Date:         Thu, 05 Jan 95 17:29:58 -0500
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         jds@media.mit.edu
Subject:      HELP! FI Fuel Supply(?) Problems with 75 Westy in Phoenix


  I'm pretty much stranded in Phoenix due to this little
problem.  The current situation is that when I cruise down
the highway all is fine, but when I put a bit of a load on
the motor it begins to crap out.  I have to ease back on
the peddle to keep the engine running.  Generally at the
top of a hill i'm doing between 25-35.  This I can almost
deal with.  The problem arises when I exit the highway.
When I get to the stop, the engine dies.  If I wait from
10 minutes to 2 hours I can start it again.  This is not
good.  I can crank all I like but  it doesn't help.

  The problems started a few weeks ago when I first fueled
up in Phoenix.  They use that nice oxygenated gas with great
amounts of either alcohol or ethers in it.  The next day I
had some serious loss of power sometimes and others it would
be not soo bad.  I replaced the fuel filter and it acted
better but within 5 miles the fuel pump seized up.  Fortunately
I was in the middle of nowhere...  Things seemed ok, but not
great.  Still the lack of power problem.

  I drove up north to Flagstaff this weekend (around 7 or 8000
foot gain in elevation) and the drive up was miserable with the
car stalled every time I got off the highway, even on the way
back down.  As long as I kept driving it would keep going.
Only if I let the engine rev too low would it die.

  I took the beast to a local shop and they determined it
was bad points.  It was plausible, so all fixed I headed
out to continue my journey (hiking in Sedona or ??).  I got
about 5 or so miles down the highway and the same thing
happened, loss of power and it stalled when I pulled off 
the highway.  I'm not scoring any brownie points with other
drivers trying to get through the intersection at this
point.  10 minutes later I was able to get it started and
stuck to the side streets where it runs fine.

  The shop says it has good pressure and all seems well.
They don't know what to try next.  Neither do I.  The 
new fuel pump makes a good bit of whizzing noise but
so did the old one..

  Any ideas?  Please respond to me directly; I receive
the mailing list digested.  I really like Phoenix, but
I've been here tooo long.

 thanks,

 -- John