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Date:         Thu, 4 Jun 1998 16:18:47 -0700
Reply-To:     ghamburg <ghamburg@VOM.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         ghamburg <ghamburg@VOM.COM>
Subject:      Re: rich running van SOLVED! thanks Gerry S.
Comments: To: William Dummitt <williamd@COMPUSERVE.COM>, Vanagon@VANAGON.COM
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

That was my problem with my 84 westy after the wire was fixed by Sonoma Volks my MPG increased from 10 MPG to about 25 MPG's -----Original Message----- From: William Dummitt <williamd@COMPUSERVE.COM> To: Vanagon@VANAGON.COM <Vanagon@VANAGON.COM> Date: Wednesday, June 03, 1998 6:35 PM Subject: rich running van SOLVED! thanks Gerry S.

After many, many hours of fruitless troubleshooting, parts swapping, cursing, poking voltmeters into circuits, etc. I finally found the reason why my 87 syncro would run rich no matter what I did or what I replaced. Gerald Skerblitz, our former listmaster, pointed out that the oxygen sensor wire was coaxial in nature- it is a layer of green plastic insulation over a grounded wire sheath, over another green insulation layer, with the wire that carries the small (0-0.9v) oxygen sensor current in the center. Some long-ago mechanic had replaced the spade connector by simply crimping a new one on, and had both the grounded sheath and the center wire under the connector, effectively grounding out the oxygen sensor circuit, regardless of whether the sensor was connected or not. While I have directed many an expletive at this unknown person, that actually was an easy mistake to make-it takes a careful examination to discern that this particular wire is different than most of the others in the system. This apparently makes the ecu dump in more and more fuel, causing the symptoms I described in my previous post. Simply cutting back the grounded sheath half an inch and crimping a new connector to the central wire solved the problem- the van immediatly started running great, in spite of low compression in a couple of cylinders. Small things are so important with these systems! Special thanks to Gerry and to the many other people who pointed out a whole slew of facts I didn't know about the digifant fi.

Bill www.geocities.com/yosemite/gorge/1706


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