I know you've all been hanging on the edges of your seats waiting for
yet another idle update (NOT!), so here it is!

First, the patient: '87 Westy, Auto tranny, no A/C.

I got my leaky exhaust fixed today, new muffler, new gasket on the
J-Pipe before the cat., welded a crack in the rear-most header, new
tailpipe.  I asked them, while they in there tinkering around, if they
would go ahead and loosen the O2 sensor and they DID!  I'll replace that
later this week.  Also, while they had it apart, I asked to inspect the
cat. converter and it looked fine.

The work was just done today, so this is not a long-term update, but
here's what I've noted so far.  When I started it up after work, it
didn't idle up and down like it used to when started "cold".  YAY!!
When first started, it jumped up to about 1200 RPMs for a second, then
settled down to a steady 950 RPMs.  There seems to be more power, but
this is such a relative and subjective thing . . . not sure if the
change is actually measurable, but I feel like it has a little more
power.  YAY!!  It shifts SMOOTHER!!  YAY!!  The rough shifting was most
noticable driving through an area where the speed limit is 25 mph.
Before, at 25 mph, it would clunk down into third from second.  Now, the
shift is barely perceptible.  This is not a benefit a was really
expecting, though I wondered if there might be some relationship there.
Marla, there IS HOPE!!  I hadn't really noticed a huge amount of noise
because of the leaky exhaust, but it does seem quieter now.  YAY!

The downside:  I will not really be able to test the O2 sensor to see if
the repaired exhaust was causing faulty O2 sensor readings.  When the
technician loosened it, he also broke off the metal casing around the
wires, so I think that if it wasn't bad before, it is now.  No big deal,
I was going to replace it anyway.  First, I'm going to see if my gas
mileage has changed as a result of the exhaust repairs.  Then I'll
replace the sensor and see if there's any change after that.

All in all, I feel like it's been a good day for my Westy.  I'm very
pleased to find that the Westy's engine can, indeed, be a fairly
smooth-running machine.  Think I'll check on all those electrical
connections and grounds after I get the O2 sensor replaced and try to
get a little more out of it!

Now let's see what tomorrow brings . . .  ;^)
Marc Perdue