Scott,

I adjusted the pressure in the tires according to your
recommendations. I think that's why I'm all of a sudden feeling like
I'm getting "turn-in" where I didn't used to. It's an odd, and
welcome, sensation! I didn't know the Vanagon was capable of it!

Thanks!
Marc

On Sun, Jul 3, 2016 at 6:32 PM, Scott - IMAP <scottdaniel@turbovans.com> wrote:
> I think you compress the shock fully , then rotate 'clockwise' as a guess,
> to firm them up.
>
> OR ..you could just ask the guy that softened them up which way to turn it,
> or just look it up online.
>
> did you fiddle with your tire pressures to affect handling ?
> has a huge affect !
> I note that many of my vans quote 38 psi front, 48  rear.
> or 30 front 40 rear , depending on which original type tires is fitted. ( 87
> GL )
>
> on my 85 Adventurewagon with big load and non-original type wheels and
> tires, it was happy at 38 front, 46 rear .
> You always want at least 4 to 6 psi more in the rear tires.
>
> after doing a big tire/wheel switcharoo I noticed my van was a little
> 'darty' on bumps ..
> It just 'felt' to me like the fronts were toe'd out a little..and sure
> enough they were, about 1/4 inch toe'd out, which insn't right of course.
>
> fixing that along with a whole 'new' 86 front end.  Big job but should be
> worth it in the end.
>
> Scott
>
>
> On 7/3/2016 12:04 PM, Marc Perdue wrote:
>
> Hi all,
>
> My van is back home from the shop again!!! And finally I have some
> good news to report! For those who have been following my saga, I had
> to have my engine rebuilt and it was not running right during the
> 500-mile break-in period. It was running rich, sometimes when I would
> downshift on the highway to pass (auto), a bunch of smoke would go
> billowing out the back, and when I would come off the highway, any
> time the RPMs dropped below 2500, the oil buzzer would come on. The
> builder had already verified that the engine had good oil pressure.
>
> I took the van in for its 500-mile post-break-in adjustments. He
> replaced the oil pressure sender with one from the dealer. That
> problem was solved, but it still wasn't running right. Long story
> short, he swapped in a known good ECU and a known good AFM and
> replaced the Temp II sensor and the engine's running like new!
>
> While it was there, I had him replace the shocks and upper control arm
> bushings too and it's handling a lot differently now. That's going to
> take some getting used to. It's funny how you adapt to a particular
> way of handling over time and when your vehicle gets fixed and handles
> correctly, it's like you have to learn how to drive it properly all
> over again. Who knew my van was actually capable of turn-in?!?
>
> They did set the Koni shocks to a pretty soft setting and I think I
> want to firm that up. Anybody know how to do that?
>
> I did make a shocking discovery about the speedo, but I'll cover that
> in a separate post.
>
> Just overjoyed to have my van back home now!
> Marc
>
>