I'm thinking that there is indeed something messed up with the alignment.
Back in January I saw that the outer edges of the two front tires were
being worn down to the casing. Took the van to a shop along Highway 1 in
Northern California and the fellow pointed out how the upper ball joints
were messed up. I had him swap the front tires for the rear and after I
got back to SoCal I replaced the uppers. Front tires seemed to be doing
just fine after that, but today I noticed that they were rapidly wearing
down on the outsides also. I have an appointment with a local shop that
was recommended by Hugo's Foreign Car in Encinitas, Dan's Precision
Aligning, to get this mess straighted out. I'm curious to hear what they
find. Yes, my cruddy mileage might indeed be due to alignment, something
that a few list members suggested.

As a side issue, I did the stall test to the torque converter as Dennis
Haynes suggested in case the transmission is slipping. Engine stalled at
about 2400 rpm, which is a tad low per Bentleys, for the 1984 auto
transmission, but I dunno if it's low enough to worry about.

--
Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
71 Type 2: the Wonderbus
84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
74 Utility Trailer. Ladybug Trailer, Inc., San Juan Capistrano
KG6RCR

On 11/15/2007 10:09 PM Jake de Villiers wrote:

> Yeah, he's running Ken Lewis' little wonder.
>
> I think that van must have 1/4" toe-in front & rear or something similar,
> the better to scrub off speed and mileage.
>
> On Nov 15, 2007 9:59 PM, John Bange <jbange@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>> My city mpg = 11. My highway mpg = 15.
>>
>> Wow. That's worse than mine (14-16), and I have an automatic, a mystery
>> problem (bad injector, i think) that makes it run rich, constantly make
>> jackrabbit starts, and nearly always have the AC running full blast. Do
>> you
>> have a meter on the O2 sensor?
>>
>> --
>> John Bange
>> '90 Vanagon - "Geldsauger"
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Jake
> 1984 Vanagon GL
> 1986 Westy Weekender "Dixie"
> Crescent Beach, BC
> www.crescentbeachguitar.com
> http://subyjake.googlepages.com/