Nice to hear Nathaniel!! Sounds like you've got it beat. The only other
thing I might suggest somewhere down the road is to pick up one of the
electronic ignitions such as Petronix or the even cheaper Accufire for year
round easy starting. No more condenser, points, or hassles. I switched mine
over and it starts WAY better in the cold humid foggy days up here on
Vancouver Island.
Take care,
courtney

----- Original Message -----
From: "Nathaniel Poole" <npoole@TELUS.NET>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Saturday, November 18, 2006 4:26 PM
Subject: Re: <no subject>

> After crying in my beer I went back and like you said, started from
> scratch,
> and eventually got the engine running. Whooopie!! I don't know why there
> was
> little compression in number 1, and why it was sucking through the exhaust
> on intake, but everything seemed to clear itself out by trying over and
> again to get it started. The one thing that was out of whack was that the
> PO
> had marked TDC on the fan pulley 180 degrees out, and I used that for
> setting up initial timing. It was only after carefully watching the
> rockers
> and valves as my son rotated the engine through it's cycles that I
> realised
> the error. When I found the little (unpainted) nick for TDC, I found I had
> set it up at 9 degrees after TDC. Using an ohmmeter on the points, I set
> it
> up for 7 degrees BTDC. A little cranking later and it roared to life (by
> then it was also flooded) a few farts and lots of smoke and it settled
> down
> to a sweet-running engine, much smoother than before the rebuild; you
> really
> couldn't tell the engine was running by looking at it. Been driving the
> van
> all day and it starts with the barest touch of the starter. It's great
> having the rig on the road again.