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Wed Jul 16, 2008 5:39 pm

I removed the after market air unit from the 83.5 vanagon. I pulled the hoses, I took out the compressor, removed evrything off the inside of the vehicle. Cut hoses by the front under driver's seat. I was gonna take the other bracket out but i didn't want take a bunch of stuff off to get to the bolts. Anyway, I did loosen the distributor and moved it around a bit. Anyway, when I got in to start the car, it cranked, turned over, then stopped running. Now it turns over, but will not start. The wire in the pic was under the compressor and was in this melted shape, however car strated right up before I removed the compressor and hoses, etc.. Did I screw up the distributor? Did I cut a wire that needs to be grounded? I am at a loss.

Removed compressor here..

Wed Jul 16, 2008 6:14 pm

You are aware that "moving the distributor around a little" has changed your ignition timing, right? Time to get out the Bentley and figure out what those wires do. And, check/adjust the ignition timing.

Equally important, in pic #1 it really looks like there is a missing bolt on the exhaust flange. The resulting hot exhaust gas leak has burned the visible connector, and needs to be fixed before it does more (and by more I mean expensive) damage.

Wed Jul 16, 2008 6:26 pm

berge13 wrote: I removed the after market air unit from the 83.5 vanagon. I pulled the hoses, I took out the compressor, removed evrything off the inside of the vehicle. Cut hoses by the front under driver's seat. I was gonna take the other bracket out but i didn't want take a bunch of stuff off to get to the bolts. Anyway, I did loosen the distributor and moved it around a bit. Anyway, when I got in to start the car, it cranked, turned over, then stopped running. Now it turns over, but will not start. The wire in the pic was under the compressor and was in this melted shape, however car strated right up before I removed the compressor and hoses, etc.. Did I screw up the distributor? Did I cut a wire that needs to be grounded? I am at a loss.

Tha red wire is not stock, the connector look stock but it doesn't make any sence being there?

Anyway, did you mess up the brown wire comming from the distributor hall sender? On the distributr there is a connector, one of the wire is brown and goes to the left head, is it ok? How is the connector itself on the distributor? loose, broken?

If no, you could have messed up the timing.....

Check that picture:
http://www.benplace.com/idle/idle1.jpg
This is basic timing, if you don't know the wire location, check on the distributor, not the cap, there is a small mark (you need to remove the cap to see it), align this one like on the picture, this will make sure timing will be good enough to start the van.

Ben

Wed Jul 16, 2008 7:01 pm

Connector has been loose, also, when I took the cap off, it looked kinda funky. I did move it around a bit. I think I may just gey a new Dist. and put it on, do a timing check, and fix the exhaust seal leak.... Wow!!! I just wanted the A/C out! Like the song... "One thing leads to another...."

Thu Jul 17, 2008 9:48 am

O.K. I cleaned up the cap and rotor, placed rotor on mark (as suggested by tencent) ... now, I have slow response on throttle and some backfiring.... Somebody tell me what did I do wrong, hey, at least it now runs....
And... wife gets Band-Aids in Bulk at Costco....
Thanks all..
Berge

Thu Jul 17, 2008 12:34 pm

Sounds like you got the distributor set close enough to get the engine started (by aligning with the mark), but you still need to set the timing properly with a timing light..

Fri Jul 18, 2008 11:16 am

Thanks to all, TenCent, shenan-agon, ftp2leta, OilNBolts, and the many others here on SAMBA. I picked up a timing light, (which I did not previously have) at Harbor Freight. Printed out the specs. from tencent and the diagram from Ben's Place... The motor sounds tight, great idle, appropriate power, no surge, no pinging, no coughing...
Thanks!
Berge