Date:         Mon, 12 Sep 1994 17:09:03 PDT
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         "T. HOEKMAN" <THOEKMAN@hsd.uvic.ca>
Subject:      Heater activity in 82 Vanagon diesel

I too have a (former) 82 vanagon diesel now with an 86 Jetta GLI 
gasburner in place. It also exhibits the inappropriate heat syndrome 
and in my case the problem is a kink in the the control cable.  The 
regulator valve which is manipulated by the control lever via wire in 
housing cable is just above edge of the dashboard on the right hand 
side of the heater core console.  If you reach up under and find the 
lever with wire-end hooked to it and rotate it additionally clockwise 
it may now go to full stop.  However if there is a real kink in the 
wire at the control lever end, you may have to remove the radio and 
straighten out the kink, or in a worst case scenario replace the 
cable completely.   There are a couple screws that attach the plastic 
cover to the dashboard, when removed the whole cover pulls off 
revealing heater core hoses and valve.  Once you have straightened a 
bent control wire, a careful steady hand is required when TURNING THE 
HEAT OFF, otherwise you will kink it again. 

Incidentally I am now resident in Victoria, B.C. having made the trek
across the contintent from St. John's, Newfoundland in my Westy. My
trip was pleasant with some interludes with family and colleagues
along the way about 15 days and 5300 miles in transit.  No major
difficulties with my converted diesel, it ran like a fine watch the
whole trip, however I had to replace the exhaust pipe enroute (a
victim of Nfld. salt and corrosion).  I reached Boston and detected
the crack and leakage, obtained a replacement pipe, but because I
had to get a fitting welded to it for the oxygen sensor, and was due
in Montreal at McGill the next day, decided to just have it patched,
and do the full job when I got to my parents place in NW Iowa(In
hindsight, a bad decision!)  Well I made it to Montreal the exhaust
getting progessively noisier as I drove, but the next evening on my
way out heading west toward Toronto, suddenly it went from a low
level buzz to a roar.  When I pulled off the highway into a gas
station in a suburb of Montreal to evaluate, the entire pipe from
manifold flange to flex pipe half-way to the muffler had dropped off
and was hanging by the now frayed wires to the oxy sensor at this
point with the engine still running smoke started to pour out so I
killed the engine and popped the engine lid.  The oxy sensor in the
CIS-E system has a heater circuit and the frayed power wires to the
heater element had shorted out cooking the insulation, so I
disconnected the sensor and removed the broken pipe +sensor, fired
her up and moved to the empty parking lot across the street, but
smoke emission began enroute and the engine died as I completed the
transit.  Turns out the fried power leads had melted the insulation
and fused above the connector and I now spent the next hour picking
apart the surrounding wiring harness and reconstructing insulation
with electrical tape when all this was done, I said a small prayer
to the god of VWs that my computer had been spared, and fired her
up.  Ran loud but smooth.  I then set about removing the remainder
of the flange, and the other end of the exhaust pipe, managing to
conserve 2 of the 4 studs and then tried to put the pipe in place. 
I knew from all the discussion on the list that the fuel injection
would run albeit less efficiently without the oxy sensor.  My new
pipe was just a tad too long, and would you believe, I didn't have a
hacksaw in my toolbox, so I walked over to the gas-bar across the
street, to see if there was a station with a service bay that might
be open (It was now after 10PM) no luck, but then they remembered
there was a production welding shop that ran all night about two
block away.  I walk into this place with my pipe in hand, and there's 
nobody in sight, but I wait and make noises and in few minutes the 
workers come back from coffee break, and I get queried in French what 
I want, when I explain my French is non-existent we carry on in 
intellible but broken english to find out that the boss has said NO 
JOBS FROM THE STREET.  I had already seen that they had production 
grade electric hacksaw, and looked really disappointed and explained 
that I could drive my car till the next day if I didn't get 1/2" 
trimmed off the pipe and started to walk away.  Fortunately he 
relented and I passed him a few Yankee dollars and walked back to put 
my exhaust pipe in place.  By 11:30 I was done, cleaned up an on the 
road for a hour or two until I found proper place to pull off and 
catch some Zs.   I couldn't really tell any difference in my gas 
mileage with or without the oxy sensor.  I was pulling a small camper 
trailer with lots of stuff for my kids and for my housekeeping on my 
sabbatical (Over 1000 lbs)  running at or just over posted speed 
limits, and mileage varied from a low of about 17 mpg to a high of 
20.  The only correllation seems to be speed.  Mileage went low on 
sections where I was cruising between 65 + 75 mph, and picked up 
notably when I dropped to 55-60 mph.

Incidentally, somebody remind me how to remove myself from the
mailing list back in Newfoundland, and re-up from here in Victoria
in digest mode, so I don't have to read the list by Telneting in to
my account back East.    I still can't believe how many VW vans
there are here, walking around the 3 or 4 blocks adjacent to where
I'm living I can sight 8 vanagons, 5 older vans, and 4 Eurovans.
I don't think VW has any Eurovans left for the USA, they're all here 
in Victoria ;)

Cheers,

Ted Hoekman
School of Health Informatin Science     Faculty of Medicine
U. Victoria                             Memorial Univ. Newfoundland
Victoria, B.C.                          St. John's, NF



                Ted