Date: Sat, 1 May 2010 11:59:49 -0400
Reply-To: B Feddish <bfeddish@NETREACH.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: B Feddish <bfeddish@NETREACH.NET>
Subject: The coninuing distributer saga - LOOONG
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
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