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Date:         Tue, 19 Aug 1997 20:50:19 -0400 (EDT)
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         loudesign@mindspring.com
Subject:      OVERHEATED under fullmoon Nantahala (trip & breakdown reports-long).....

Greetings Volks..........

The short story of a fabulous weekend in Nantahala! Wished y'all could've been there...

Paul's 65 westy decided that it did not need one of its exhaust bolts, which snapped off the day before he was to leave........so he was a passenger (in a vanagon... yikes! His bus did not like that!) Got to gorge 10pm, scoped out a great campsite, and began partying....

David and James appeared the next eve after going to pick up some new safari windows. David's 67 westy was sporting new rubber all around! David & I went to get groceries in the 89 Vanagon, 13 miles to store... van overheated, pumping out coolant from the expansion tank, and feeling way hot-- but no idiot light on.... Mmmmmm.

Meanwhile, back at the campsite, Dave, James, and Paul went for a beautiful canoe ride under a brilliant clear night and full moon under the pines.

As soon as we arrived back at camp, David commenced setting up the chuck-wagon... Grilling up chicken marinated in Italian dressing, new potatoes, carmelized corn on the cobb, salsa, bean dip, sour cream, zucchini and yellow squash with fresh basil...)mmmmm

Dave Easterwood played his guitar down at the lake...

8am next morning-- woke up to David MArtin banging on the frying pan saying breakfast was ready, coffee was on.........! Pancakes, nut & grain rolls, scrambled eggs, sausage and coffee...Man, you gotta love it!

We had reservations for our raft early, and Dave E had to leave early to get back to Atlanta........packed up camp.....pulled out, 5 miles up road, my 89 vanagon overheated again...,mmmmmmmm

after a great 3 hour ride down Class II & III rapids, we pulled out and David M set up and created great chicken fajitas while I pulled out the Bentley, and played around with the vanagon trying to figure out what the deal was.

Radiator fan not coming on, but no fuses blown, except for one 15 amp one mounted horizontally under the vertical bank of fuses. Bentley diagram in no way matches the box I've got.. Any ideas??? Thought perhaps the first or second stage relays had gone out or the resistor, but mo multimeter to test that, and even if they were shot, nothing to do about that on a Sunday afternoon up there....

At this point Lucy and Marv arrived in a rental car, as they had brake problems on their 78 westy, so they came up in the rental and borrowed Dave's Muir book to read up on their trouble spot ....

Marv suggested the thermostat was my problem. We removed that...but it looked ok, not rusted, and the stroke was about what the Bentley was calling for. We needed the gasket to seal it, so Dave M dragged out a hacksaw (!) and cut out the guts of the thermostat, and put it back in. Didn't leak. David had put a bucket under to catch coolant to pour back in.......

Ran distinctively cooler, but now idiot light came on, and still no radiator fan........

Called George Jannini in Atlanta for a Vanagon owner's advice (was I lucky he was there! Thanks, George!), since none of the rest of us had George's vanagon experience.....George suggested that we had introduced air into the system when we opened it, and explained how to bleed system. He also mentioned that the idiot light was also an indicator from float valve of low coolant. The expansion tank looked 3/4 full and the overfill was just below the min. We topped it up with water. Light went back off, but still no radiator fan.

James and David got up underneath, removed spare to get at radiator fan... Apparently, when they hooked fan up to the horn, the fan started and then of course, stopped when the fuse blew. They removed that jumper, and we started it up, let it run for a while 10-15 minutes at 3000 rpm. Did not overheat, radiator fan came on, started and stopped as usual, and no red light. We decided not to bleed system then. Took off, got home ok, and am now wondering what I should trust and what not to trust...Especially since we are planning on going camping very soon!

Can any of you figure out what happened?

Here's David's explanation:

Louise: >> Only thing is, I'd really like to know what happened to the radiator fan business. What exactly did you do to it? Jumper it over to the hot lead on the horn? Then it started right away?

David: >Well, taking out the thermostat is not recommended for daily driving,but it's a standard fix for getting home. I guess they are prone to failure. I wasn't too worried about that. I was getting worried about the fan not coming on. James and I had talked about hooking the fan up so it stayed on all the time, just to get you home. I was looking around for a constant source, and decided to see if I could hook it up to the wire that goes to your horn. It stays on constantly as long as your ignition is on (you complete the circuit when you push your horn button, which provides the ground side of the circuit), the only thing is, the horn circuit is not heavy-duty enough to run the fan, so when I hooked up the jumper, the fan ran for just a second before the fuse for your horn blew (remember to replace it). I guess it's possible that it could have "unstuck" something, I don't really know. I did find a pair of grey and white wires on top of your fuse box, with complementary (male and female) connectors, not connected to each other, just hanging loose. I hooked them up, and then looked through your book to see if they went to the cooling system. I could not find anything. That's why I was worried about whether it would get you home. I still don't know what those wires are for...

Does anyone know what those grey and white wires are for?

Also: regarding the 15 amp horizontal fuse mentioned above: we jumpered that also, but no change. Do you know what that one is for? We knew that the fan was the only 30 amp one on the far left in station no. 1.....

More of the story:

Paul's parents had come up to canoe the river as well, but unbeknownst to us, did not make it back to Atlanta...their transmission blew up on a dinky back road in Blairsville, and we prolly drove past them 10 miles away on the Interstate .......

And to protect all parties, no names divulged: one bus backed fully into another bus......ouch! .......big crunchy.......

Full moon story to be sure.......not one vehicle came away unscathed, but we had a blast!

I would greatly appreciate any information/advice/next thing to do..../ that you Volks could give me regarding overheating problem.........I might also mention that I did notice a noticeable power loss when going up hills....like having to shift into third or lower.......with the splittie pushing the Vanagon practically up the hills. I know it's tune up time... but what caused what?

Thanks greatly in advance.

Louise 89 Westy 72 Westy


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