Date: Thu, 3 Mar 2005 20:42:04 -0500
Reply-To: tmiller <tmiller@VCMAILS.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: tmiller <tmiller@VCMAILS.COM>
Subject: Re: Need diesel Vanagon advice/help (longish)
In-Reply-To: <4227B8A8.1010800@comcast.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
Ken:
52 HP is 52 HP. You just put it in a bigger box with lousy aerodynamics
and twice the weight! You might check to see if flooring the throttle
pulls the pump open to the high speed stop screw. If it doesn't, you
need to tweek the cable tension, lever position so it does.
TEMiller
Ken Wilford wrote:
> I have an 83 diesel Vanagon with a 5 speed transmission. When I got it,
> it had a bum engine and we took the engine out of an 82 diesel Rabbit.
> The rabbit belonged to a friend of mine and I had driven it many times,
> and also I had driven it probably less than 500 miles before I pulled
> the engine out and put it in the van. It always had good power (for a
> diesel rabbit). The car zipped along and didn't struggle on the road.
> However in the van it is a much different story. It does not accelerate
> at all. It struggles to get up to 40 mph and then if you had a really
> long flat straight you might be able to get it up to 55 mph and put it
> in 5th gear but you are flooring the accelerator the entire time.
>
> Now we have some options:
> 1. This is normal, and I just have to live with it.
> 2. This is not normal and even though the van has low power it can do
> better than it is doing.
>
> I really don't have any experience with driving a diesel Vanagon so
> perhaps some of you out there can chime in who actually own and drive
> them.
>
> Now for the advice part. When we put the diesel engine into the
> Vanagon, it was running so well, I didn't want to mess anything up. So
> instead of swapping over the diesel Vanagon fuel injection pump, I left
> the Rabbit one on the engine. However this required us to swap the
> throttle arm on top of the fuel pump from the Vanagon pump to the Rabbit
> pump. When we were going to do this I though the arm could only go on
> one way. That there was a notch in it or something that would prevent a
> dummy like me from taking it off and putting it on wrong. However there
> is not. The splined shaft is the same all the way around so you can put
> the linkage arm on pretty much any way you want. But the pump itself
> cares which way the arm is on and it will not work properly without it
> in a specific orientation. So I am suspecting that our power problem
> could be due to the fact that this linkage arm is not installed
> properly. Therefore the throttle is not getting the chance to open up
> all of the way and therefore we are not getting the full power that the
> engine can deliver. It would be like trying to drive with a rock under
> the pedal. So my question is, is there a way to know that you have the
> throttle arm on, in the proper orientation? If so how?
>
> If the throttle arm is not the culprit are there any other ways to get a
> little more out of this engine to make the van more driveable?
>
> Any and all advice is much appreciated. Thanks for listening and caring.
>
> Ken Wilford
> John 3:16
> www.vanagain.com
>
>
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