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Subject:Re: erratic and weird idle discovery...
From:Dan N
Date:Wed, 14 Aug 2019 15:12:16 -0700

thanks Dennis... very useful infos...

is the power steering switch has dedicated polarity?... meaning which wire
has to go to a specific prong?

thanks

dan

On Tue, Aug 13, 2019 at 4:44 PM Dennis Haynes <d23haynes57@hotmail.com>
wrote:

> Don’t just assume the switch is bad. Check it with a meter. It could just
> be covered with enough crud that leakage current is fooling the idle
> stabilizer or you could have a pressure problem causing the switch to be
> activated. Also, while the switch is there to boost the idle speed it
> should only a controlled increase in speed, not a runaway to 2,000 rpm.
> Turn the wheel and have unintended acceleration? You may also have 2 bad
> idle controllers. Do they properly respond to the AC being turned on?
>
> As for that wire to the switch the source is an unfused 12 volt supply.
> Checking those connections should be routine and used good terminals that
> are covered and won’t fall off.
>
> Dennis
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf
> Of Dan N
> Sent: Tuesday, August 13, 2019 2:07 PM
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: erratic and weird idle discovery...
>
> hi all...
>
> here's a discovery I want to share...
>
> the idle of my van time to time acting up..- going from 950 rpm to near
> 2000 rpm for a few minutes then back to normal 950 rpm and doing that a
> couple time during a short trip around town.. not all the time - in short
> an erratic behavior... swapping in a known good idle controller from
> another van didn't solve the problem, vacuum is good, TPS is good... heck I
> left it alone till I found this..
>
> over the weekend I did a tune up on my son's van, nothing special and I
> noticed one of the power steering switch wire was broken and I fixed that.
> After the tune up I start the engine (2.1 wbx) and a surprise... -  the
> idle went up to 2000 rpm like on mine, drive it around the idle eventually
> went down and then up again... hmmm .. scratching my head and check..
> nothing... the only thing I did extra is fixing the broken power steering
> switch wire... so I disconnect one of the wire the idle went back to
> normal.. aha... so I went to my van disconnect the same wire and bingo the
> idle is normal too...
>
> so in conclusion the erratic idle behavior on both van was due the
> defective power steering switch, locking up in full...
>
> dan
>