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Date:         Sat, 1 May 2010 11:38:25 -0500
Reply-To:     Tom Hargrave <thargrav@HIWAAY.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Tom Hargrave <thargrav@HIWAAY.NET>
Subject:      Re: The coninuing distributer saga - LOOONG
Comments: To: B Feddish <bfeddish@NETREACH.NET>
In-Reply-To:  <001801cae947$545f1df0$fd1d59d0$@net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Bryan,

2 things.

1. Your mechanic can not work on your car the way you work on software. He would have disassemble, reassemble to do the distributor and then disassemble, reassemble again to do the injectors - all billable time.

2. I wonder if your "good spare" distributor is really good? You might try calling around the local shops to see if anyone still has one of the old SUN distributor testers & knows how to use it. A SUN tester was used to check the performance of your distributor outside the car and they were great machines in the day.

Tom www.stir-plate.com

-----Original Message----- From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM] On Behalf Of B Feddish Sent: Saturday, May 01, 2010 11:00 AM To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM Subject: The coninuing distributer saga - LOOONG

OK, I'm not divorced yet but the wife is having serious thoughts about keeping one of the family members around..

Where we left off, Scott was helping me work out my slight hesitation woes. We pretty much confirmed my vacuum advance was not cooperating. I ordered a good used one and also made an appt at the local shop that still has an old timer to do some other fuel checks for me. The owner said we might as well replace the fuel injectors since A) I'm going to have to pay him to take them off and put them back on anyway and B) several people have mentioned that I replace them since they are 27 years old. OK, I bring over the fuel injectors on Thursday afternoon when they arrive. On Friday my new good used distributer arrives so I thought "what the heck" and drove that over to the shop since they were just bringing it in now. I don't hear from them for 6 hours and I got kinda nervous, as I should. The owner calls up and tells me the injectors are in, the vacuum hoses have been re-setup like the Benlty diagram and the new distributer is in. The problem is it now runs like complete crap. This is 3:30 on Friday. They said they had to get it out of the shop since they were working on it for hours with no effect. They said they could not advance the distributer because the vacuum pipe sticking out was being blocked by the AC pedestal. I was kinda confused so I told the I wanted them to talk to Gary, the guy who built the motor before doing anything else. The mechanic agreed it was a good idea thought he owner got indignant.

I ask if the van runs enough to drive as I said I wanted to take it home and do some bodywork over the weekend and I would bring it back Monday. They said it was drivable. I barely made it home, it was like it was running on 1 cylinder. Temp rose above normal. I was almost in tears last night. The wife really started to talk about how much we could get back parting out the bus.

Lets back up a moment. I write software for a living, If I had 3 changers to make I would make 1 at a time, test it and if there was a problem I would back out to where I started to at least be back where I was. It occurred to me I'll bet they installed the new injectors, changed the vacuum and installed the new distributer at one time. If was me, I would have done one at a time and test drove between each one but I guess I'm crazy.

I set out this morning determined to back out what had been done and at LEAST get the bus back to being drivable. I was SOO close, I was up to 16 MPG city and only a slight hesitation remained. Now I had an un-drivable vehicle. I took out the new (good used ) distributer and replaced it with my old one. The van drove the same as when I gave it them. A slight relief. I then took the new used distributer and put the vacuum unit on a spare distributer that I have (with a bad rusty vacuum unit) the van started up but I could not turn the distributer past 5 deg ATDC. I then took the vacuum unit and put it on my current distributor. Pretty frightening thought since this was a known "ok" unit and I was about to take it apart. I put it on and I cannot turn the unit passed 5 Deg ATDC. Then I recalled my other one was bent to fit. I then took a metal tube and very slightly bent the connector a little bit. The I could get the timing to about 2 deg BTDC. That's as far as it goes.

OK, for those of you still following along. The van runs pretty well. The hesitation is 99% gone and acceleration is smooth. What should I do now? Should I have them pull the distributer thingy to allow it to move more and allow new advance? Should I drill a hole in the AC pedestal to allow it to turn? Should I leave it alone? Should I find a 2003 EV Camper with 25K miles on it for $5,000 like my wife wants?

Comments suggestions, snide remarks appreciated.

BTW, there is an impromptu Westy campout in Buck County PA tonight. I may go but bring the EV just in case. The hosts broke down on their way to the event last night and the van is now in the shop. Sigh..

Thanks,

Bryan


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