Date: Tue, 17 Dec 2013 22:04:56 -0500
Reply-To: David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Subject: Re: Vanagon turns over but won't start...ground problem?
In-Reply-To: <COL130-W9147F04DA15283F855850FAEDA0@phx.gbl>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
Hello Bill,
At 09:20 PM 12/17/2013, william landsman wrote:
>1. The horn will not work sometimes.
Engine doesn't care. Likely bad connections at horn or maybe
steering wheel contacts worn out.
>2. The shifter console will not light up when first started, but it
>i wiggle the shifter it usual lights up.
Engine doesn't care. Bad connection or one of the lights is burnt
out and welding together when you wiggle things (there are two lights
in there, but they're in series, so they both work or neither does.
>3. When the guy check the battery he put the alligator clip on the
>positive terminal and it sparked pretty good, it surprised him, he
>said that was very odd.
He accidentally grounded the other end (charger or load resistor)
first so it started working when he touched the positive. I suspect
he knew that.
>4. I have noticed that the alternator, that i installed this last
>summer has been making more of a whirring sound than normal.
Engine doesn't care as such. But it sounds like a bearing is going
and you'd really rather not have that seize up on the road.
>5. The passenger side front yellow light will not turn on when
>lights turned on all the time, if it is not on I tap it and it turns on.
Engine doesn't care. Open it up and you'll probably find the socket
is all crudded up or the bulb is burnt out or the connections are flaky.
>Are there a list of grounds to check on the van. I do have a Bentley
>and some knowledge of repairing vehicles, but one i look at wire
>diagrams I do get a bit confused.
There are a few pages at the beginning of the electrical section that
tell you how to navigate the diagrams. They will richly reward your
study. Aside from the occasional error the drawings are actually
pretty good, I'd be proud to say that I'd drawn most of them. Your
fuse/relay panel is stretched across the top of the pages, and all
the grounds are on the bottom. There's a set of "current track"
numbers across the bottom that lets them and you locate where things
are on the diagram, including wires ending in a callout number in a
little bubble. That tells you to go to the indicated track and
you'll find a corresponding callout referring back to where you came
from. But the intro section tells you about all those conventions,
and what the symbols mean.
Their weakest point is physical locations of connectors and
such. The locations given are somewhat vague, and sometimes they'll
tell you a connector is back in the wiring box in the engine room
when it's really under the dash, or some such. One thing that can be
very helpful, somewhere around 97.68 or thereabouts is a big layout
of the back of the fuse/relay panel with all the connector pins labelled.
You may find some help from
http://www.vanagonwiki.net/wiki/Wiring_diagram_improvement (which is
not actually about improving them but rather figuring out what they're saying).
Aside from that, you need fuel, air, and fire to make it
run. So...are you lacking fuel or fire?
Yrs,
d
