I had to deal with this scenario down in Baja many years ago.  We managed to
limp home by removing the spark plug and the push rods from the defective
cylinder.  It took a few taps on the valve stem to get it to recess enough
that we were sure it wouldn't hit the piston, but it did, and we made it
home.

Couldn't disconnect the injector since the motor was in our pre-runner buggy
and had dual Weber 44's...

Cheers,

Jeff

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM]On Behalf
Of Jake de Villiers
Sent: Tuesday, January 23, 2007 12:34 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: driving w/ bad valve, was Death Valley

Pulling the spark plug would help; it would keep the pressure down, but
there are many scenarios that would render the motor inoperable.

On 1/23/07, Rob <becida@comcast.net> wrote:
>
> At  1/23/2007 11:50 AM, Greg Potts wrote:
> >Hi Geza,
> >
> >What would I do?? Drive it, of course. I'd just go a goodly bit
> >slower, is all.
> >
> >
> >On 23-Jan-07, at 2:01 PM, Geza Polony wrote:
> >
> >>Seriously, what WOULD you do in Thorndike with a bad valve? Can you
> >>imagine
> >>the towing charges to get Westy to the nearest Vanagon mechanic?
>
> Would disconnecting the fuel injector to the bad cyl be enough?
>
>
>
> Rob
> becida@comcast.net
>

--
Jake
1984 Vanagon GL
1986 Westy Weekender "Dixie"
www.crescentbeachguitar.com