After filling the gas tank at a different than usual gas station last Thursday I noticed on the ensuing trip that the 1981 Vanagon (49 states motor) was pinging when accelerating hard, at high revs, or under load. I put it down to bad gas, but today I checked out the motor during a lull in the monsoon season here in NE. I found the timing advancing off the scale! The timing measured 7 degrees BTDC at 820rpm idle, but rose to 40 degrees BTDC at 2,000rpm, and was 50+degrees BTDC at 3,000rpm. Ouch! Gulp! My measurements: total adv vacuum cent + vac disconnected specs* 820rpm 7deg BTDC 7deg BTDC 7.5deg BTDC @ 850rpm 2000rpm 38deg BTDC 26deg BTDC 9-14deg BTDC @ 1600rpm 3000rpm >50deg BTDC 38deg BTDC 21-25deg BTDC @ 3400rpm *as published on Old Volks Home website - Thanks! What I read into the above is that my vacuum advance is functioning okay, but the distributor's centrifugal advance curve is way out of whack, advancing too far/fast. So what is the cause and the solution? Replace weak centrifugal advance springs/weights/mechanism? Replace/rebuild distributor? Or??? By the way, many thanks to the list. If I had not been monitoring recent discussions here, I might not thought to check up on this. Thanks, Tony Anthony L. Mourkas Hampden, Maine, USA 1981 Vanagon Westfalia |
Please note - During the past 17 years of operation, several gigabytes of
Vanagon mail messages have been archived. Searching the entire collection
will take up to five minutes to complete. Please be patient!
Return to the archives @ gerry.vanagon.com
The vanagon mailing list archives are copyright (c) 1994-2011, and may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the list administrators. Posting messages to this mailing list grants a license to the mailing list administrators to reproduce the message in a compilation, either printed or electronic. All compilations will be not-for-profit, with any excess proceeds going to the Vanagon mailing list.
Any profits from list compilations go exclusively towards the management and operation of the Vanagon mailing list and vanagon mailing list web site.