Date:         Sat, 27 Nov 1999 18:15:47 -0800
Reply-To:     Aaron McKay <mckayaa@OIT.EDU>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Aaron McKay <mckayaa@OIT.EDU>
Subject:      running rich/low power
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

It is with mixed emotions that I write this list again, as I dropped this
list when summer vacation started, because I would be offline all summer,
and now school is making it very hard for me to do much that is computer
related.  Now that my van is having a very elusive problem, I need your
guys's help.
My Van is an '85 GL( with the 1.9L and 4sp) which seems to run and idle
fine when I'm off at
college, where it is very dry most of the time.  Then I come home where it
rains much of the time, and after half an hour to an hour of driving in
the rain, my van starts to hesitate, but not die, especially gets bad when
after accelerating to speed, and then letting off the trottle to maintain
speed.  Sometimes while accelerating, the van seems to either loose or
gain power, and it doesn't really seem to be related to which RPM I'm
running at, so this varying power happens throughout the RPM range, and
throttle range.  Another thing, with the van parked, I can bring the
engine up to an idle speed of anything, lets use 3000, and then with the
throttle constant, the engine clears up and gains another 600 - 800 RPM.
And at a an idle, when it is running rough, the engine is also running
very rich (my dad said I smelled like raw gas when I came indoors after
working on it, and I toutched no gasoline).  Needless to say, my gas
mileage has gone down the tube, now I get 10 - 14 MPG.
 I have owned this van for 2-3 years mow, so I know this
is not right.  Things that I have done so far: new cap, rotor, spark plug
wires/connectors, checked spark plugs, and they looked normal and
consistant throughout the four cylinders, VW's $150 capacitor band-aid on
the AFM harness, and a brand new O2 sensor.

I apologise for any weird format that this letter may be in, because I am
telneting into my college's server which is using PINE.  Please P-mail me
back soon, as I plan on leaving around 1:30 PM PST tomorrow.  Thank you
all very much for your support and answers.

-Aaron McKay
'85 GL "Darle"
Student in Mechanical engineering at
Oregon Institute of Technology
mckayaa@oit.edu