Date:         Mon, 2 Sep 1996 14:13:36 +0000
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         LARRY STICHWEH <LASTIC@postoffice.worldnet.att.net>
Subject:      Re: Vanagon Cuts Out

At 01:24 PM 9/2/96 +0000, you wrote:
>Hello Everyone,
>
>
>I have a 1986 Vanagon GL with AC and automatic trans and a 2.1iter motor.
>New motor with 10,000 miles on it.  
>
>This Vanagon has a problem where after about 20 min or so of 60 to 65 mph
>driving it will cut out for about 1/2 sec then keep on going with no trouble
>for a while (maybe a minute maybe 10 min.)  and then the motor will cut out
>again. 
>...................


I may have a possible cause of your problem.  I experienced the same thing
on an 85 Vanagon at about 80k miles on the original engine.  The problem
became much more serious when the engine would quit for several minutes.
The mechanics had a had time reproducing the problem in the shop and never
did fix it.  

I eventually pulled the distributor and disassembled the unit.  I found a
very sticky varnish between the rotor shaft and the disk that contains the
magnetic pickup.  This disk has a close clearance to the shaft and the
vacuum advance and spring return mechanism that provides the spark advance.
What was happening was the rotating shaft would grab the disk via the sticky
varnish causing the timing to get far enough out to stop the engine.  The
spring could not overcome this quickly.  Eventually with the engine stopped
the varnish would let go and the spring would return it to normal position.
The engine would now run until this would repeat,  sometimes in a few
minutes, sometimes an hour or more.

The fix was to remove the disk, (a very small roll pin must be taken out to
accomplish this) and clean the shaft and collar.  Use a silicon grease that
will not form varnish when reassembling.  I suspect this is a common problem
with this distributor design.  Your new engine may not have a new
distributor and the 10K mileage may not reflect its service.

Larry