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Subject:Does this bus go to my office?
From:joseph Trussell
Date:Mon, 6 Dec 1999 09:32:38 PST

Hi List, Happy Monday.

Saturday evening I left my house in Bessie, my '85 GL, to head to a
Christmas party.  There was some ice (we had snow and ice here Friday) on
the windshield, so I pulled over to knock it off so that the wipers would
go, simply because it was bugging me.  She was idling fine, I got back in,
let out the clutch, and she died.  I tried to crank her and it would turn
over but not fire, and I could smell gasoline so I figured she was flooded
due to my impatience in trying to start her.  Soon the battery was dead, so
I walked several miles to a friend's house after pushing Bessie into a
parking lot (that thing is heavier than I thought, especially when it's 19
degrees outside.)
Yesterday morning I went out to the parking lot and she started--white smoke
billowed from the exhaust, I mean a BUNCH of smoke, blanketing the entire
area.  Also there was a large black spot below the exhaust pipe, and she was
loping along maybe running on 3, and couldn't keep an idle.  I had her towed
back to my house and she wouldn't start at all last night.  I tried again
this morning, and the same thing--tons and tons of smoke and running
extremely rough and cant hold an idle.  After she stalled, she would not
fire again for anything.
Having broken the timing belt on my 16v Scirocco last month (and in turn
destroying valves and chipping a piston) I am now an
environmentally-friendly rider of Denver's Rapid Transit System.
I'm not sure what's up, but things seem bleak.
Also, I took her cross country, 1000 miles to Louisiana and back for
Thanksgiving, and she ran like a champ but I feel like the trip was her
undoing.

Any ideas?
Thank You,
Joe Trussell
'85 GL "bessie"
'86 scirocco 16v 'tony'

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