Date:         Fri, 20 May 94 14:15:22 CDT
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Joel Walker <JWALKER@ua1vm.ua.edu>
Subject:      Re: Idle stabilizer testing

>I've been checking out the idle stabilizer because of no cold start
>high idle.  At lunch today I quickly tested the valve using the
>procedure described in the Bentley book.  .  I hear no

uhhhhhh ... the thing i always called an 'idle stabilizer' is a little black
box over behind the right rear tailight (along with a bunch of relays). that
thing that is supposed to buzz and humm is, i think, an idle-something-else-
valve.

>buzzing and can feel no vibration from the valve.  The electrical
>continuity of the valve is OK, but I can't find the control unit.

the control unit is (Surprise!) under the rear seat, on the driver's side ...
it's behind a metal shield (so your junk doesn't mash it). now, that's the
MAIN control unit.

>The wiring harness seems to go through the fire wall on the left side
>to somewhere forward, NOT to the front of the right rear tail light
>area as Bentley says.  I've got the air intake duct there.

yeah, but take off the tail light anyway, and look around in there with a
flashlight. in my 1986 model there was (and is, on my 88 model) a little
plugboard in there, with some little black modules plugged into it. hard as
hell to unplug them, too.

>So, should I really be able to hear and feel the unit operate?  Anyone
>know where the idle stabilizer control unit is mounted?  In my case
>this look like the defective part, is this common?

well, i never did get mine to do what i thought the book was saying. so i
moved on to other things. finally just started replacing parts ... and when
i replaced the coolant temp sensor (is he gonna start THAT again!?), the idle
got amazingly better. so at that point, i stopped replacing parts. :)

joel