Date:         Thu, 4 Dec 1997 01:49:47 EST
Reply-To:     JLDilworth <JLDilworth@AOL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon mailing list <Vanagon@Gerry.SDSC.EDU>
From:         JLDilworth <JLDilworth@AOL.COM>
Organization: AOL (http://www.aol.com)
Subject:      New Syncro! - some questions
Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII

This is my first posting to the list, so please forgive me if I don't get it
quite right.

I just sold my '83 water-cooled Westy (172K), and bought an '86 syncro Westy
(73K).  We like to camp in out of the way places, and the 4WD will be
wonderful. But I have a few questions about the new camper.

We took it on its first trip over Thanksgiving, and it definitely has a little
less pep (even though the engine is bigger) and uses more gas than the old
van. The 83 had a rebuilt engine with 75K miles on it, and ran very strong.
The syncro is ok, but bogs down a bit sooner on hills, and seems to generally
need a heavier foot on the gas pedal.  The old one got 20-21 mpg cruising at
65-70, while the syncro seems to be more in the 16-17 mpg range  (we did have
a lot of headwinds on the trip, so it might turn out to be a little better).
Is this the result of some overhead incurred by the 4WD system, or is my
engine not running as efficiently as it should?

The next question has to do with oil consumption, but I'm going to post a
separate message about that one, and just stick to syncro questions here.

I don't have the syncro-specific owners manual, so the rest of this is about
some of that stuff.  On my van the knob on the dashboard is normally out --
you push it in to engage the lock.  This seems backwards.  Is it hooked up
wrong, or is that the way they're supposed to be?  Also, is the lock only to
be engaged/disengaged only when the vehicle is stopped, or can you do it on
the run?   It sometimes seems to take a long time (like maybe 5 secs) for the
diff lock to disengage after pulling out the knob -- not always, just
sometimes.  Is that normal, or should I be looking for a vacuum leak or
something like that?

About the 3 green indicator lights above the knob: the right one is for the
rear lock, and it works.  The left one I'm guessing is for a front lock that I
don't have, so it should never come on.  But what about the center one?  Is it
to show when the front wheels are getting power?  Is the fact that it never
seems to come on just an indication that it's burned out or something?  (I
know the front drive works.  It's amazing what this thing will do!).

Is there anything else in the syncro manual that I should know about?

Many thanks in advance for your help with any of these questions.

-John