Date:         Fri, 20 Aug 2010 10:16:21 -0700
Reply-To:     Poppie Jagersand <poppie.jagersand@YAHOO.CA>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Poppie Jagersand <poppie.jagersand@YAHOO.CA>
Subject:      Re: Is it Calming to Drive a Vanagon
In-Reply-To:  <AANLkTinSYfuQUCW54E5txhE2-N2yJ5aY4QDZ8VF6keZD@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

For me it is calming to know I have the advice and support of this list when I'm far from home.

I bought my first gasser, an '85 Westy, when I worked a year in Germany. It had a sudden acceleration problem, surging when rpm went between 1000 and 2000rpm. Couldn't figure it out myself, but an email to the list was quickly answered. Turned out two similar looking electrical plugs had been put back the wrong way so it looked like the idle/full throttle switch was always on to the ECU. It's ironical that numerous mechanics in der Vaterland had been unable to diagnose and fix this.

Somewhat later it stuttered; first at highway speeds, then any speed. I thought again it was something with the ECU and circuits. Even opened up the well sealed AFM box out in the bush, but couldn't make sense out of it. Stopping and asking German VW dealerships was of no help. They were barely interested in looking at a 15year old vehicle. Again the list came to help. Turns out it was simply the fuel filter clogging. 2 Euro later and with my t-shirt soaked in gas I was on my way. (Had to fiddle under the bus to fit the generic filter since in and out connection diametres were different from the original.)

Years ago, in 1998/99 when the first 1.9TD engines turned up as grey imports in the US, we shared swap advice over the list. I scored a couple of non-US manuals accidentally sent to a US dealership. Sent a copy to another listmember and in return got a bunch of air intake components he figured out how to fit to the 1.9TD. I managed to do the swap on while a living in a small student apartment in New Haven. Landlord was luckily pretty patient about me having three vehicles filling the driveway: the '82 1.6D Westy swap candidate, an '82 1.6D parts van, and a $250 Passat TD I got non-running but managed to get working so I could go buy parts for the swap.

When I finished school on the east coast, I got a job in Western Canada. I made the cross country drive into a 2week "visit all the national parks along the way" journey. However, while Sept in the east is warm, I was unprepared for snow squalls in the Rockies. Got stopped near Glacier NP in Montana. -17C, roads iced over. I had no snow tires, alternator got overloaded running the heater fan at high, lights, wipers etc while idling so I could heat some food. Had to hook up a spare battery, and backtrack back east to the plains. Managed to make it to Calgary, then nearest city, but was exhausted and cold. I called a listmember who generously let me stay in his basement suite until the cold weather passed. Finished by seeing Banff and Jasped national parks, (one reason I wanted to move West) before starting working on Oct 1.

How would I have made it through all that in a Dodge Caravan?

Martin (and '82 Westy 1.9TD "Poppie")