Date: Mon, 3 Sep 2012 18:58:31 +0000
Reply-To: Mike Finkbiner <mike_l_f@HOTMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Mike Finkbiner <mike_l_f@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: '87 Westy 2.1L, Running Rough, No Power, Dies at Idle (Long)
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I have had my '87 Westy for quite a few years now, and while I have had some adventures, I haven't had to be towed before. It's a standard 2WD, with a Boston Bob 2.1 liter engine and 4-speed manual.
Yesterday I was headed north, and about thirty miles out of Moscow it started to lose power. The engine wouldn't rev up, and started to surge and drop. Pressing the pedal all the way to the floor didn't do anything, and I couldn't rev up in lower gears. I pulled off and as soon as I got off the gas, it died and I had to re-start. I also seemed to smell gasoline.
I sat and thought for a couple of minutes. Earlier this summer a mechanic had gone through it while looking for a power steering leak. He replaced the fuel filter, and I ended up with a new power steering pump, PS filter, and a wrecking yard high pressure line.
Then I drove several hundred miles, to the Puget Sound area, back across the North Cascades highway and home with no problems except a noisy muffler, getting about 18mpg. I knew the catalytic converter had been rodded out, and when I ran into a sale on an OEM muffler and cat, I decided to replace them both. The shop which did the work had a lot of problems getting the oxygen sensor out of the dead cat, but it seemed to run fine around town.
So, after I pulled over I popped the engine lid and re-started. It seemed to be fine, but then after a couple of minutes started running rough. I gave it some gas and got a puff of black smoke out of the new tailpipe. I shut down, and disconnected the O2 sensor to run on the default mode. After that it seemed to run OK idling for a few minutes, and I could rev the engine with no problems. No more black smoke. I left the O2 sensor disconnected to see if that was the issue.
I got back on the road. For the first five minutes things were fine, but then - it started losing power and doing the surge/dip thing. I pushed on to the next little town, about five miles away, maxing out at about 45. When I pulled off the road it died again.
Towed home on a flatbed it ran fine driving it into the garage.
Terry K suggested the throttle position switch, so, this morning, on a cold engine, I dug into that. It had zero resistance at full throttle, full resistance through the mid-range, and also at idle. So, I took the throttle body off, cleaned it up and found that switch would close at idle if you jiggled things. I slightly bent the U on the end of the arm so it touched the cam more fully, and it now works fine, full resistance at idle and full throttle.
After re-assembly it idled nicely, at about 950, engine sounding smooth. I let it warm at idle and drove a few blocks. Ran fine, dropped to idle at stoplights, etc. The temp was still a bit below the LED and oil pressure above 40, so I took it on the highway. After three to four miles, the temp was up and I started up a bit of a hill. The engine started surging a bit, and felt down in power. Over the top of the hill it was definitely surging, so I pulled over and it wanted to die until I gave it some gas.
Headed back into town at 55, mostly pretty flat and it did the surge/drop thing a fair bit, but kept running. In town it wanted to die at stop lights. With the window down I could hear it running rough. When I got it back into my garage it would run, but rough, as if one or more cylinders were cutting out.
I let it cool down a bit, and drove a few blocks in town. It got worse, had no power, until I shut down and re-started, then ran rough back to the house.
Hmmm.
If you have any suggestions, please PMail me as well as the list. I read this in Digest mode.
Thanks!
- Mike
Mike Finkbiner
'87 Westy
Moscow, ID
mike_l_f@hotmail.com
Happiness is a moving target | 
