When the vacuum retard hose is disconnected the timing should advance and
the engine speed should increase drastically. If warm, on the 1.9L engine
this should cause the engine to start surging as the speed reaches the fuel
cut off speed and drops down again. If this is not happening than the vacuum
retard is connected to the wrong place or the diaphragm is shot.

Dennis

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of B
Feddish
Sent: Monday, April 05, 2010 5:50 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Vacuum question. Another continuing saga.

The van still felt like it had less power today and I discovered one the
plug wires was corroded and "green" where it plugs into the cap. Oddly
enough they are pretty new wires. The current symptom was less than expected
power and little tiny hesitations when driving.  A replacement, albeit used,
spark plug wire solved that problem it appears. I will know better when I
drive to work tomorrow.

Anyway that was just misc ramblings. Back to why the van runs crappy when
the timing is at factory specs. When it was idling today it was doing that
"hunt" thing. I unplugged the retard vacuum hose from the distributer as
Dennis suggested to test and the idle became normal. Plugging it back in
left it normal.  My old mechanic left that line unplugged from the
distributer and plugged up the hose. I am assuming this solved the hunt
problem. To me that seems like we are masking a different issue. What is
that?

Thanks,
Bryan