I didn't have time to get much further than taking out the fuel pump and
cleaning the screen the best I could with forced air.  Didn't seem to be
much debris collected however and that's as expected.  The tank was
replaced by the PO about 4 years ago and when I removed it a few weeks ago,
expecting to find rust, it was clean as a whistle.  I'd also left the
ignition on overnight and drained the battery so it's been sitting on the
charger all day.

Dennis and Neil, your discussion about the charcoal canister have got me
thinking that just might be the cause of my problem.  The symptoms I
described earlier would be explained by a situation where air was unable to
replace the fuel being pulled out of the tank:  everything is fine for the
first few miles until the vacuum building in the tank is enough to defeat
the fuel pump and the engine ultimately starves.

I hadn't thought of this since I don't really understand the flow of air
going on.   How does the charcoal canister come into play and when?  Is
this really where the tank is getting replacement air as gas is used?  What
is the role of the valve you mentioned, which I take it is that 'thing'
dangling next to the canister itself with two small tubes connected to the
engine?

David, you may be out a nickel -- I can blow air through the return line --
usually.  Strangely, there have been times when I've pulled off the road
because the engine is stalling, pulled the return line off of the pressure
regulator and tried to blow through it only to find that very difficult,
almost impossible.  (Which at the time made me think I'd found the
problem.)  But at home, engine cold, I can blow air though no problem and
hear it bubbling in the tank.  And I've traced the line from back to front
and can see no kinks or other obvious damage.  Could there be something
inside the tank that is creating some sort of intermittent blockage?

Rick

On Mon, Mar 5, 2018 at 3:34 PM, Neil N <musomuso@gmail.com> wrote:

> Aha. Ok. Didn't know about the screen. Thanks for that. I'd read of the
> charcoal getting saturated but not of the metal screen failure. I should
> take my old one apart, see what happened, post some images. ..... if I can
> find it!
>
> Hopefully we'll find out what the cause of Ricks' stall is.
>
> On Mon, Mar 5, 2018 at 2:16 PM, Dennis Haynes <d23haynes57@hotmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> Having a carbon canister fail is more common than you may think. The
> > screens rust out and the carbon makes its way into the lines and clogs up
> > the works. I’ve seen many a tank collapse due to that canister. It is a
> > wear/consumable.
> >
> >
> >
> > Dennis
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > *From:* Neil N <musomuso@gmail.com>
> > *Sent:* Monday, March 5, 2018 4:18 PM
> > *To:* Dennis Haynes <d23haynes57@hotmail.com>
> > *Cc:* vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> > *Subject:* Re: Fuel pressure too high
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > I wish I had, but I never did "nail down" exactly what caused the excess
> > pressure or vacuum I found at my fuel tank. The van in question has a
> Jetta
> > engine so I checked the Jetta EVAP charcoal canister purge valve (same
> > function as WBX valve albeit in a different manner), swapped in a used
> EVAP
> > charcoal filter. So far, it hasn't happened again. All I could figure is
> > that the charcoal filter was "full" and not allowing fumes to pass and/or
> > not venting to atmosphere at lower connection.  (this Vanagon with Jetta
> > engine used to have an air cooled engine; from the factory, the canister
> > lower connection was not connected to the air cleaner)
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
> --
> Neil n
>
> Blog: Vanagons, Westfalia, general <http://tubaneil.blogspot.ca>
>
> 1988 Westy Images <https://picasaweb.google.com/musomuso/New1988Westy>
>
> 1981 Westfalia "Jaco" Images, technical <http://tubaneil.googlepages.com/>
>
> Vanagon-Bus VAG Gas Engine Swap Group <http://tinyurl.com/khalbay>
>

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