You all remember the story of the "free" Vanagon from South Carolina. I just
went on vacation in it. I had a situation before I left that I dubbed
Vanagon farts. I got lots of info from everyone. The one that seemed to fix
the problem was the airflow meter, which I had thought I fixed before I left. 

While on vacation, I had more problems. I was a long way from home. I
figured the airflow meter was gone again after my rigging of the thing.
Bought a used one from a guy for $200. Seemed like a deal. He even put it in
for me. Seems to work well after that, but as soon as the engine warmed up
again, it got worse. He told me about a guy that could set the airflow meter
for me. I went to see him. He decided the airflow meter was set correctly.
He determined it was the distributor. The shaft had side to side play. This
was causing the points to bang together instead of just closing. He adjusted
the points open more and re set my timing to make up for it. It ran great
after that. I went back to the guy I bought the airflow meter from and got
another distributor from him for $100. I thought that was a little high, but
what do I know.  I figured if I had one, I wouldn't need it. 

Things went pretty well after that, but now I needed brakes. I went to a
Firestone dealer. They determined I needed everything. I needed front
calipers, rotors, rear cylinders, shoes, and a new master cylinder. They
could get their hands on everything but the master cylinder and the front
calipers. Cost me $675 for this operation. 

This was supposed to be a cheap vacation. I was sleeping in the back of the
van to save on motel/hotel costs. 

The problem started again. I had the spare distributor so I changed it (in
the rain!).

The problem remained. I decided to cut my trip short and try to baby the
thing home. I could drive all day as long as I  didn't take it over 50 or 55
mph. Seemed to be an rpm thing instead of a throttle thing.

Got home and took it over to the local VW guru. He pointed right to the
problem. It seems there's a thing called a cylinder head temp sender. If the
head temp gets too hot, the engine cuts off. That was the problem all the
time. The thing was loose. Actually, it's not loose, It's stripped. On the
head of course, not the sending unit. The thing vibrates out and the engine
cuts out. 

I asked the guru what my options are and he said I didn't have any. I needed
a new head.

So this is the story of the "free" vanagon. So far since my friend gave it
to me, I've spend over $4000 on it. So much for free.

So, before I go outside and torch it, anyone have any "cheap" ideas that
will work?
Jim Kirk
captain@iquest.net