Date:         Fri, 15 Oct 1999 06:52:09 -0700
Reply-To:     Tom Young <young@SHERLOCK.SIMS.BERKELEY.EDU>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Tom Young <young@SHERLOCK.SIMS.BERKELEY.EDU>
Subject:      Re: '80 Calif. Flooding Problems
Comments: To: John Rossi <rossi@INTERNETCDS.COM>
In-Reply-To:  <3.0.3.32.19991014224716.006989c4@pop3.internetcds.com>
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

On Thu, 14 Oct 1999, John Rossi wrote:

> I'm trying to resurrect a '80 Calif. Vanagon... she starts ok on the first
> or second try, but won't idle at all.  I have to keep the gas pedal down to
> keep running.  If I let up on the gas, the van stalls & won't start again
> for a few hours.  There is a gas smell when this happens.  Warming up the
> van doesn't seem to cure these problems.  So far I've checked temp sensor 2
> and the intake air sensor.  Where else should I concentrate my efforts?
> Checking for vacuum leaks is difficult because I can't get the van to idle.

From what you say, the car is just running too damn rich and the gas
smell could point to a leaky injector.  I might try playing with the idle
adjustment and idle air mixture screws a bit, just to see if I could get
things running (they're going to have to be re-adjusted properly at some
point, in any case) but probably this isn't going to help.  I'd put a
pressure gauge in the fuel rail and jumper the pump at the AFM to check
basic fuel pressure and the ability of the system to hold pressure when
the pump's off.  If you have a rapid loss of pressure when you shut off
the pump, then try and isolate the cause.  First check the check valve in
the fuel pump and the pressure regulator.  If these are OK then you've
probably got a leaky injector and you'll have to run that down.

> Also, I'm pretty sure the van is a California model (same dizzy as my '81
> Calif. and has an O2 sensor) but the ignition coil appears to be from a
> Federal model.  There is a Hall control unit, but no idle stabilizer.
> Anyone seen anything like this?  I assume I should time the engine (once
> its running) according to the type of dizzy (5 deg ATDC for the Calif.
> 2.0l), but the Bentley procedure says to connect the terminals from the
> idle stabilizer together while setting the timing.  How would this
> procedure change with the setup I have?  Thanks much for the help!!

So, from what you say, there aren't even terminals for the idle
stabilizer?  My Bentley (97.12) for '80-'81 models shows the Hall
Generator, Idle Stablizer and ICU all present, all indicated "California
only."  The Hall Generator connects to the ICU through the Idle
Stabilzer, so how is this connection being made here?  If someone has
done a hack job on the harness and hard-wired the Hall Generator to the
ICU then it's just like the Idle Stabilizer terminals ARE connected together.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Tom Young               young@sherlock.SIMS.Berkeley.EDU
Lafayette, CA  94549    '81 Vanagon
---------------------------------------------------------------------