Joy...Back in the day...when I was a real machanic...
We used to see the Coolant temp sender fail at strange intevals and be
somewhat intermittent to boot...It is a blue plug in style sender that sits
back behind the thermostat...025 906 041 A with an o ring N903 168 02...If
you think its original, it might be wise to repl just for giggles....Have
fun..
Daryl of AA Transaxle
Duvall, WA. (Seattle area)
1-877-377-0773 toll free
425-788-4070
aatransaxle.com
86 Syncro Westy WBXTurbo

----- Original Message -----
From: "Joy Hecht" <jhecht@ALUM.MIT.EDU>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Sunday, May 15, 2005 10:21 PM
Subject: problem(s) on the road, plus major good samaritan

> Hi all,
>
> I'm outside Indianapolis, having a problem.  My engine seems to
> occasionally
> miss a beat or two (or twenty), slows down, tach drops - then it catches
> again and has a little spurt of power and is fine for a while.  Mostly
> this
> is only just noticeable, but I definitely do notice it.
>
> And it's running rich, putting out lots of soot and a trace of smoke, and
> gas mileage has just plummeted to 11 mpg.
>
> There's a mechanic listed on Larry's site in Indianapolis, so I figure
> I'll
> head there tomorrow.  But I'm interested in ideas about the cause of the
> problem.  This once happened before, much worse, and there were gazillions
> of theories as to what was wrong (it turned out to be a mix of a couple of
> them).
>
> Also, if it's something that one could fix (e.g. cleaning out filter on
> fuel
> pump, which once caused similar problems, or something else easy), and if
> there's anyone near Indianapolis who might be willing to help, I'd be
> delighted to hear from you!  I'm en route to Buses by the Beach, but I
> don't
> think I want to wait on this till I get there to deal with this, even
> though
> the idea of dozens of vanagonauts in one place makes it tempting.
>
> My O2 sensor is not connected.  Ken just installed new exhaust pipes
> around
> 500 miles ago and said I should wait 500 miles before reconnecting it.  I
> tried to do that this evening, but can't figure out what the two dangling
> wires should connect to!  There doesn't seem to be anything unconnected
> aside from the two dangling wires.  Where is it?
>
>
> And now for the good Samaritan story!  (Skip to the end if you're bored.)
> I
> pulled into a rest stop thirty miles east of here, and on walking back to
> my
> van I realized I was leaking coolant, rather rapidly.  A bit of crawling
> under the van showed exactly where it was coming from, a steady skinny
> stream coming from where the narrow hose bringing coolant back from the
> heat
> exchanger is clamped on (if I'm reading the Bentley diagram correctly).
> Looked like a little chunk of rubber had come off the end of the hose,
> making a pinhole where the coolant was flowing out.
>
> So I mulled this over and went into the rest stop to ask the guy working
> there whether anyone would have a fit if I stayed the night, despite the
> signs saying it wasn't allowed.  He said no, they wouldn't, and offered to
> look at my coolant leak.
>
> Well, to make a long story short - three hours later, after getting stuck
> under my van (he wasn't small), getting showered with quite warm coolant,
> and one trip down the road to buy a new hose clamp, he had fixed my
> coolant
> leak.  He parried my thanks, and refused my offer of money, but did accept
> my offer to write a letter for his supervisors about how nice and helpful
> and generous he was.  Then when I went to drive out of the rest stop at
> long
> last, it turned out we'd disconnected a wire and the oil pressure buzzer
> kept coming on.  So back out he came, found a tool in his truck to strip
> the
> end of the wire and reconnect it, and - whew! - the buzzer went off.
>
> After that we sat down and talked about all sorts of things (well, okay,
> mostly he tried to convert me), till his replacement came on at 11:00.  At
> which point I came down the road to the Flying J outside Indianapolis
> where
> I'm spending the night.  (And where I filled my tank and realized how bad
> my
> gas mileage now is!)
>
> When I ask myself why I'm still driving a van that breaks down constantly,
> even when it's just had nine weeks of TLC in Millville with Ken and was
> purring like a well-fed cat when I left there, well, it's 'cause I meet
> people like John in the rest stop who don't know me from a hole in the
> ground, but happily fix my coolant leak!
>
>
> So, if you've gotten through all this, I'd like to hear thoughts about why
> I
> might be running rich, missing, and wasting so much gas.
>
>
>
> Joy
>
>
> *******************************************************************
> Joy Hecht
> and Matilda, 1989 Burgundy Vanagon
>
> email:  jhecht@alum.mit.edu
> telephone:  1-202-494-1162
> for musings about life and the vanadventures:
> http://users.rcn.com/jhecht/gypsy
>
> *******************************************************************
>