John,

Make sure the brown ground wire on ther driver's side of the engine is very
good, tight, shiney etc.  It is the ground wire that connects to the top of
the engine on the head just under the intake.  This ground wire branches off
the bunch of wires going to the distributor (hall sender).  The ground is
used by the ECU to detect proper O2 sensor operation.  The physical
connection often goes bad because of corrosion.

If this ground is bad the ECU is receiving wrong rich / lean signals from
the O2 sensor and it usually concludes that the engine is running too lean.
To compensate it will enrichen the mixture and cause your symptoms.

Been there!

Laurence Smith
Hamilton, ON
90 Westy (fanumbos)
  -----Original Message-----
  From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM]On Behalf Of
john cianci
  Sent: Saturday, August 10, 2002 6:11 PM
  To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
  Subject: hesitation/power loss and smoke on 86 westy

  Hello everyone.... Well thanks for everyone helped me get my brake
situation sorted out. the bus stops great but isn;'t running very good. The
bus has deveped an intermitent power loss/hesitation/low rpm bucking thing.
This occurs at all rpms and on hills as well as flat ground. A 72 westy
owner who was behind me said there was smoke (black) coming out of the pipe
every once and a while. I made it back home and I checked the wires, plugs,
vacum leaks on the side of the road. I did not see anything obvious. I
thought it might have been bad gas  so I put octane boost/inj clearner into
the tank. Still power loss. I was thinking maybe one of the plugs is bad so
I am going to pull them and take a closure look, also Maybe a clogged fuel
filter???? I am not sure. I know the idle stabilizer doesn't work but it has
been like that for a while until i find a new one (hint, if anyone has an
idle stabilizer control unit [behind the taillight] please let me know) I am
gonna go throu! gh teh archives now but please and thankyou for any help.

  John

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