"Dan Houg" <fairwind@northernnet.com>  wrote:

>Subject: cleaning up that ratty idle
>
Mike P. wrote asking us for help in getting the rats out of his
engine:
>
>Here's my fix that worked on my '85, I'd posted this earlier but I
>didn't keep a copy and I'm don' feel up to an archive search this
>early in the am.
>
>1.  Clean all engine grounds, ie the main one on the left side of the
>block but check others.

A couple of weekends ago, I spent an hour under the engine lid on my '81 camper
with a can of spray contact cleaner, pliers and a screwdriver trying to find and
clean all the electrical contacts and grounds.  I couldn't find the grounds for
the fuel management computer system, though.  The only thing that might have
been it was two (white) wires running from the wiring harness to a nut
underneath the #3 intake manifold tube.

I couldn't get at it the connection, so I left it alone for now.  Can some kind
soul out there enlighten me?  Was that the ground connection?  If not, where
should I look for these ground wires on an '81 vanagon?  Are there some on the
underside of the engine, too?

On a related note, I replaced the temperature sender on #3 cylinder head that
sends info to the computer.  It tested out as defective when I used the VOM test
procedure in Haynes.  When I took it out, despite liberal use of penetrating
oil, it took almost all the threads out of the cylinder head with it.  (That's
one thing I really hate about aluminum heads!) I used a thinner washer when I
reinstalled the new one, so I picked up about another turn worth of depth into
the head, but I didn't dare really tighten it much beyond finger-tight.

Can anyone offer an informed opinion about the effectiveness of the sender with
the reduced surface contact with the head?  I'm not really worried, but should I
be?  Could I have handled the replacement in a more effective manner once the
damage was done?  The only alternative I can think of is to pull the engine and
put a heli-coil in the head.  Right now I have that on the list of things to do
when the engine eventually needs rebuilding.

I had reservations at Yosemite this weekend, but I'm bagging it.  ANOTHER storm
is on the way in with ETA of Friday night or Saturday morning.  Rats!

Lee

To:  VANAGON@LENTI.MED.UMN.EDU