Steve,

I've been plagued with poor mileage, surging idle and too rich of a mixture
most of the time since I got my 84 gl last august. Today I took the old
cable off and found inner insulation at the sensor end had hardened and
cracked allowing the inner conductor to short to the outer grounded shield.
I used microphone cable and the difference is night and day. Thanks for the
hint.

Joe
PS The keys work fantastically!

----- Original Message -----
From: "Steve Sandlin" <vwcarlocks@HOTMAIL.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Thursday, March 08, 2001 10:22 AM
Subject: Re: O2/ECU coaxial cable

> This is fairly easy to check.  Disconnect the large connector at the ECU,
> and disconnect the O2 sensor.  Open the ECU connector shell on the
harness,
> and you will see the cable (sorry, but I don't have a manual with me to
give
> you the pin numbers).  Using your multimeter on a Rx10K or so scale,
measure
> betwen the shield and center conductor of the cable.  While checking it,
> wiggle the cable for it's entire length.  If you see any resistance other
> than infinite, there is a problem.  I have replaced several of them, and
> used shielded microphone cable successfully.  At the end where you strip
the
> shield away, be sure to use some heat shrink on it to prevent moisture
from
> entering the cable.  This is an easy repair.  Good luck.
> Steve Sandlin
> http://www.steveslockshop.com
> '84 Wolfsburg Westy
> '79 Transporter
> '00 New Beetle
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