Date: Wed, 14 Dec 2011 20:34:25 -0500
Reply-To: Pete O <pnoceanwesty@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Pete O <pnoceanwesty@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: If You Have A Flat Spot in Acceleration...
In-Reply-To: <CAH32RNbgDzo8XTacfs7y8ouq9G5s+fJHZH7nORP3HU9+aZxHkw@mail.gmail.com>
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Man, I love a good Vanagon success story! Nice work on that AFM.
Pete
'79 Westy "Aardvark"
'87 Westy "JoesVan"
WWW.Busesbythebeach.org <http://WWW.Busesbythebeach.com>
On Wed, Dec 14, 2011 at 17:57, Loren Busch <starwagen@gmail.com> wrote:
> I've seen a number of posts over time about flat spots in acceleration with
> a stock WBX so I'm posting this in the hope it will help someone. I've
> lived with a flat spot/no acceleration from a stop, especially if even a
> little bit uphill (needs more than minimal power to get moving) for a
> couple of years now. Fine when cold but after a few minutes of running and
> warm you step on the gas from a stop and it holds a committee meeting
> before finally picking up when the engine gets to about 2,000 rpm. BTW,
> this is with an automatic. If this were a stick I'd expect to kill the
> engine. Two of the best Vanagon mechanics I know of have both been stumped
> by this one after working on the rig and trying to figure it out. Some
> time back someone on one of the lists responded to a post about this
> problem and said that they had the same problem and it went away when they
> put in a new AFM. Well, I've been sitting on a virtually new (less than
> 1,000 miles on it) AFM for a couple of years, picked it up when Vanagon
> Syndrome cropped up but hadn't put the new AFM in because the 'pigtail'
> fixed the Syndrome and was running fine except for the problem described.
> Dumb move on my part, should have put the new AFM in two years ago.
> Because it was installed yesterday and after a little tweaking of mixture,
> idle and timing (to get them to spec) my Westy is running perfect!! No
> hesitation, no flat spots! And oh yeah, just ran it through emissions
> testing today, perfect. The van may actually be running better than it has
> since I got it just short of 10 years ago. Lesson learned was stated by
> someone I told about this last night: It's amazing that a 20+ year old AFM
> can still appear to be doing it's job right and the van is running almost
> perfect but that AFM is in fact bad or going bad.
> BTW, don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting anyone with running problems
> run out and spend $500 for a new AFM. That's not going to be a cure-all
> for running problems, lots of other things to eliminate first. In my case,
> if I had had my Westy in a shop somewhere and they said "We've tried
> everything with not help, our guess is that you need to spend another $500
> for a new AFM" I'd have told them to button it up and headed for another
> shop.
>
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