It made me think about the time I took off for work and heard a
horrible sound From under the hood of my Opel kadette wagon.

It turned out to be a cat on the ignition wires.

Jim

On Mar 19, 2009, at 10:19 PM, AD Felder <dieseldoofus@YAHOO.COM> wrote:

> Mark your subject lines are some of the best.  I immediately
> envisioned a furry four-legger stuffed in the air intake.
>
> --- On Thu, 3/19/09, mark drillock <mdrillock@COX.NET> wrote:
>
>
> From: mark drillock <mdrillock@COX.NET>
> Subject: dead cat kills van
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Date: Thursday, March 19, 2009, 9:37 PM
>
>
> I made a new friend this week on the Samba. He posted about a vexing
> problem with his son's recently acquired 87 Wolfsburg. It had just
> died
> as he was driving and then would not start. He had it towed home and
> was
> trying to get it going. A former VW mechanic friend came over with
> tools
> and parts and they tried to fix it to no avail. It would fire a few
> times on the first attempt and then nothing but a mild pop now and
> then
> while cranking. The smell of gas was very strong and the plugs were
> very
> wet. Compression check was good and fuel pressure read fine. Injectors
> sprayed in pulses as expected.
>
> I saw his cry for help on the Samba and let him know I lived near
> enough
> to come over and give him a hand. I spoke to him by phone and quickly
> understood that this might be a challenge. I brought my Digitool and
> some spare parts and went over a few days ago about 4 miles to the
> next
> town where he lived. The readings of everything on the Digitool were
> fine but no go on running. My timing light showed no problem and a
> pulled plug wire sparked strongly on the block as he cranked.
> Nonetheless I pulled my dizzy from the van I drove over in since
> everything else had been pretty much tried. It made no difference so I
> went home, as perplexed as he was.
>
> Between me and the other guy who had been there, almost every major
> part
> was swapped, plugs, dizzy, ECU, AFM, Temp II, fuel pressure regulator,
> coil. He even hooked up a gas can to remove bad fuel as a possible
> cause. He called again last night and said he was thinking of
> getting 4
> new injectors since he did not know what else it could be. I did not
> think that was a likely cause so I offered him the loan of a set of
> known good ones I had for a test. Late this afternoon I went over
> and we
> plugged in my whole fuel line loop with injectors but it made no
> difference. With the AFM off he cranked some more and I happened to
> put
> my hand over the intake boot. I was surprised how little suction there
> was, even when I opened the throttle. Then I put my hand over the
> tailpipe as he cranked some more. Again there was little air flow.
> Ah Ha!
>
> In spite of his skepticism, he agreed to unbolt the cat and have a
> look
> since there was nothing much else to try. Of course the bolts were too
> rusted and a sawsall was needed to cut them. Once we had a little gap
> between the J-pipe and cat, he gave the starter a crank. The engine
> roared to life.
>
> We then loosened the muffler/cat enough to get a look and a pile of
> busted up remains of the cat innards could be seen inside. He
> thanked me
> and I made it home in plenty of time for dinner.
>
> Mark
> now more suspicious of cats
>
>
>
>
>