto the manifold?).
Anyrate, while I was there I tried to clean as much
crud off of the spring on the throttle-valve shaft.

3) A friend suggested that I replace the
throttle-return spring (goes to the back of the
manifold to an attachemnt on the  throttle-valve
shaft.  I did this, but this seems a "brut force"
approach and I really think that the problem lies in
some sort of maintenance on the throttle-valve gizmo.

So any thoughts or snarky comments on what I really
need to do to solve this?  Is it true the that the
worn throttle return spring is the root of this evil.
Will our friend ever be able to drive at "full
throttle" without fearing for his life?  (Dramatic
1950's B-movie music here).  Stay tuned.

Thanks in advance,

Barry