Engine cutting out

[satchmo]

It is getting hopeless. Hardly idles at this point. I tried plugging the vacuum hose to the FPR. No help. Grounded the Temp sensor 2. No change. S-boot is fine. Checked all the connections again. All good. I must be missing something. Before it died I was trying to get the idle up and any turn of the screw at the throttle body caused a near stall.

I have AAA, so if worse comes to worse, as it seems it might, I can get a tow. Bus lab is in Berkeley. Anyone deal with them?

[SlowLane]

(if it gets hopeless, make it sunny and warm, and I will come out and help)

It's currently sunny here, and warm, well, warm is relative. I'm walking around in shorts and a tee-shirt.

When should we expect you?

[SlowLane]

Bus lab is in Berkeley. Anyone deal with them?

Have not dealt directly, but have read good things about their integrity and expertise with busses and Vanagons. Water-cooled Vanagons seem to be their bread-and-butter, but they seem to know their way around the aircooled beasties.
They appear to be popular and busy, though, so your bus may be there for some time before they can get to it.

[satchmo]

Well, something is dying. The more I do, the worse it gets. Now I can't get it to idle. It will run at higher rpms for a few seconds as I hold the throttle open, then it just drops out for a bit, then comes right back to the high rpms, lather, rinse, repeat.

(Bob Dylan filter on) Something is happening, but you don't know what it is, DO YOU, MR. JONES? (Bob Dylan filter off)

Doubt I'll make it to Livermore. Freeway is too risky. Thanks anyway.

Tim

[SlowLane]

Well, something is dying. The more I do, the worse it gets. Now I can't get it to idle. It will run at higher rpms for a few seconds as I hold the throttle open, then it just drops out for a bit, then comes right back to the high rpms, lather, rinse, repeat.

Baffling. Hope it doesn't turn out to be something serious.

Doubt I'll make it to Livermore. Freeway is too risky. Thanks anyway.

Totally understand. The freeways around here scare me even with a healthy engine. I figured that you'd be nixing that idea once the symptoms started to get worse.

[satchmo]

Got the bus and us hauled to a shop called The Garage in Petaluma. They won't be able to look at it until Monday at the earliest. I'm hoping it is something simple, like a dead coil, which would please me and piss me off at the same time since I usually carry a spare. Anyway our next job is to find a rental car for a few days - and wouldn't you know it, all the rental places in Petaluma are closed on Sunday. At least they have a motel here.

Tim

[dingo]

The cyclical nature sort of sounds like intermittent availability of fuel pressure... clogged sock or clogged fuel line ?

[Amskeptic]

The cyclical nature sort of sounds like intermittent availability of fuel pressure... clogged sock or clogged fuel line ?

Heck, I gave up on speculation. Now I am waiting to smell the Petulumias.
Their report better not smell fishy either.
Colin

[TrollFromDownBelow]

and? What was the outcome?

[satchmo]

and? What was the outcome?

Short answer: Good. We made it back home today.

Long answer: Got the bus towed to a shop called "The Garage" in Petaluma last Saturday. I figured they would be able to look at it on Monday, but alas, they were closed on New Year's Eve day. So we had to wait until Wednesday to hear from the shop that they were so busy they couldn't really attend to my bus until Thursday. I had to be back home by Friday, so I went into worse case scenario mode by checking on rental cars, costs of flights from LA to Oakland and back, and every other contingency just in case the shop mechanics were unable to fix my bus by noon on Thursday.

Got to the shop at about 10:30 on Thursday hoping a solution had been found. At first, like me, the mechanics thought there was a problem with the AFM. Luckily, they had and swapped in a known good AFM and went for a drive. It still bucked, cut out, and sputtered - essentially no change. They even drove around with one mechanic hanging over the engine bay to see if they could tell what was wrong. While checking out some things in the parking lot, Kurt (one of the mechs) noted that the double relay was clicking with the key in the on position. Close inspection of the connector block revealed two terminals that were backing out and making inconsistent contact; one for the fuel pump and the other to the CPU. They thought fixing that that would be the answer, but NOOO, it still didn't rev well, although it didn't buck anymore. Another look at the points revealed a weird wear pattern, probably caused by the inconsistent running, bucking and cutting out, or maybe just because they were crappy Chinese made Bosch parts. Okay, so problems with the connections at the double relay and crappy points were corrected. Now it runs like an absolute charm. But wait, there's more. We still have the 'loaner' AFM installed. Replaced the AFM with my original one and guess what? It runs like crap again. Loaner AFM back in and it runs great. What is going on with my AFM? Don't know, but the wiper tracks are wearing through and I'm out of time to play around with it.

So, to summarize, three problems were found and corrected:

1) Poor/inconsistent connections at the double relay.
2) Dysfunctional AFM
3) Abnormal wear on the points

Fixing the connections at the double relay was easy, of course. Kurt installed genuine Bosch points and a condenser, both German-made. And the icing on the cake was that Kurt loaned me their good AFM until I could make it home. Incredibly, I was on the road by 1 pm on Thursday, and got back today without a single hiccup. Outstanding. Now I just need to locate a good used AFM. Well, that, plus investigate why my coach battery won't charge, or why my high beam doesn't work on the driver side, or, the latest problem, why my turn signal blinks fast/slow/fast/slow.

I will post some pics (like of the AFM and the points), and write up a summary of our fantastic trip to the Point Reyes area when I get a chance. Thanks to all who offered help and suggestions. This was a real head-scratcher. It is nice to be mobile again.

Happy New Year, Tim

[Westy78]

My suggestion would be to test the resistance of the plug pins on the testy AFM per Bentley. It's what caused the bucking symptoms in my bus years ago.

[satchmo]

My suggestion would be to test the resistance of the plug pins on the testy AFM per Bentley. It's what caused the bucking symptoms in my bus years ago.

And how did you effect a remedy? Repair, refurbish, or replace?

Tim

[Westy78]

My suggestion would be to test the resistance of the plug pins on the testy AFM per Bentley. It's what caused the bucking symptoms in my bus years ago.

And how did you effect a remedy? Repair, refurbish, or replace?

Tim

Replaced with a known good unit that still tested within spec. The bad AFM was a rebuilt from Fuel Injection Corp which was only a couple years old. Still have it stashed under the bed and need to send it in to see if they can fix it.

[satchmo]

Well, the one on my bus was a refurbished unit from FIC also. I don't think it had many miles on it either since the bus has only 59,000 original miles at this time, although I'm unsure exactly when this unit was placed in service. It bothers me that a refurb would fail so quickly.

I'm going to check with Raul (vw76westy) to see if he has a good used AFM. He is local for me and he does a lot of parts recycling.

Tim

[Amskeptic]

Well, the one on my bus was a refurbished unit from FIC also. I don't think it had many miles on it either since the bus has only 59,000 original miles at this time, although I'm unsure exactly when this unit was placed in service. It bothers me that a refurb would fail so quickly.

I'm going to check with Raul (vw76westy) to see if he has a good used AFM. He is local for me and he does a lot of parts recycling.

Tim

If you can save that bad AFM until the next time I come through, I would like to see if we can resurrect it. If I am in the BobD, it can play "test mule". AFMs are pretty basic devices. I would like to catch its failure point in the Bentley test sequence.
Colin