Date:         Wed, 26 Apr 95 12:22:09 CDT
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Joel Walker <JWALKER@ua1vm.ua.edu>
Subject:      Re: Heads leak...wires melt?

On Wed, 26 Apr 95 12:06:27 CDT Steve Reilly said:
>following: Two days (and maybe 50 miles) after having the heads
>redone on my 84, the wiring harness did a complete meltdown! This is
>now only an academic issue, as it happened about 3 years ago, its
>long since been paid for, and I no longer own the van, but the
>situation still nags me a bit.
>VW independent garages. The consensus was, gee, it seems pretty
>suspicious, they probably did something to cause the meltdown, but
>it will be hard to prove, since the head work shouldn't involve
>messing with the wiring, other than unplugging and replugging, and
>the van did run correctly when they were done.
>So, my question (at long last) to the collective expertise of this
>fantastic list is, was it a coincidence, or did I get $crewed? If
>the latter, what could those guys possibly have done when replacing
>the heads to cause the meltdown?

i can tell you EXACTLY what caused it. and ALL of you vanagons need to
check this any time you take the air filter box out.

cause i did it to myself on my 88 bus. :(    $1200 for junkyard wiring
harness, brain, etc. the whole rear fuel injection control system.

if the fuel injector power wires are NOT safety-tied out of the way, when
the air filter box is placed back into the car, those power wires can be
pinched between the plastic box and that little metal shelf that the box
sits on (the shelf with the two little round holes).

after a few days of vibrating and such, the insulation is worn off the
wires and they short the power relays (over on the left side of the engine)
to the chassis. result? rather high amperage melting ALL the fuel injector
wiring in the engine compartment.

not fun. and nobody in town would touch it. not even the dealer. so i had
to have it towed 60 miles to a porsche mechanic who took pity on me. but
even then, i had to round up the replacement parts at a junk yard. they came
from a rollover 1987 Wolfsburg. so now i have an 85-87-88 bus. :)

seriously, ALL vanagons: when you put the air filter box back, either get
some little cable ties and get those injector wires out of the way ... tie
them (with some slack, so the engine can wiggle back and forth) under the
shelf ... or make damn sure you didn't pinch them.

it's a careless mistake, but it happens. :(
joel
ol' sadder but wiser