Hi Steven,
My experiences were of two things for this matter.
One was a badly conducting battery ground connection on the body.
The other was a battery that did show 12.7 volts but had no power to turn
the engine.  This I found out when I bought a tester.

None of the other things I fixed were the problems.
Zoltan
----- Original Message -----
From: "Steven Johnson" <sjohnso2000@YAHOO.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Thursday, December 28, 2000 8:40 AM
Subject: Re: starter problems / i'm a novice

> I've been wrestling with my own cold start problem
> on an '86 and have done the following:
>
>    * replaced transmission to chassis ground cable
>    * replaced the battery
>    * replaced the starter
>    * replaced the ground to battery cable
>    * replaced plug wires
>    * installed new plugs, cap and rotor
>
> After a one day weather warmup I was able to start
> it and have been able to if I start it every day.
> However, I now cannot start my other '91 van which was
> starting fine but it has sat for a week in
> temperatures
> less than freezing.  It responds about the '86.  The
> only other "cure-all" that I've heard is to put some
> kind of heater in the engine compartment and/or on
> the battery.  I have yet to try this and will do so
> when I'm back home.  You definately need to make sure
> all of your connections are good.
>
> One other thing I have yet to do is to install relay
> between the hot wire and the starting side of the
> starter so that you're using the switch to turn on
> the relay only and not the start option.  I'll
> probably
> do that pretty soon as well.
>
> Let us know how it goes for you.
>
> Steven
> '91 Camper
> '96 Transporter
> Londonderry, N.H.
> --- moonwoodfreeze <moonwoodfreeze@NETZERO.NET> wrote:
> > my 1986 vanagon isn't starting, the starter motor
> > just clicks a little bit and stops. the connections
> > are all green and cruddy. seeing that it's like 20
> > degrees here tonight i won't be able to get
> > underneath it properly til tomorrow. has anyone had
> > a similar problem?
> >
> > thanks,
> > joe
> > 86 vanagon gl
> >
>
>
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