Date:         Fri, 6 May 2011 21:43:54 +0000
Reply-To:     J Stewart <fonman4277@COMCAST.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         J Stewart <fonman4277@COMCAST.NET>
Subject:      What Do I Put In The Sugject Line?
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8

Wasn't sure what to call this, "Two Days Of Pure Hell" or "Two steps Forward, One Step Back" or "Mechanics-You Deserve Your Money". Here's the situation: my 1985 Weekender, starts and runs OK, but on cold start up usually stalls a couple of times when put in gear (automatic). Engine "sounds" like it idles smoothly, but engine also shakes quite a bit too at idle. So, the plan was, starting yesterday at 8:00am, I stripped the engine down to basically the long block. I had a new throttle body gasket, new manifold boots, new intake manifold gaskets, and sections of new vacuum lines. I tore it all apart. Now I could have stopped after about 1/2 hour, when I found a vacuum line rotted through and crumbling. That was no doubt the rough idle and stalling. Armed with a couple of cans of carb/throttle body cleaner, the TB now shines like the day it left Germany. Everything got cleaned and repainted. Oh, I also cleaned up and redid the grounds on the left head. Interesting thing was that in the intake on #4 I found a white pebble lodged in the intake port! Today I set about putting it all back together. The intake manifolds are a real pain to get back in place with new boots. My hands hurt and I was getting tired early, but it was on my schedule to get it done today, so I kept at it. I finished around 1:00pm. The reward: the engine fired right up and idled smooth as silk. Dropped it into gear and no stall. Took it out for a test drive and it runs fantastic! The ONLY thing I can't figure out is that somehow I have introduced the hunting idle when it warms up. The idle was a bit high when I first fired it up, but I backed it down a bit. All in all, exhausting but worth it. My hands are sore and cut up, but at least since I exercise regularly my back and legs aren't killing me. And I shouldn't have to do this again for long, long time. Jeff 



Jeff Stewart