Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2008 21:27:25 -0400
Reply-To: "Jack R." <jack007@COMCAST.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: "Jack R." <jack007@COMCAST.NET>
Subject: Re: 87 Wolfsburg persistant hesistation problem (confusing)
In-Reply-To: <989ea5a20804301809v1f0d51f8h5a9a29841fc573ed@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
TJ...
Start with checking ALL your vacuum lines, and double check them for cracks
on the end... Also, you said you did the distributor cap, you know there
are very specific caps, and these can easily be confused. If you put on the
wrong cap, it can case problems with the shaft. Triple check your cap part
numbers. Lastly, check ALL your grounds, take off the straps, wire brush
them, add di-electric grease, and reconnect. That is by your starter,
trans, battery, ECU etc. Also, disconnect all of your plugs and switches,
clean the ends with electric contact cleaner or a pencil eraser... add
Di-electric grease and reconnect. Oh, keep in mind that your wires to these
sensors are 20+ years old, and sometimes a nick or corrosion can cause added
resistance, causing bad signals to the ECU... check your wires while you are
at it.
Good luck tracking this down!
Jack R.
84 Westy Wolfie, owned since 87, just swapped the motor to a 91 Syncro 2.1L.
N. of Detroit
-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
TJ Hemrick
Sent: Wednesday, April 30, 2008 9:09 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: 87 Wolfsburg persistant hesistation problem (confusing)
All,
I've been having on/off problems with my 87 Vanagon for several months now
and need some (more) help. It's on/off as I get disgusted with not being
able to figure out what's wrong and just park the old "box" for weeks at a
time and curse at it loudly. It was running fine for many months and
especially so since it had not had any real tune-up to speak of. I
collected all the replacement parts since the water pump was going I decided
to give it the full makeover. I did the radiator, the pump, filters (oil,
air, ps, & fuel), plugs, rotor, cap, wires, and replaced some vacuum hose.
Now, it runs like $h1t and has for many months since that day.
So, I figured, I must have dislodged or bumped something since I was in
the area. I have this terrible off idle hesitation and then stalls. It
runs fine as long as your above 2500-3000 rpm. I ended up manually shifting
the automatic trying to keep that rev's up just to keep it running.
Now, after checking all I could, I got desperate, I swapped the AFM (no
change), I swapped the ECM (no change), I swapped temp sensors 1&2 (no
change), I swapped distributor caps, (no change), I swapped spark plug wires
and yet NO CHANGE.
The one thing that really mystified me was the tachometer. It would swing
wildly up to 3500 and stay there or bounce around even at idle. I would be
driving and the needle would move up to 3000 and just bounce around while I
was driving. It's weird, the van runs fine when cold but the tach is
occasionally crazy. Once it warms up, the tach is fine and it runs
horribly. I check the grounds all over the engine bay, the wires on the
distributor, I jiggled every wire I could find while running (again, no
change).
One thing has been constant- It's running rich, really rich. You can
smell the fuel and see it running puffs of black (not the oil black but the
poor combustion burn dark grey-black) smoke. So I'm racking my brain the
other day, trying to figure out what it controlling the rich fuel mixture
and it hits me like a freight train, the O2 sensor. I'm certain it should
run (but somewhat crappy) with the thing out of the loop but I say, "Wait,
check the net, ask the group, then get the tools". So I test it-It
runs the same disconnected or connected but it's probably bad and never
changed since new. Not much help there. Oh, I have to cut it out to
replace it. It's either welded in there by the PO or it's seized. I used a
LOT of tools on it and it is NOT moving.
So, the floor is open. I've gotten suggestion before and they were damn
good ones at that but yet, my van's engine still runs like a POS. It's very
discouraging. I work on my own rides, I work on other peoples rides (for
money), I have other vans (same year, same engine) to pull parts from and
I'm still getting my @$$ handed to me by a 20+ year old brick.
Fuming in Florida,
TJ
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