These cars only had a VW long block. The ignition and induction came from
other suppliers. On the flip side of VW's in other vehicles, my postal jeep
came stock with a 2.0 Audi/VW mated to a Chrysler Automatic with a GM
alternator and some other parts of unknown origin.
----- Original Message -----
From: "David Beierl" <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Wednesday, July 23, 2008 10:27 PM
Subject: Re: '78 Chrysler Omni or Plymouth Pacer Sought

> At 08:58 PM 7/23/2008 -0500, John Rodgers wrote:
>>It may come to that, but I sure would rather it be an Omni or Horizon.
>
> John, I owned a '78 Horizon.  The only thing good on it was the
> paint.  The engine shook the alternator until the bracket broke
> (repeatedly).  When the carburettor froze in the winter the engine
> would run away on starting.  No, the throttle plate wasn't jammed
> open. Distributors wore out.  The vibration wore the pivot ears off
> the carburettor float.  The ECU was mounted, uncovered, in the air
> intake, potted in silicone only halfway up the components.  Guess
> what happened when it rained...too rich to run above idle and glowing CAT.
>
> There was plenty more wrong with the car (mine had 58K when I bought
> it from the dealer, and I put another 25K or so before I gave up).  I
> should have paid attention when CU rated the '78 Not Acceptable for
> unstable handling (failed their steering-wheel twitch test) -- every
> time it crossed a tar strip between lanes on the highway it felt as
> though it wanted to go arse-first.  All the plastic trim, steering
> wheel etc shrank about 10% in length.  It was the statistically least
> reliable car in America at that time.  Blah blah blah.
>
> But my point about all this is that everything hanging off the engine
> took a real beating because of the vibration, so I'd look carefully
> at any one you come up with.
>
>
> --
> David Beierl - Providence RI USA -- http://pws.prserv.net/synergy/Vanagon/
> '84 Westy "Dutiful Passage," '85 GL "Poor Relation"