Date: Sat, 22 Apr 2023 16:43:42 -0600
Reply-To: OlRivrRat <OlRivrRat@COMCAST.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: OlRivrRat <OlRivrRat@COMCAST.NET>
Subject: Re: Drivability fix , I think
In-Reply-To: <A4FFA904-91E5-4166-B9DA-12317CE0722E@icloud.com>
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I would agree that the SeatBelt Bolt should be a quite adequate Body Ground,,,
But I’m kind prone to overkill anymore when it comes to Vanagon Grounds especially
when the ECU is involved & so I would run an additional ground to Eng & I also add a
ground directly from the O2Snsr to Eng’ &/or body ~
ORR~DeanB
Also AB, Your EMs to GerryV' are not showing up in My Mac Mail ~
> On 22 Apr , 2023, at 2:47 PM, Alistair Bell <ragnarhairybreeks@icloud.com> wrote:
>
> Been just testing tgat ground Probing with meter and tugging wire. Seems solid.
>
> I think the seat belt bolt close by would be adequate. It’s a good body ground .
>
> But I’m dithering….
>
>> On Apr 22, 2023, at 1:21 PM, OlRivrRat <OlRivrRat@comcast.net> wrote:
>>
>> IMHO it might very well be a good idea to run a ground wire all the way
>>
>> from the ECU to Eng Block & Eng Bay Grounds just to be absolutely sure that
>>
>> the ECU has a Great Circuit to essential data ~
>>
>> ORR ~ DeanB
>>
>>
>>> On 22 Apr , 2023, at 1:46 PM, Dan N <dn92610@GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>>>
>>> Quite long ago, I came across a suggestion to add a ground wire from the
>>> ECU box to the body (under the bench, right side). I didn't have any
>>> problem but I did that anyway... so all my vans have that ground wire.
>>> You may want to try that.
>>>
>>>> On Sat, Apr 22, 2023 at 12:38 PM Alistair Bell <ragnarhairybreeks@icloud.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> It’s a bit of a long story so I’ll trim out a lot of what I did…. Take it
>>>> as read that I did redo grounds, terminals, check basics, did Bentley.
>>>> Yadda yadda, you know.
>>>>
>>>> And a perhaps related issue that I fixed a few years ago… that was an
>>>> annoying stumble and jerking, have to floor then pedal to get going… that
>>>> only occurred on summer trips on logging roads. Never in town, and didn’t
>>>> happen every trip.
>>>>
>>>> Did all the stuff you can imagine to track that down. Wasn’t successful.
>>>> But it went away after I did two things. Did the capacitor fix in AFM ( was
>>>> not classic vanagon syndrome but I thought why not) and I reflowed a solder
>>>> joint on one of the power transistors in the ecu. Did that after van died ,
>>>> dead, one day. After a fair bit of work I found a bad joint in ecu.
>>>>
>>>> That was 4 years ago, the ecu fix.
>>>>
>>>> This last winter I started to have occasional bucking again. This time
>>>> around town. Not quite the same as before. But was getting worse. Only
>>>> happened after 15 min driving. Also the van felt sluggish all the time.
>>>> Sluggish pick up from stop. Felt lacking in power at low rpm.
>>>>
>>>> Got worse and a week or so ago got so bad I had to pull over. Van idled
>>>> high, about 1500 , tach bouncing at 3500!
>>>>
>>>> Something really wrong. Let the van sit for 20 minutes and I could make it
>>>> home. Only bucking at the end of that short drive .
>>>>
>>>> For some reason I suspected the ecu again. So I pulled and looked. I’m no
>>>> expert, but I found what looked like an iffy solder point on the board.
>>>> Reflowed that one, and some others that probably good but thought why not.
>>>>
>>>> Ecu back in and van started. Test drive for 30 min and all good.
>>>> Drivability great. Nice throttle tip in, smooth, no sluggish start, no
>>>> bucking.
>>>>
>>>> Happy guy.
>>>>
>>>> Next morning , start and back up in drive to turn, dies. Cranks but no
>>>> start. Jeeze…..
>>>>
>>>> Catches for a sec, dies.
>>>>
>>>> Crank crank
>>>>
>>>> Finally I reseat the ecu connection and it starts. Idles high agajn and
>>>> Tach bounces. I swap in spare coil, same .
>>>>
>>>> I fiddle with ground wire to ecu, the ecu harness, the connector. Starts,
>>>> runs great.
>>>>
>>>> All this last week it’s run sweetly. Really nice. I mean like a new van.
>>>>
>>>> So what’s the deal? I did look carefully at the ecu board where the main
>>>> connection comes in. I couldn’t see any issue. My ecu ground wire might be
>>>> the issue. On my van it disappears behind the rear bench side wall and I
>>>> can’t get at it without pulling the bench. This weekend I will look at the
>>>> harness side of the connection and see if I see anything. Also I’ll sister
>>>> a new ground.
>>>>
>>>> Obviously I’m not confident about my “ fix “ so far. But I tell ya, the
>>>> van is running better than I can remember it running. You know that jerking
>>>> sometimes at low speed , trailing throttle? Ad if you have the tps mis
>>>> adjusted? I was also getting that on occasion before the fix. Believe me ,
>>>> I have done lots to try and have my tps working well. Rebuilt throttle
>>>> body, it’s in great shape, switch good etc. been a bug bear of mine that it
>>>> seemed to not be working at times. I now think it’s was always fine, it was
>>>> the ecu.
>>>>
>>>> I know there will be comments about this, did you check this or that etc.
>>>> but please believe me I’ve gone thru a lot of time and part swapping to no
>>>> avail.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Ab
>>>>
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