The drier contains a "petroleum film" that coats the connectors when
the "drying chemicals" evaporate...however, more protection is better....

Ric

At 08:18 PM 11/26/2007, dylan friedman wrote:
>I would like to welcome you as well.
>
>Richard is right on with his use of a drier.
>I take it a step further and once the drier spray has evaporated i
>coat both sides of the connection with dielectric grease to keep the
>moisture out.  These products can be found at any auto parts store.
>
>dylan
>
>----- Original Message ----
>From: Richard Golen <rgolen@UMASSD.EDU>
>To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
>Sent: Monday, November 26, 2007 8:09:58 PM
>Subject: Re: noob already in trouble
>
>First off, welcome to the list!
>
>I have an 87 Westy w/4 speed, but had the same problem. When the
>weather was rainy, damp, or if it had rained the day before, the
>engine would loose power at some point above 2000 rpm. I would shut
>the key off, and then turn it back on and the problem would go away
>for a couple of minutes...then it would start again....turn off the
>key, turn it back on...clear the problem...this would go on for about
>10 minutes until the engine compartment dried off.
>
>The solution....simple....rather than check connections, clean
>connections I spent $2.00 US ($1.50 CDN) for a spray can of Gunk Wire
>Dryer.... sprayed every single connector I could find on in the
>engine compartment...sprayed the plug wires...the top of the O2
>sensor.....sprayed the inside of the distributor cap...and VOILA!!!
>the problem has disappeared!
>
>So before you go the route of checking connections, etc...get a can
>and spray away!
>
>
>Ric
>
>
>At 06:27 PM 11/26/2007, James Reed-Jones wrote:
> >Hey all,
> >
> >So I have been meaning to introduce myself (instead of just lurking)
> >and since I have had my first official van disaster I thought I would
> >kill two birds with one stone.
> >
> >3 months ago my wife and I bought an 87 westy and have been in love
> >with it ever since. I just recently found out about this list and
> >subscribed - let me tell you this place has been so useful already! (I
> >cant believe the oil filler extends!)
> >
> >All that being said - I had my first disaster with the van today. I
> >was out picking my wife up and I started loosing power and couldn't
> >keep the RPMs up above 1200. It was like I was trying to start in the
> >highest gear. The weird thing though is that it would do it even when
> >I put it in neutral. I kept having to pull over and restart the
> >engine. This would solve the problem for anywhere between a few blocks
> >to not at all. The one thing that I did do to limp it home was that
> >every time I lost power I would stomp the pedal which seemed to give
> >me back a burst of power and doing that I was able to rocket myself
> >along with the occasional boosts of speed.
> >
> >Other info - 1987 vanagon westy
> >- Automatic tranny
> >- It first started while the engine was warming up but continued after
> >it had gotten up to the regular running temp
> >- I live in Ontario Canada and today it was blizzarding a nice wet
> >slushy snowfall (as an aside I hope Santa brings me winter tires)
> >- A similar kind of thing happened once before on a cold damp morning
> >but it just happened once then went away.
> >
> >Any ideas I could check out prior to taking it to a mechanic would be
> >great - or if this has been discussed in the list before a keyword to
> >do a search for would be great!
> >
> >Thanks everyone,
> >
> >James