In a message dated 25/05/2007 8:23:47 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
LISTSERV@GERRY.VANAGON.COM writes:

Believe  in coincidence? My 90 GL's wiring harness suffered a   non-fire
meltdown. I replaced this harness with one from an 87. All went  smoothly
and she fired right up. Test drive : Pulling into a steep climb,  coming
out of my driveway at full throttle, no power! Put her back in  the
driveway and checked my work......all ok. Long story short, I could  have
wasted lots of time looking only into the recent harness job  and/or
consequences of meltdown, but as I stood over the bay, revving the  engine,
I noticed the intake boot, downstream of MAF, contracting and  expanding
like an accordion. After some quick dismantling, I discovered the  base of
the snorkel (made of something you might vent your clothes dryer  with) had
colapsed and was almost completely restricted, just above the  solid
plastic 90, behing the RR tail light. I replaced all this with more  parts
from the boneyard and she runs great. Case and point of this story?  Well,
not only is it something we should all periodically inspect, (2.1s  need
all the air they can get)but it is a good lesson for those who do  not
believe in conincidence...........

            The  collapsed snorkel is VERY common.  I inspect every van that
comes in here  for that problem.  I'm using dryer vent tubing from the Home
Hardware to  replace it.  It's been working well.  VW wants about $100 for that
crappy paper over aluminum foil snorkel tube.  The ones in the Snycros if
you can get them are good quality plastic flex tubing.  You will need the  two
interface ends from the Syncro to fit it to you 2wd van.  VW no longer
supplies the Syncro snorkle tube or interface ends.  Gotta scour the  boneyards.
I've used up all the ones around here until some more get  wrecked or trashed due
to rusting !

Cheers,

Frank  Condelli
Almonte, Ontario, Canada
'87 Westy, '90 Carat, '87 Wolfsburg  (Forsale) & Lionel Trains (_Collection
for sale_ (http://members.aol.com/Fkc43/trainsal.htm) )_ Frank Condelli &
Associates_ (http://members.aol.com/Fkc43/busindex.html)  - Vanagon/Vanagon
Westfalia Service in the Ottawa Valley_ Vanagon Stainless Steel Exhaust  Systems_
(http://members.aol.com/Fkc43/stebro.htm)  _  BusFusion_
(http://members.aol.com/BusFusion/bfhome.htm)  a VW Camper camping event, Almonte, ON, June 07 ~ 10,
2007