On Sun, 5 Apr 1998, Robert S. Williams, MD wrote:
> Hi all,
> Just got a lovely 1982 Aircooled Westie (with FI and standard
> distrib/points). This weekend I replaced the poptop and luggage rack seals
> and put in new rear hatch struts. I have a couple of problems with the
> vehicle that I am hoping the list can help me sort out.
>
> 1) when I fill up the tank at the gas station, the tank just overflows onto
> the ground from somewhere under the vehicle instead of triggering the gas
> pump backpressure shutoff in the pump handle. Is this usual? How do you
> tell at the gas station when you have a full tank?

My guess is that some of the rubber fittings on top of the tank are no
longer present or have rotted pretty badly.  I replaced all mine
maybe 5 years ago on my '81 Westy.  There are 3 main ones that I
can recall -- two on the passenger side and one on the driver side.
You can just barely reach them.

>
> 2) when I start the vehicle (cold engine only), it turns over fine and runs
> for about 5 to 8 seconds then it dies unless I catch it at exactly the
> right moment and sort-of gun the engine with the gas pedal and keep it
> alive until the engine warms up. The engine starts and runs just fine on
> its own ... till just about the time that the seatbelt warning buzzer stops
> buzzing and the panel lights shut off. (5 seconds or so) then the engine
> just dies out unless I judiciously press the accelerator. If the engine is
> warm, the problem goes away and the engine starts up and idles just fine.
> Any ideas on what is causing this?

The 5 to 8 seconds might be the amount of gas
that the cold-start valve fires in there, although
I'd have guessed more like 2 or 3 seconds.  There's another
piece of the FI system (quite near the cold start valve, in
fact...) that has a short timescale also, although
I forget what it is called.  If the van's not in a very good state of
tune I wouldn't be surprised at this behaviour; if it is, well,
maybe these bits of info will be a place to start.

> Anyway, I've been reading the list now for about a month and found the
> discussions to be interesting : but it seems more centered on issues of
> Wasserboxer engines and synchro stuff....  still interesting to read. Any
> help via E-Mail or via the list would be greatly appreciated.
>
>
>                                 Robert S. Williams, MD
>                                                              82 aircooled
> westie
>

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Gary Shea                                       shea@xmission.com
Salt Lake City                      http://www.xmission.com/~shea