In a message dated 23/04/2004 12:03:29 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
LISTSERV@GERRY.VANAGON.COM writes:

Well, we  were supposed to leave tomorrow morning for an 11 day camping trip
w/ my 90  carat, but now this...

The van has had random minor  hesitation/stumbling recently.  It started out
being very occasional -  most noticeable when accelerating.  It would
otherwise cruise fine  (occasional hiccups); power was good; gas mileage
normal; started/idled  fine; air temp didn't seem to be a factor. But in the
past few days the  problem has rapidly worsened, requiring gentle throttle to
keep it from  bogging when accelerating.

[Back in Nov 02 (16k mi ago) I replaced the  02 sensor, spark plugs, wires,
FI temp sensor.  Ran good.  Fuel  filter replaced 25k mi ago.]

Yesterday I opened up the AFM,  cleaned/realigned wiper, added capacitor fix.

This morning after 10 min  on the freeway, the car began stumbling hard and
losing power and died when  I came to a stop.  Took several tries before it
started up again and I  managed to get to a parking lot.  It died again and
wouldn't  start.  I tried disconnecting the 02sensor without luck.

An hour  or so later, the van started again, but was idling very rough and
running  rich - coughing black smoke.  Since I had a spare (new) AFM, I  put
that in, with no effect.

So I had it towed to a mechanic where I  left it.  He started it up and it
was sputtering and belching out the  black smoke.  He said he tested the fuel
pressure, temp sensor, O2  sensor, checked connections... All okay.  Started
it up again and it  ran perfectly.  He's going to keep it until the morning
and see if he  can find out anymore.

In the meantime, any suggestions/ideas would be  appreciated.  The mechanic
is leaving at noon on vacation as well...  So if he can't figure it out, I'm
on my own - at least until Monday when I  can take it somewhere else... And
I'd hate to shorten/delay/cancel this  much needed vacation.

James, I wish I could offer you some advice.   However, the story I have is
not good.  I had a van in here last fall with  exactly the same problem and I
spent countless hours on it changing and testing  everything I could think of
to no avail.  Sometimes it would run  perfectly then all of a sudden for no
apparent reason it would start doing the  rich running thing exactly as you have
described.  The owner was to have  taken that van to Mexico for the winter,
instead he has it stored in a barn near  by and when he gets back from his
Mexican winter vacation he will be  bringing the van back here and somehow I will
have to find the problem.   Soooooooo, if your mechanic finds the problem with
your van I sure would be  interested !!  Keep me posted !
One bit of significant info I will relay to you is  that one of the times I
had it here when it was belching the black smoke,  jiggling the connection to
the AFM stopped the rich running condition.  I  did swap out the AFM with a
known good one with no success.  Eventually I  found a broken wire in the harness
to the AFM plug.  But, after repairing  that wire and checking the continuity
of the others the van ran well for a short  time and then started the rich
running condition again.  After that, the  owner was out of time and had to
leave for Mexico so further investigations on  that lead were not done.  I was
about to believe the wire harness is bad as  the wires I did strip back to repair
were well oxidised and very brittle.   This van is a 1991 full Westfalia.
Cheers,

Frank  Condelli
Almonte, Ontario, Canada
_BusFusion_ (http://members.aol.com/BusFusion/bfhome.htm)  a VW Camper
camping event, Almonte, ON, June 10 ~ 13, 2004
'87 Westy & Lionel  Trains
Member: _Vanagon List_ (http://www.vanagon.com/) , _LiMBO_
(http://www.bcn.net/~limbo/) , _IWCCC_ (http://www.westfalia.qc.ca/)  & _CCVWC_
(http://www.ccvwc.ca/)
Vanagon/Vanagon Westfalia Service in  the Ottawa Valley
_STEBRO/Vanagon Stainless Steel  Mufflers_
(http://members.aol.com/Fkc43/stebro.htm)
_Frank Condelli &  Associates_ (http://members.aol.com/Fkc43/busindex.html)
or  http://frankcondelli.com