Date: Sat, 26 Feb 2011 08:38:15 -0600
Reply-To: Jim Felder <jim.felder@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Jim Felder <jim.felder@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Sorta Scary Event
In-Reply-To: <4d68e6d6.a559e60a.4910.317e@mx.google.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
John,
I spent two years chasing down the same problem on my 90 Carat when I
had it, and that is one reason I sold it. I first noticed it cutting
out for a fraction of a second at a time at interstate speeds, then
finally it needed restarting after quitting completely or it it might
not start for 24 hours and finally it wouldn't start from cold
sometimes. It DEFINITELY was not the switch, as I put the questionable
switch in my other vanagon and it started just fine (that's why you
have two or more of them).
I tested every electrical component in the car. The problem seemed to
go away when I epoxied the hall effect sensor back together. It ran OK
for six months after that (weird symptoms like a ranging idle, etc.)
but I don't know what eventually happened with it.
Jim
On Sat, Feb 26, 2011 at 5:41 AM, Max Wellhouse <dimwittedmoose@cfu.net> wrote:
> John: thge ignition switch is the cheap $10 repair. If that doesn't
> fix it, I'd look at the plastic connector on the side of the
> distributor that connects the electrical leads to the Hall
> Sender. They get old and crack and eventually cause intermittent
> shut down. A new Hall sender is not cheap, but my shade tree epoxy
> job on my failing connector several years ago lasted about 2
> weeks. If the tach goes straight to 0 when this occurs next time,
> it's definitely pointing to electrics for sure.....YMMV
>
> DM&FS
>
> At 11:28 PM 2/25/2011, John Rodgers wrote:
>>
>> Driving along the highway tonight, the engine just suddenly quit as
>> cold as if I had turned off the ignition. All the annunciator lights
>> came on as I coasted to a stop on the side of the road. I turned the
>> ignition off, then back on, then to start, and it fired right up, and
>> didn't fault again. For the engine to do that - even once - says I have
>> a problem. But where to even start looking I don't have a clue. It
>> didn't even sputter. It was like someone threw the "Off" switch - but
>> the ignition switch was on of course. What might cause a blatant engine
>> stoppage that way? It didn't even sputter.
>>
>> If it happened once - it WILL happen again.
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> John
>>
>> --
>> John Rodgers
>> Clayartist and Moldmaker
>> 88'GL VW Bus Driver
>> Chelsea, AL
>> Http://www.moldhaus.com
>
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