Date:         Tue, 2 Jul 1996 10:50:00 -0400 
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         "bill (w.r.) crick" <crick@nortel.ca>
Subject:      Fuel Injection Help NEEDED! 

Volks: Well it finally happened. After rattling around for several
      years in town ,I finally trusted my van enough to go on a trip with it. 
     This activated the long trip sensor in the fuel injection system
    and my van fortuanatley died in the driveway right after loading it 
   to the gills. It could have died in East Bum F--k in the middle of
  serious blackfly country.
 
So now I need some help. 

Symptoms:

Van ran fine when I backed it out before loading. One hour later,
it started normally, although it seems to be reving fairly high (2000rpm?).
THis is faster than it normally revs when starting.
As soon as, or shortly after the ignition switch is released to the on postion,
the engine dies.

After the engine dies, if you leave the ignition switch ON:
The fuel pump runs for about 1 second and then stops.
There is +12V on the coil hot terminal.

If you hold the ignition switch in the START position, the engine continues
to run at fairly high revs (2000rpm?) for as long as I dared hold the starter
engaged at these RPMs (about 3 seconds), and then dies when released to the
ON position.

NOTE: All tests were done with a four year old asking every 2 seconds "Is it
fixed yet? Are we going yet? I think its the distibitter. Thats whats wrong!..."
So they may not be too accurate;-)

Questions:

Is there a Fuel Injection FAQ?

What is wrong?
These symptoms would be a bad igntion ballast resistor in any other car,
but my wiring diagram shows it doesn't have one? Is this true?

I also assume that becuase there is +12V at the coil, after it dies, that there
is not a problem related to ignition power, or fuel injection power, as my
diagram shows them connected together to the same ignition switch contact. 
However a mechanic at the dealer reluctantly admitted that 
"these sorts of thing are usually a bad ignition switch". Have I made a bad
assumption here? How do I test the ignition switch? What sort of things would I
look for?

Reading through the scetchy Haynes manual I have.
I notice that the "double relay" is involved in powering the injectors, and fuel
pump. What is its function, and normal operation? How could I test it?
can I jump it out, to see if the van works in this relay's normal run mode? how?

Also what does the throttle switch do? How does it affect the operation, 
described above.


Thanks for any help you can give. Respond soon if you can, as this is my daily
driver. I'm paranoid that the dealer will change things in order of
decreasing price, starting at the ECU, so I'd like to tackle this myself if I
can.

Thanks
Bill Crick 
76 Type II/IV/VII
Ottawa Canada
email ->   crick@bnr.ca

PS: Please don't send me posts telling me to rip it all out and convert to 
    carbs. My van is all stock, and I'd like to fix it and keep it stock
    if I can.
    If I find out it is going to cost a lot to fix, well then I may ask for 
    carb conversion info;-0 TNX BC