Date: Thu, 21 Jan 2010 12:14:06 -0800
Reply-To: Don Hanson <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Don Hanson <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: troubleshooting intermittency - long
In-Reply-To: <083e01ca9962$98900320$6401a8c0@PROSPERITY>
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On Tue, Jan 19, 2010 at 3:53 PM, Scott Daniel - Turbovans <
scottdaniel@turbovans.com> wrote:
> well, whatever turns you on.
> for sure ...........for some people........if it gets fixed, that's all
> that matters.
> They may not even care how or why it got fixed, just that it works again,
> or even what the real solution was.
>
> Throwing parts at a problem is one strategy.
> I think people tend to think it 'is a part'....that it's a compenent, and
> that there is One Thing causing the problem.
> That's seldom what I find in the real world though.
> I do find tired, weak, or non fucnitoning components now and then . Just
> saw an oxygen sensor on one side of an SVX vanagon that looked 12 years old
> for example. Likely that one component is worn out, and not producing a
> good signal, and part of why it gets rather poor milage. .
>
> But commonly, I find '5 half not right things' and they all add up.
> I find situations ...........here's one ........a no-start condition on a
> 2.2 subaru vanagon. The conversion had been running a couple of weeks, now
> won't start. Has igntion but no injector pulse to the injectors.
> Component wise, we had another ecu, and I belive we tried it - no
> difference.
>
> what did fix it though was checking resistance on each of the 7 or so
> ground wires in the harness to the ecu, from the ecu end.
> the first 5 had like .6 ohms to ground. The last two..........6 ohms on
> one, 22 on the other.
> We ran new ground wires around the harness - bingo ! ...Fixed.
> Black and white.........no signal to injectors before, now we got 'em.
> No amount of throwing parts at that problem would have fixed it.
> AND.....a bit of wire and wire splices sure cost a lot less than air flow
> meters, igniters, ecu's etc.
>
> component wise, the guy even had gotten off into messing with injectors,
> didn't get a seal in the right place, and filled a couple of cylinders, the
> cat, and the muffler with raw liquid gasoline !
> .........from 'throwing parts at it."
>
> so ......if you get lucky and it IS a compenent issue ...and you happen to
> get it right the first or second time.........fine.
> but if it's not a compenent ..............what are you going to do ?
>
Scott's reply snipped>>
The example of the faulty ground connection reading (X-ohms rather than
Y-ohms) slightly wrong is why I shy away from the idea of trying a Subaru
in my van...How the H--- would a regular person ever find out exactly what
the reading was supposed to be for that particular itteration of the Subie
motor's grounding connection and how would a guy know for certain he was
testing the proper wires in the proper spots and know from the
readings....,"Oh sure, there it is....a faulty ground here, just add an
additional one and no more problem"....??
Ain't gonna happen like that in MY world.. I'd have to wade through
thousands of posts on the Subie lists to even get a clue or else find,
somehow, a sharp Tech who'll be willing to dive into the problem and find
that fault for me. Eventually, yes, I would probably be able to trace it
down myself and get going again..But you must admit it is simpler when you
can troubleshoot a problem without having to be an expert who's well versed
in the theory and totally familiar with all the variations of motors,
harnesses, sensors, connections etc etc that may have been combined from
various model years of various makes of transplanted motors.
Like I posted a while ago...I'd much rather use my vanagon than work on
them..Some people really enjoy the process of making them just right and can
spend all their time happily in the garage, messing with things. While I
enjoy building vehicles to do the task I want done and I'll take plenty of
time to make modifications, to do preventative maintainence, etc..I gotta
get some use from my vehicles...If I trace a fault to the computer
brain...rather than going further into it and repairing the part...which
some people do...I go to the junkyard and get another part...Just me
though...
I do have the occaisional "Aha!" moment...when I trace a loose wire or a
faulty connection and get flawless performance again without new parts..
Don Hanson
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