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Date:         Tue, 29 Jun 2010 16:04:13 -0600
Reply-To:     Steve Williams <steve@WILLIAMSITCONSULTING.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Steve Williams <steve@WILLIAMSITCONSULTING.COM>
Subject:      Re: Quick troubleshooting question
Comments: To: Aaron <a.robinson.lists@GMAIL.COM>
In-Reply-To:  <24BD6D9C-7F6F-4C77-940E-FCFAC55A42C1@gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

Hi,

I had similar symptoms with an old Toyota Celica. It was a broken spark plug wire. All the while it was "easy" (ie: mixture rich) for the plug to fire, it did. As soon as I put my foot into it, the resistance to the spark (presumably because the mixture was leaner) got more, and it sparked from the break in the plug wire to the engine block leaving the engine firing on three cylinders and a very noticeable "bog". Ease off on the throttle and everything ran fine. I got great gas mileage while I was trouble shooting the problem :-)

The only difference is that mine ran fine when the engine was cold (automatic choke on), but as soon as it warmed up the symptoms showed up. Of course, it was winter in Canada, so "cold" meant REAL COLD.

The solution was to snip off the broken part of the plug lead, reinstall and all was golden :-) I was in university and a whole new wire set was too expensive.

It was incredibly hard to troubleshoot and thus has remained ingrained in my brain.

Good luck!

Cheers, Steve

Aaron wrote: > I am about to dive into troubleshooting a problem with my '87 westy. It = > seems that after giving it more than 1/4 throttle while under load in = > any gear, I lose all power. If I let off the gas pedal, it comes back to = > life. However, I can rev it freely when it's in neutral, so it seems to = > be associated with load. It also does this whether warm or cold. I'm not = > sure where to start, but I figured I would start with the buzzing fuel = > pump and go from there. It seems if it were a fueling issue, it would be = > more of a sputter, not a sudden cut-out like it is.=20 > > It seems like there are so many routes one could take. What would you = > do? > > Thanks! > Aaron > '87 Westy >


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