Date:         Fri, 8 May 1998 10:02:33 -0700
Reply-To:     Off White <off_white@OLYWA.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Off White <off_white@OLYWA.NET>
Subject:      84 Ignition Wierdness
Comments: To: Vanagon@VANAGON.COM
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

        My "new" 84 is doing several odd things, not necessarily related.  It
idles fine, but just a slight touch on the pedal causes the idle speed to
fluctuate, up and down.  Sounds like this might be the Surge thing recently
mentioned on the list, mostly a pain when trying to creep though a parking
lot or up my driveway.  Second item:  it sometimes "blinks" as in stops
running, then does again, elapsed time less than a second.  It feels like
an electrical thing, since it just stops, then goes, no backfire or change
in engine sound.  It will do it just idling or at speed.  The Third Item,
possibly related to the second, is that it completely stops running, as if
the ignition were turned off, until I turn the key off and then back on,
then it runs again.  I tried poking at the ignition switch, and got all
excited thinking I'd induced it to happen, then realized I was actually
just turning the key off. Hah.  Anyhow, we're about to boldly cast off to
New York and back in this car, so if I could chase away some of this
behavior (the Van's, not mine) it would be good.  Insights?

Thanks

Off White
Tenino, WA