msinabottle
Samba Member
Joined: September 20, 2005
Posts: 3492
Location: Denver Area, Colorado
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 Posted: Thu Jun 19, 2014 4:10 pm Post subject: Winston's Fixed--And I am an Incompetent |
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I get so tired of being stupid.
Having gone to such great lengths to track down the problem, Jim Blazer figured it out as quickly as he had after I brought Winston in the last time.
It was the same problem!
Somehow, in swapping out the coolant, I had jarred the injector connector on #4 Cylinder. The wires on that one were no more secured than they had been on #3, which had gotten jounced during the fuel line replacement. This one had gotten jounced during the coolant replacement, not afterwards, since all the other work came out of it having happened.
Jim proceeded on the vindicated notion that I am a moron and checked and secured the wires on the remaining two cylinders. I had replaced those connectors in November of 2006:
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1851058&highlight=injector+connector#1851058
and they only gave me trouble NOW after the fuel line replacement. The sins of the fathers... or in this case, our former selves. Winston is running and purring in his usual perfect manner, and seems to hold no grudges for being driven nearly 100 miles on three cylinders.
Why didn't I catch that?
Jim, quite kindly, told me it was obvious--the 'puffing' of the exhaust... He drove so much better than he had the last time he had a dead cylinder--if still not up to snuff--that I just didn't associate the two problems. I feel like such an idiot. Rightly.
So... $30 for the unneeded coolant sensor... I won't call the new connector a foolish expense, the old one was broken, nor will I call my $6.50 Oxygen Sensor wrench fitting a waste, I can use the tool. Note that I'm not calling the new oxygen sensor a foolish expense, because...
The oxygen sensor needed replaced!
Both Larry and Jim said that amount of soot was fatal.
I brought the distributor cap and the sensor into Blazer in the event that a look at them might tell more trained minds than mine anything useful. Jim's remark was 'You had some trouble getting that out, didn't you? The new ones have anti-seize.' My response was, 'A bit... So did this one. It doesn't work.'
Both Jim and Larry Blazer passed the removed distributor cap, the pits and carbon were only on the inner posts, and not profound, but Jim did tell me his thoughts on the EMF shields--he doesn't like them. He feels that they allow arcing over the connectors and poles inside the distributor cap, as do the later model caps with the black plastic shielding. He removes those on sight. I washed and scrubbed the removed cap and put it into the spares pile. I had brought my NGK BP6ET plugs in case they wanted to replace the plugs. They didn't want to. But...
After getting Winston running again, Jim did an exhaust test. Winston was running about 5x richer than he should have--the reason, I think, for my ghastly mileage in this last tank. He ended reopening the old test port aft of the sensor, which required a lot of force, and then came the adjustments. Larry told me I should think about bringing Winston in every 15,000 miles or so, things do just get out of adjustment.
I asked if anything seemed to be wrong with the cat, it doesn't seem to be plugged, and the running on three cylinders may have had something to do with it, possibly. The Marvel Mystery Oil I run in every tank may also have been a factor, but he's quite leaned out now. Possibly the shot oxygen sensor was the cause, possibly the symptom. The new one didn't go down all the way, but was quite snug in its threads, Jim said. I think my entire exhaust system is on the way out, what to do, what to do...
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=471510
The funds will have to accumulate, alas. I know where a lot of them went.
The Brothers Blazer for all that charged me $93.50 for the repairs and pre-emptive fixes and pronounced Winston quite roadworthy, which is a very great comfort. He certainly was his old, eager self all the way back home and back into his lair, from which my need to work on him in the open had exiled him. Back to the Job Site tomorrow.
So, thank you all very much, I hope you don't mind having wasted your wisdom on a proven, if relieved, idiot.
Best!
_________________
'Winston,' '84 1.9 WBX Westy
Vanagon Poet Laureate: "I have suffered in
many ways, but never, never, never in silence." |
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