Fast-forward to 2010, I'm finished with my bug and now onto the bus. I hooked up my remote starter and cranked it over. It starts and sorta runs up until you give it any throttle. I mean if you even look at the accelerator, it will die. O.k. Now I'm eliminating the second variable as obviously it's getting spark or it wouldn't start and idle. Now I'm leaning (pardon the reverse-pun) at lack of airflow. I pull the air filter element out and yeah, it's a little dirty, but the bus still won't run even with it out. I try sticking a long screw driver in the AFM to see if the flap is stuck. No, it moves freely and I discover that I can get the bus to run by increasing the amount that I manually open the flap while increasing throttle. In other words, if I open the flap with the screwdriver in my right hand while I simultaneously open the throttle with my left hand, I can get the bus to run through all throttle positions. If I remove the screwdriver from the AFM, the flap snaps shut and the bus dies. This indicates a massIVe air leak somewhere. I check all the hoses and find that a hose on the AAR is loose. O.k. this is not good, but couldn't really account for the fact that apparently NO air is passing through my AFM to keep the flap open. I then remove the S-boot hoping to find a breach which would explain the huge air leak. Nope, it's all good. I then decide to remove the AFM and have a look. Here's what I found.
A closer look.
It seems I have a hole in my flap! I found a nickel-size washer-without-a-hole laying down on the tin where it had fallen out of the air filter housing when I removed the air filter element. It looks like this.
It's supposed to be attached to here.
Well now, this might explain why the flap won't stay open! The "screen door on a submarine" analogy comes to mind. On further inspection, this round doo-dad used to be attached to the spring-loaded plunger you see here.
I'm completely guessing, but perhaps it's there so if the flap snaps shut, the plunger will allow this hole to briefly open and let some air pass through similar in function to the decel valve which would reduce emissions? Nice guess, huh, but probably way wrong.
I considered trying to reattach the washer-without-a-hole to the plunger with JB Weld or something, but I would never feel comfortable with the fix. I would always be afraid that I'd be a million-miles from home and that thing would break off again. I can tell you first-hand, if that happens, your bus isn't going anywhere but onto the back of a tow truck. I'm off to Ken's (www.thebusco.com) to see if I can score an new-to-me AFM.
More to come...
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