[Vwdiesel] One for the archives...RE: '82 Vanagon westy and engine cutting out issue

[Bryant Baecht]

Hi all,
     Thanks for all the pointers.  I also called my mechanic tonight that
just replaced the head gasket and bounced a few things off him.  I discussed
the situation and he didn't think it was the pump.  This pump was recently
rebuilt before I bought it.  Yeah, yeah, my thought was that they did
something wrong in the rebuild process.  I explained what I did before to
fix the problem and after discussing this, decided to remove the plunger
from the fuel cutoff solenoid and see what happens.  After firing the bus up
for a friend and not getting 50 feet down the road before it cut out again,
I pulled the fuel cutoff solenoid and removed the spring/plunger/o-ring and
put the solenoid back on.  Well, the cutout hasn't happened since and I've
driven the vanagon about 2-3 miles.  Before I couldn't get 50 feet down the
road.  I'll be driving more tomorrow and on the highway before heading out
to a campout this weekend, 4 hours from home.
     The thing I don't get is I replaced the fuel cutoff solenoid a couple
of weeks ago from a running diesel that had no problems.  Now 500 miles
later or so, this solenoid is behaving the same way as the bad one.
Wondering if maybe I need check the electrical going to the solenoid?  Maybe
it's putting out weird voltage, burning out my solenoid, or possibly a bad
switch like mentioned previously?  Anyone heard of this?  This has sure been
a learning experience.  Having just bought one, I know they aren't cheap (
$60 from Parts Place in Auburn Hills, MI ), so I definitely want to do some
looking at things before I burn out another one.  Thanks to all that have
helped me with this so far!  You've been very helpful and I really
appreciate it as this is my first VW weird problem I've had with my VW
diesel fleet of '81 rabbit and '82 Vanagon.

Bryant