Date:         Thu, 17 Jun 1999 17:12:58 -0700
Reply-To:     Pete Cassidy <pcassidy@APPLE.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Pete Cassidy <pcassidy@APPLE.COM>
Subject:      Re: Connector contact intermittant--Digitool to the rescue
Comments: To: "Tom L. Neal" <jneal@netcom.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

Tom L. Neal said:

>Learning summary: Hotter weather and the associated mechanical
>expansion/contraction and corrosion has been triggering electrical contact
>failures in many list vans in the past several weeks.  Coils, AFM, throttle
>switches, others.
>
>One PREVENTATIVE measure is to clean connector contacts by
>1)pushing connector on and off or
>2)clean contact by scraping with something like steel wool
>then mate the connector with a little contact grease like the formula made
>for spark plugs.

Here's another tip (from experience 8-( ); The vanagon is loaded with
those
multi-point ground studs with crimp-type push on connectors attached.
Bunches
of (usually brown) wires attach to these. These connectors are
*guaranteed*
to be loose, especially in the engine bay! My old air-cooled '81 was
really dodgy until I re-worked all these connectors. The biggest culprit
was one on the left-hand side, at the back of the engine beside the inlet
manifold. The bolt holding on the connectors had worked loose. I pulled
off
all the wires, cleaned the posts with fine emery paper, replaced most of
the
crimps & re-tightened the post. Major improvements!!! 8-)

BTW - my '88 had an interesting electrical problem. Once or twice, the oil
light and buzzer came on while I was driving. I pulled over, checked the
level, looked for leaks & drove on. Hmph - no problems! When I got
down to re-building the engine I discovered the wire leading to the
low pressure oil sensor (the one between the pushrod tubes) had gotten
'cooked' on the exhaust downpipes. The PO had wrapped insulating tape
around the damaged part which had eventually peeled off with the heat.
Every so often, the wire would short out onto the exhaust. BZZZZZ!
I replaced the wire from the connector to the sensor & tied it up
out of the way of the hot stuff ......

Pete C

--
Peter Cassidy,                     pcassidy@apple.com
Sr. Test Dev. Engineer             (916) 394-5302 - phone
Sacramento Operations Center       (916) 815-0762 - pager
Apple Computer Inc.