Date:         Fri, 17 Apr 2009 10:18:34 -0400
Reply-To:     Marc Perdue <mcperdue@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Marc Perdue <mcperdue@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Help! '87 Westy won't start...
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

Hi all,

I'm constantly amazed at how many ways my van can leave me stranded,
in spite of all I do to try to keep it in top shape.

I got in my van to leave my daughters' house last night, and when I
turned the key, the fuel pump came on, but there was no click for the
starter.  This has actually happened on occasion before.  When it has,
I usually moved the shifter out of Park and back.  If that didn't do
it, trying another time or two always would.

So, I'm thinking that there's a starter relay somewhere, but when it
happened, it was 10 PM, my tools were in my other car, and my Bentley
was on the kitchen counter back home, where I had been researching
what I need to look at for the rough running problem that I had been
having.  Incidentally, it's running WAY smoother since I had the shop
adjust the valve last to 0, cold, according to Bob Donalds' specs.
And it hasn't been stalling.

Asides aside, I pulled the cover off the gear selector (auto tranny,
in case you hadn't gotten that yet) and cleaned the switch.  In case
anybody out there didn't realize it, the shifter needs to be either in
Neutral or Park to start, and there's a switch in the gear selector
enclosure.  You can pry off the top cover of the enclosure to get to
it.  Cleaning the contacts didn't change my results.  Thinking maybe
the Park contact only was affected, I tried starting in Neutral to no
avail.

At this point, not knowing whether there was a starter relay or
whether I could do anything about it if I found it, I had to seek out
a ride home.

Am I on the right track?  Does this sound like a bad starter relay to
you all?  Oh, and before you all suggest I go start chasing ground
connection gremlins, the shop that was trying to fix my van checked,
cleaned, and in some cases put new connectors on, ALL of my ground
connections that they could find.  :^)  Um, come to think of it, they
wouldn't have cleaned the contacts on the gear selector switch . . .

If this does sound like a bad starter relay, does anyone have a part
number for it?  I'd like to get my van back up and running sooner than
later...

Thanks all,
Marc