Only because you didn't explicitly say it, I'll ask.... You did tighten the
distributor locknut before starting the engine the second time, right?

There's an actual procedure in Bentley for testing the idle stabilizer but
I've always figured it was working if the timing was "jittery" after it was
plugged in.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Tom Young                       '81 Vanagon
Lafayette, CA 94549         '82 Westfalia
---------------------------------------------------------------
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike D." <md03@XOCHI.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Tuesday, January 27, 2004 12:52 PM
Subject: Bad Idle Stabilizer?

> I finally bought a digital timing light.  Followed the Bentley
> procedure (more or less):
>
> 1. Disconnected the idle stabilizer and plugged the two plugs together
> 2. Loosened the distributor locknut
> 3. Started the engine, adjusted timing to 5 BTDC
> 4. Adjusted the idle screw to get an idle around 900rpm.  The idle
> was not rock solid, but reasonably smooth.
> 5. Checked the timing again -- still at 5BTDC
>
> Then,
>
> 5. Stopped the engine, plugged the idle stabilizer back in, started it up.
> 6. Yikes -- the 5 degrees BTDC timing jumped to about 10-15 BTDC, and
> the idle was very fast and surging.
> 7. Readjusted the distributor to get timing approximately 5BTDC (*)
> 8. Adjusted the idle screw to around 950rpm.
>
> (*) The idle is rough, and I can see the timing jumping around as the
> idle stabilizer advances it.
>
> So this has me worried -- if the timing and idle are OK without the
> idle stabilizer in circuit, why should putting it back in cause the
> timing to advance 5 or 10 degrees?   Is this the symptom of a bad
> idle stabilizer?