Date:         Wed, 21 Apr 2010 12:27:07 -0700
Reply-To:     Pat Sloan <pmsloan@SHAW.CA>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Pat Sloan <pmsloan@SHAW.CA>
Subject:      More Fuel Pump Weirdness - Has Mercury gone retrograde again?
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Hi everyone,

The Otter continues to have problems with coughing and dying. After trying a
lot of things, it seems to come back to the fuel pump, which is buzzing and
stressed because it is not getting enough fuel. Therefore it chokes, coughs
and dies.

Background: This is a 1982 Vanagon camper. It was originally a diesel, but
was converted to a US 1987 1.8 L Jetta engine about 60,000 miles ago. So she
is now a water-cooled, gas-powered van. Since buying her last Nov, she has
had new fuel lines installed and reinstalled (first mechanic used inferior
materials), fuel tank has been sealed (multiple leaks), replaced O rings on
fuel injectors and tied down the several fuel injectors which were loose and
would pull right out of the engine, and replaced ignition switch, battery
and muffler.

Now we are thinking that the problem relates to the conversion from its
original diesel state to its conversion to a gas engine.

Can anyone comment or verify my understanding of how the conversion affects
the fuel pump issue?

My Understanding:

The diesel Vanagon actually has 2 fuel pumps - 1 located in the gas tank,
which pulls the fuel up into the fuel lines and sends it along to fuel pump
#2, near the engine, which actually pushes the fuel into the engine. There
is no fuel pump in the gas tank of my Otter. The fuel pumps which have been
installed so far (2 by highly recommended VW mechanics, but that's a story
best left until my blood pressure cools down) have only been 'pusher' fuel
pumps located near the engine. Therefore, the pump isn't getting enough fuel
from the tank and after a while, it gets stressed and stops. Hence, the
Otter's coughing and dying experiences.

There is a universal fuel pump available, which does both the pulling (from
the tank) and the pushing (into the engine). My mechanic wants to install
this and it sounds sensible to me.

Does it sound sensible to you?

Thanks for any input.

Pat

1982 Vanagon w/87 Jetta engine - Otter