Date: Mon, 8 Jul 1996 15:18:39 MST
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: "Jacob Shaun Dustin" <DUSTINO@caedm.et.byu.edu>
Subject: Re: Karma shmarma. '71 bus Backfiring & stranded
I think I've swallowed a valve. Let me explain.
My bus is on my bad list right now.
Last sunday I pulled over to help a guy with a '70 camper who was
broken down on the side of I-15 just outside of Brigham City, UT. I
couldn't help him much (I wasn't carrying a spare engine, and his was
thoroughly seized), but I offered him a ride into town. My bus
wouldn't start. Karma Shmarma. After a tow to get it off the
freeway, several hours of troubleshooting, a new distributor, a new
fuel pump, and a lot of frustration, I traced the problem to an
intermittent short in my backup light circuit that was sucking all my
power from the coil. It would only show up when I used the starter.
manualy turning the engine produced a spark, so it was a bugger to
find. I think the vibration from the starter was causing it
to short under the car somewhere. Anyhow, I pulled the wire
off the coil and problem #1 dissappeared. I was on my way home.
Two miles down the road, there was a horrendous bang. I killed the
engine, and pulled over, praying that I wasn't on fire. My sister,
who was following me in her 225,000 mile Subaru (why couldn't VW
build a watercooled boxer like that???) said she saw flames, big
flames, shoot out
the tailpipes. I'm thinking one of my new ( < 5000miles) GEX heads
swallowed a valve, but I'm hoping someone on the list can offer a
more optimistic appraisal.
I can't afford to be dealing with this sort of thing right now. If
it is a valve, I'll be selling the whole thing for parts, and buying
somthing I can depend on. I drive slow, change my oil every thousand
miles, run my valves at .006, don't lug the engine, and love the idea
of keeping my old bus on the road, but this is the wrong time for
this to happen. Any suggestions on a probable cause. If I could
just go out and look at it, I would be able to tell if it was a valve
for sure, but the bus is in Ogden, and I'm 100 miles south in Provo.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
--Shaun Dustin
--Shaun
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