Date: Fri, 25 Nov 2011 21:49:58 -0500
Reply-To: John Meeks <vanagon@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: John Meeks <vanagon@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: vanagon syndrome strikes...advice?
In-Reply-To: <20111125081441.21355ui0ewzh2e3k@mail.planetmind.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
David,
Sounds like you've done all the right stuff to eliminate Vanagon syndrome
as the cause of your problems..
The first thing I thought after reading your diagnostic process was a
failing catalytic converter. Could cause those symptoms when the cat gets
hot.
You might also check your voltages at the ECU per Bentley manual.
John Meeks
'91 Vanagon MV
Northern Michigan
Vanagon Rescue Squad
www.vanagonauts.com
On Fri, Nov 25, 2011 at 10:14 AM, David Hardy <david@planetmind.net> wrote:
> Long story short...left Colorado for New Mexico in my new-to-me 1990 westy
> Sunday, when 2 hrs into the trip on I-25 I felt the dreaded single engine
> "buck" - one simple stumble, then another 20 minutes later, then another in
> 10 minutes...then every few minutes or so. By the time we got to Trinidad,
> she was stumbling pretty badly , but not bad enough to stall out. stumbling
> was *not* accompanied by tach needle drop, and seemed to do it when
> pressing accellerator after letting off. if I pushed the clutch in during
> an "episode", idle would be erratic, surging and sometimes dropping slowly
> to stall. hard to say whether turning ignition off/on made it go away, as
> condition was very intermittent.
>
> Next morning replaced fuel filter and put in some injector cleaner. One
> hour later down the highway, same deal.
>
> Got to Taos, read up and went to Radio Shack for a 22mf capacitor and a
> soldering iron. Also got a new cap and rotor and a set of spark plugs just
> in case. Installed the capacitor (electrolytic, didn't have a tantalum),
> and put in new cap and rotor. thought all was well...until about 2 hrs down
> the road from Taos to Albuquerque, syndrome returned but a little
> different...this time it was not stumbling, but hesitation - like a flat
> spot. pressing accelerator to floor seemed to make it "catch" and clear the
> condition, but it would return 2-5 min later.
>
> So I got back in and cleaned the resistive pad in the AFM w/alcohol, and
> loosened the screws that hold it's mounting plate and shifted it about
> 1/2mm to get the wiper on a new track. Ran perfect for about 30 minutes on
> highway, but then it struck again and this time it was pretty severe
> hesitation - gas pedal wouldn't rev engine, no power, it would just cough.
> if I let it go to idle it would stall. turning off ignition and on again
> cleared it totally - for about 3 minutes.
>
> So I opened things up again and moved the plate back. installed new plug
> wires for the heck of it. Also got a new O2 sensor, but couldn't get the
> old one off. haven't had a chance to test it yet...kind of a pain to have
> to drive an hour to see if something fixed it.
>
> So, anyone have any recommendations? Also, does anyone know where I can
> get a replacement AFM in Albuquerque?
>
> David
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> David Hardy
> Planetmind Internetworks
> Nedernet, Inc.
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
| 
