Your Vanagon may possibly have the same problem the engine donor van had
in the salvage yard. It had been T-boned in an intersection. I suspect a
wiring problem up front caused the engine to stall, leading to the
crunch. They started the Vanagon up and the motor ran fine. I bought the
motor, to take delivery in a week when they dismantled the van. When I
went back during the week, the motor would not start or run. We changed
all sorts of parts, in plentiful supply due to it being a salvage yard.
No go. Finally, I wiggled some wires to the fusebox, and the engine ran
fine again. Must have been a failed connection or wire. A pity, but I do
like my newer engine!

Rant over,
Ron Antaki

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf
Of Debbie Walters
Sent: Saturday, March 01, 2003 4:38 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: STILL stalling

Man, this is driving me nuts.

OK, here's what I've done so far:  replaced fuel filter, air filter,
plugs, wires, distributor cap, rotor, Hall sender, ignition coil, O2
sensor, and soldered a capacitor between the contacts in the air flow
meter as per the instructions posted on Harald's site.  Visually checked
vaccuum hoses for cracks, manually checked connections on fuel pump.

Here's what was happening:  Intermitent loss of power leading to an
eventual stall without being able to restart while hot.

Here's what's happening now:  Stalling only when idleing, only
sometimes, maybe in connection with when the radiator fan and/or AC is
running.  No bucking or stuttering on the stalls, engine just stops.
Once the van starts stalling, it usually stalls every time I take my
foot off the gas to stop for the rest of the trip.  Starts right back up
with no problem.  I sense I may be in for another power loss episode
soon (not the stalling - the original power loss problem).

I think I've tried everything I can find in the archives.  What's left?

With MUCH gratitude,

deb
'85 Westy "Gypsy"