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Date:         Thu, 25 Jun 1998 20:57:22 -0400
Reply-To:     David Ohlemacher <Dave@OHLEMACHER.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         David Ohlemacher <Dave@OHLEMACHER.COM>
Subject:      Yes, we are going(long) was Last chance/need assistance
Comments: To: "vanagon@vanagon.com" <vanagon@vanagon.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Those of you who have been following my rather upset posts, sit down, grab a beverage and hopefully my story will help a few folks out.

It started out with the typical (I guess) occasional stumbling/hiccuping. OK, post to the list, call a few friends, and the top five answers are(in no particular order): fuel filter, O2 sensor, temp sensor, hall sender and plugged exhaust. Guess what? Everyone was right except the temp sensor and there were a few added surprises.

OK, fuel filter was first, fairly inexpensive, easy to change. Result: more fuel, so filter was a bit dirty. But the van still ran poorly. Next was the temp sensor, tests OK.

Then the O2 sensor, ran the tests described in detail in my Bentleys and it failed. While I was down there I notice big holes in the muffler and main pipe. OK, glutton for punishment that I am, out comes the grinder, off comes the exhaust. Main pipe rusted through on one end. Muffler main pipe collapsed and rattles all around inside. Cat, can't see any light through it, but looks OK on both ends, do the Bentley test, rattles, punch out core, yup, melted in the middle. With only headers and no O2 sensor, if that was the problem, I figure it should run a bit better (although WAY louder), but alas, no. Still runs poorly.

While engine is idling I poke with a screwdriver around the Hall sender connection, engine dies instantly. Connection broken, wires frayed. So I order main pipe, muffler, distributor (comes with new rotor and cap, oh boy!) cat and O2 sensor. Wait a few days and install. Exhaust stuff went together no problem. However, the PO had mislabeled and arranged the plug wires and also had installed the lower gearing section of the distributor shaft in, not 'wrong', but not according to specs, so top dead center of cylinder one was actually were the plug wire for #4 would go. This caused me no end of frustration, but many many thanks to Kyle at Volks-Motorsports and Marcus from Texas who kept me sane with calm words like, "Yes, the firing order must be 1-4-3-2, no matter what."

OK, finally get it running again (the whole time we are getting ready to go on vacation and I have my wife, love her to death, giving me "Only X number of days until we leave, are we going or not?" updates.) And it runs very close to what it had prior, only still a little rough and now a little rich. More investigation (read as: swearing at engine demanding it give up all it's secrets) finds that the spark plugs are very fouled (black) and the connector to plug #1 is holding on to the plug with a prayer - bad connector, little ring inside that grabs the spark plug is smashed. OK, order plugs and plug wire set. Neat, the plugs that are in the van aren't the right ones and one isn't even the same heat rating as the rest. In the van were Bosch super WR7DTC - the three prong kind - with a heat rating of 168 (or something close to that) and the odd one has a heat rating of 260ish. The VW specified ones are Bosch super W7CCO, single prong with a heat rating of 600ish. According to the few folks I talked, to the higher the number (on Bosch plugs) the higher the operating temp. OK, that explains the richness, wrong plugs.

But wait we're not done yet. As I have been spending the last 2 weeks listening to this engine in all states of progress, the engine is running smooth enough that I can detect the rattle rattle clunk sound of a dying bearing from the alternator. Get a rebuilt, install it, Go for 25 mile highway run, yea! It runs fine, idles very smooth at 950 rpm, we're going on vacation!

Again, many thanks to all from the list who responded with advice, even the silly ones as they helped to keep this in perspective. Without this list and the Bentleys guide, instead of spending _only_ $1200 on repairs, a dealer or other mechanic would have charged at least that amount, if not more, just for the parts and then tack on 6+ hours at $25-$65 an hour for labor. And I learned a lot about the van and feel extremely comfortable looking at it and knowing just about every nook and cranny of it.

Dave 86 Vanagon GL


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