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sanchius 
Samba Member
Joined: May 03, 2007
Posts: 1559
Location: IN
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 Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2023 4:15 am Post subject: Re: Our '85 fix-up-and-enjoy Vanagon |
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| The Pilch wrote: |
| What on earth is a Hall Pickup? |
It has been fun watching you and your wife's journey with your van.
And most of us here have been noobie Vanagon owners at some point in our lives asking that same question: "What on earth is a Hall Pickup?"
This is a transition point that signals you are moving to the next level of Vanagon ownership: advancing from reactive fixing to proactive maintenance and upgrades. The highest level, Vanagon Guru, is still a decade or so away if you keep at it.
For years I was in the first camp, reactive fixing. We also had a very reliable, powerful, and professionally maintained LWB Astro van with working everything that we used for many crosscountry and camping trips with the kids while I puttered on my Westy. I enjoyed the uniqueness of the Westy, put up with its spectacular unreliability, but never spent the time to get to know that much about it mechanically or electrically because we always had the Astro to fall back on when the Westy broke down.
When the Astro reached the end of its service life and the kids were graduating and dispersing to their lives, I had a decision to make: get another boringly reliable American van or go all in on making the Westy as reliable as I could. The cost was going to be about the same. The coolness and challenge of the Westy won out over the reliability of a soul less American van and I dove in to learn and do everything needed to keep a semi-stock Vanagon alive. The first step was getting very proficient at using TheSamba search functions so I could learn from the experience and pain of others on what needed to be done. The rest require time, $$$, and labor.
Things I have done that have brought me great peace of mind on our Westy are:- Renewing all the fuel lines & upstream fuel system (tank, crossover lines, pump, and filter),
- Completely renewing the cooling/HVAC system: radiator, heat matrix, water pump, thermostat, and ALL the rubber bits.
- Renewing the front heater system and adding relays to the med & high speed settings,
- Renewing all the wheel bearings, CVs, flexible brake lines, & suspension/steering bushings,
- Renewing the shifting system, accelerator cable, & ignition switch,
- Cleaning all grounds, adding additional grounds and a hidden kill switch, installing fresh batteries,
- Relaying the headlights & horn to get the load off the switches,
- Doing the high-torque starter conversion,
- Adding an oil pressure gauge that sits right in front of me,
- And the big one: rebuilding the WBX engine from the case up to a higher spec. Much of this is documented here: Westy & WBX rebuild spreadsheet
Since I was in this for the long haul and was lucky enough to live in places with multiple Pick-n-Pull boneyards within easy reach, I also slowly accumulated a deep set of known-good spares to keep on board to use as hot-swaps for the fails that commonly put vanagonauts on the side of the road: distributor+Hall sensor, coil, fuel pump+filter, 2 ignition switches, 2 belts, old accel cable, an ECU, and a Bentley manual. In the garage are a couple spare AMMs, throttle bodies, catalytic converter, and a bunch of other parts. At this point, the only big things that remains to renew are the transmission & engine wiring harness, upgrading to metal fore/aft coolant lines, coolant tank and vapor recovery tanks, replacing the aging BFGs, and maybe think about adding AC since we now live in the land of humidity.
So now, after a lot of time, money, and effort, I finally have a reliable Westy.
The big challenge now is finding time to use it while keeping bad drivers from running into me.
Good luck on your journey and keep up the good storytelling...
_________________
The Syncro years (2005-16) - The 2WD years (2017-23) - In Hoosierland (2023-now)
Westy & WBX rebuild spreadsheet - Sanchius & Tuna: The Video
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DuncanS
Samba Member
Joined: October 17, 2013
Posts: 4583
Location: New Hampshire
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| Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2023 6:10 am Post subject: Re: Our '85 fix-up-and-enjoy Vanagon |
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| The Pilch wrote: |
I jumped in and Freddie started right up, the tach did one little flicky thing. I found that odd.
What on earth is a Hall Pickup? |
| danfromsyr wrote: |
tach acting odd is a key thing here.
I'd inspect the wiring plug and the wires inside the distributer very closely for looseness or chaffing |
Engines need to have some way to tell the spark plugs when to fire. They used to use points in the distributer. Now they use a device called a Hall effect sender which has no contact points, just a magnet with some other stuff you don't need to know about which do the same thing as points, but with greater reliability and precision of timing.
Engines used to have carburetors which created a gas/air mix which was ready all the time to be pulled into the cylinders when the valve opened. Now they use injectors which are triggered to send the right amount of gas into the cylinder depending on load, RPM and some other stuff you don't need to know about. Without going on too long about how the injectors and air get to the cylinders on a T3 (Vanagon), the Hall sender does the injector thing too.
Without the Hall sender, you have no running capability atal, atal.
Since this is part of the dizzy (distributor), a replacement is very easy, but you need to know about timing and have a light for that. There is plenty on this in Bentley or ProTraining, so....... https://www.summitracing.com/parts/pnx-d186504?sei...B#overview
BUT, remember the signal from the dizzy has to get to the ECU which then tell the injectors and spark to happen. It might be the wires or their connection to the engine harness from the dizzy, in which case, check them out carefully, especially at any plugs or connections. You don't need plugs, that was for assembly at the factory, so shrink insulated butt connectors are better as there is less chance of corrosion.
The tach--It gets its signal from the coil which in turn get's its signal from the ECU. The wire runs from the coil, way back aft, all the way forward to the gizmo at the dash. If for any reason that wire gets grounded, from age or mouse related chomping, and happens to intermittently touch some body metal, then the engine will skip, or quit until it moves off the metal by a bump, shutting the door when you get out or heat related movement. Thus Dan's comments are well placed.
Duncan |
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The Pilch
Samba Member
Joined: December 04, 2013
Posts: 729
Location: Utah
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| Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2023 6:44 am Post subject: Re: Our '85 fix-up-and-enjoy Vanagon |
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You guys are all Vanagon Guru's.
Everyone who has contributed to Freddie's thread deserves a beer and a sew on embroidered patch.....actually, I feel a sticker coming on....yup, a sticker.
I work in the vehicle graphics industry so I shall design and send out a Vanagon Guru sticker for you all to get in the mail. It's not much, but it's our tribute to you all for your tireless help and positive support. I'll get working on that and ask for your mailing addresses here soon.
We appreciate every word you guys write down here. Reading all of this above brought me peace, and the idea that I can fix this issue, so I owe you all a big one.
Lots of love, peace and axle grease, Gary, Christina and Freddie.
_________________
'85 Vanagon GL, weekender package, 1.9 wbx named Freddie/ '61 Beetle named Ringo/ '78 Dodge Monaco which is nothing like the Bluesmobile so please don't cast that oily rag upon it. |
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DuncanS
Samba Member
Joined: October 17, 2013
Posts: 4583
Location: New Hampshire
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| Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2023 9:07 am Post subject: Re: Our '85 fix-up-and-enjoy Vanagon |
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| May the God of the Hall sender have mercy upon us. |
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The Pilch
Samba Member
Joined: December 04, 2013
Posts: 729
Location: Utah
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| Posted: Thu Mar 07, 2024 11:12 am Post subject: Re: Our '85 fix-up-and-enjoy Vanagon |
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Hello you guys!
That was a long winter - not as harsh as some we've seen here, but it was long nonetheless.
Temps are creeping up and I'm ready to get back into Freddie.
Me and Christina are getting married in a few weeks, by then the weather should be glorious and after our trip to Iceland in May, we'll be doing some adventures in Freddie!
We took him around the block last weekend, he had no power, a sticky lifter as usual, so there's a little bit to do before we can get him out on the road.
We hope you guys have had a good winter and it wasn't too dangerous.
Best wishes, Pilch
_________________
'85 Vanagon GL, weekender package, 1.9 wbx named Freddie/ '61 Beetle named Ringo/ '78 Dodge Monaco which is nothing like the Bluesmobile so please don't cast that oily rag upon it. |
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DuncanS
Samba Member
Joined: October 17, 2013
Posts: 4583
Location: New Hampshire
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| Posted: Thu Mar 07, 2024 11:15 am Post subject: Re: Our '85 fix-up-and-enjoy Vanagon |
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All talk and no sticker. Seriously, Congrats on the hitch. Hope it's a frame mount and not a bumper one.
Looking forward to hearing about both Iceland and the adventures in Freddie.
Duncan |
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The Pilch
Samba Member
Joined: December 04, 2013
Posts: 729
Location: Utah
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| Posted: Thu Mar 07, 2024 11:21 am Post subject: Re: Our '85 fix-up-and-enjoy Vanagon |
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Ahhhh yes, the sticker! I almost quit my job a bunch of times this winter as I've been overworked and...you guessed it...underpaid! Hahaa, but things are getting better.
As for the hitch - there will definitely be some mounting going on 
Thanks Duncan!
_________________
'85 Vanagon GL, weekender package, 1.9 wbx named Freddie/ '61 Beetle named Ringo/ '78 Dodge Monaco which is nothing like the Bluesmobile so please don't cast that oily rag upon it. |
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Buggeee
Samba Member
Joined: December 22, 2016
Posts: 4926
Location: Stuck in Ohio
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