Date:         Sat, 3 Feb 2007 20:48:25 -0500
Reply-To:     robertmstewart <robertmstewart@MAC.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         robertmstewart <robertmstewart@MAC.COM>
Subject:      Urgent Starting Problem!/ Suspect Neutral/Park Starter
              Switch/Contact Bridge Problem
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1"

Hello to all, 

Been a while since I posted anything on the site. I have been super busy
with a new job in Brooklyn at a company called VICE.(www.viceland.com)

Anyway, my van has been great but I recently took it to be be serviced for
some upper ball joints and replacement of the neutral/parking switch in my
88 Automatic and now itıs not working.

The mechanic purchased the wrong year part for the Neutral/Park Swtich, he
said and he put back the old one. At first when I picked up the van it would
not start, he had to put it in neutral to start it. I told him that would
not suffice till the new part arrived. He fiddled with it, adjusted the unit
and got it start in park. I drove upstate on a 2 hour drive and it was fine.
I stopped for gas once turning the van off, and starting it again but when I
arrived to my destination in Bloomingburg NY and tried to start it in the
morning to go snow tubing it would not start. All the dash lights came on
but no start. 

I called the mechanic and he told me the contact from the Automatic shifter
just had to be pushed against the Neutral/Park Switch. I tried this several
times with no luck. Since I had the shifter hood off, I removed the 4
connectors going into the neutral/park switch and lightly sanded them to
clean them up, I also did this on the contact bridge and the inside of the
neutral/park switch. I tried to start the van again, but no luck, not in
park or neutral.

The contact bridge does look a bit warn, looks like its warn on the top and
angles outward toward the bottom. It has started reliably for a year now
without a problem till this mechanic fiddled with it. Any ideas for a short
term fix? Is this something I can get at an AutoZone type place? Can I make
something from Tin-Foil or another substance?

Can I easily remove this contact switch? If so how?
 

If I canıt figure out a temporary fix to get it back to Brooklyn NY then I
will to leave it upstate and take the bus back to NYC.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

Go the website link below to see the photoıs of the two items.

Thanks again to everyone for their ideas in advance.

Regards,
Robert
-- 
Rob
NYC/Long Beach/Bloomingburg NY
88 Wolfsburg, Silver
http://web.mac.com/rmstewart
AIM: rmstewart@mac.com