Date: Wed, 10 Aug 2011 06:08:44 -0400
Reply-To: Frank Condelli <ralanen@AOL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Frank Condelli <ralanen@AOL.COM>
Subject: Go Westy tune up kit
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
OK, here's a good one for you all. I have a customer this week from Quebec City travelling across Canada and on his way to South America with a pristine '87 Westy he bought from the original owner not long ago. He's very a very astute mechanic and does most of his own work but stopped by here for some service that he could not tackle or did not know how and for advice. So in the process of looking over his van's engine I see a new distributor cap and wires but the ends of the wires going into the cap look strange. I pull one off to have a closer look and whoa, it's the wrong wire end for the cap he has. "Where did you get the cap and wires ?" "From Go Westy, I ordered their tune up kit" "Well, I say, it's wrong ! So, here's the deal if you all don't already know. There are two different style caps available that fit on the water boxer engine's distributors. The early caps as were fitted to the 1.9 engines and the later cap fitted on the 2.1 engines. These caps are interchangeable. The early cap has the wire connection as a plug in as all older style distributor caps and wire set have had for years. The new style has a positive pin and socket connection and is a much better connection. However, either style works well on these engines. So what Go Westy sent this fellow was a new style cap with the older style wire set. This will not work properly as the wire end does not make positive connection with the pin and therefor there is arcing inside that connection. Why Go Westy is supplying this set-up is is beyond me and that's why I'm writing this. I have see this mistake coming from local parts suppliers who certainly don't know the story BUT Go Westy is supposed to KNOW the story ! Incredible. Anyways, I changed his cap for one of the older styles as this was the cheaper way since he had new wires. He's keeping the newer style for the next time he needs new wires and will get the matching wire set then. AND, I just realized I forgot to charge him for the cap on his bill ! Happy trails to Denis on his big trip !
Cheers,
Frank Condelli
Almonte, Ontario, Canada
'87 Westy & Lionel Trains (Collection for sale)
Frank Condelli & Associates - Vanagon/Vanagon Westfalia Service in the Ottawa Valley
Vanagon Stainless Steel Exhaust Systems
BusFusion a VW Camper camping event, Almonte, ON, June 09 ~ 12, 2011
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