Date:         Mon, 27 Apr 2009 15:42:36 -0400
Reply-To:     Marc Perdue <mcperdue@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Marc Perdue <mcperdue@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: Help! '87 Westy won't start...
In-Reply-To:  <c2c43a7e0904170718t63ff2a5an99cc2424b5d0fc9e@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

Hey all,

I wanted to post the solution to this problem, just in case anybody
else ran into it.  It was way simpler than anything anybody suggested,
thank goodness, but still enough to strand me.

There's a red wire with female spade lug connector that connects to
the starter.  It was disconnected.  Duh...  It was so loose, that
every time I started the van, it came loose again.  I decided to just
get the van running and drive it home to where I could work on it in
peace.

The connector is in a really hard place to get to, fore of the engine
compartment, over the right side of the transmission.  If anybody has
any brilliant ideas for getting easy access to this connector, I'm all
ears.  One way or the other, though, I need to tighten up that
connector and all should be right with the world then.

Thanks again for all the great suggestions!
Marc

On Fri, Apr 17, 2009 at 10:18 AM, Marc Perdue <mcperdue@gmail.com> wrote:
> 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
>