Hi all! I have been lurking in this list ever since I tried to sell
my '77 bus and was referred here quite a while ago. I haven't posted
because the mail program on the server where I work is the pits. Now
I am running the Pegasus Mail program at home, so I hope to be more
active. I still have the '77 and would like to restore it sometime,
but anyway I want to talk about the '87 Vanagon.

I don't always have time to read every message, but I -always- read 
any that has a subject about leaking heads or fast idle! Of course, 
my Vanagon needed the heads at about 60K miles. I did the job myself 
(replaced heads and gaskets - both sides) and the van is still going 
strong at over 122K miles with no signs of leaks. (yet). 

About the idle. I priced the idle stabilizer at a local dealer and it 
was close to $300.00. Incredible. Per some advice I saw here, I pried 
open my stabilizer to make sure it was not blocked or anything. After 
thoroughly cleaning it and reassembling it, the van acted just the 
same, idling around 3,000 rpm. If I unplugged the stabilizer while the 
engine was running the idle would drop right down to under 750 rpm. 
Hmmmmm, some black box is telling the engine to idle this fast. I 
checked the throttle switch and it was OK. I rang out all the wires 
from the vital parts of the fuel injection to the black boxes. In 
desperation I opened up the idle control black box (in front of the 
right tail light) and saw some questionable solder connections. I 
went over them all with a soldering iron and some fine solder, and 
the fast idle has not reappeared after several weeks!!

I have seen it mentioned that there may be some bad connections in 
the main FI computer box, but I haven't seen it mentioned for the 
idle control box, so I thought that maybe this would help someone.

Later. . .. .  .Brad