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

[Shawn Wright]

On 18 May 2005 at 23:00, Bryant Baecht <Diesel-Vanagon at yahoogroups.com> wrote:

> 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.

Have you replaced the GP relay? According to Bentley, the fuel solenoid runs off #86 
on the GP relay, which is also tied in to #15 on the ignition switch. It's possible your 
relay is flaky, causing the problem. It's also possible your seatbelt warning system 
somehow factors in. (I mention this only because mine was fried shorting power to 
pin 15, and disconnecting it fixed it). A test light as Rob suggested would be a good 
plan to see what's going on when it happens again. 

Shawn Wright
http://zuiko.sls.bc.ca/~swright
'85 Jetta D 
'88 Westy 2.1L, soon to be 1.6TD 5 speed
 (see progress at http://members.shaw.ca/vwdiesels)
'82 Diesel Westy