Date:         Wed, 3 Apr 1996 14:17:50 -0800 (PST)
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Steve Johnson <sjohnson@pcocd2.intel.com>
Subject:      82 Van Computer problem (fwd)

I yanked this article from: rec.autos.makers.vw.aircooled.

More encouragement to check out your electrical systems (yourself)
to fix hesitation problems.

>From: David Yates <D.Yates@botany.uq.edu.au>

I thought my experience might be of interest. (I'd posted details to a 
contact, then thought the newsgroup might be an appropriate place.

I have an '82 air cooled, 2 litre, automatic bus with EFI. It is fitted 
out as a camper. During 1993 I had a problem.

I had a serious problem for 2 years that NO one could fix - not even
the VW guru's could help.  In the end I fixed it with a toothbrush!   
We could be driving for an hour or 10 minutes - or two days - and
suddently the engine would slow up.  We'd blow black smoke, run roughly
and then cut out.  I'd stop and try to start it. More often then not, it
would start immediately and then run fine for an hour or days. 
Initially the problem occurred once a month, but finally settled down
to maybe a couple of times a week, using the car daily for work, and at
weekends. The engine could be hot, cold or medium and it occurred.  The
road could be smooth or rough. We could be accelerating, slowing or
cruising!!   We tried EVERYTHING.  A lot pointed to the air regulator,
but with a replacement unit, the same thing happened.  Eventually I
decided it must be the computer - what else COULD it be?  I could have
had it checked out on a dummy rig for a lot of $$'s but they held out
little hope because of the intermittent nature.  An electronics friend
and I found a dry solder joint on one of the relays (forgotten their
purpose -fuel injection circuit?) and thought we had solved it.  Got the
car going, closed everything up and it happened again.  We had heated
all parts to glowing temperature with my wife's hair drier.  We'd cooled
everything including the computer to absolute zero!  We'd used SO much
freeze gas.  All we succeeded in doing was to change the pitch of the
engine.  (I have a GREAT deal of respect for the electronics now.)  The
engine was idling - and BINGO, it stopped..  Out with the computer again
and as we started it again, I wallopped the side
of the card, and blow me down, it hesitated.  I tapped every component
on the board with my tooth brush.  I was nearly to the end of my
patience and looked away as I tapped the last few components toward the
connector end of the board, and again it hesitated!!  I tapped again,
and it stopped!  Started it once more, and tapped the area again. 
Again, it hesitated.  Glenn (my amazingly intellingent, but now quite
desperate friend) look at me with a weary, disbelieving face and a spark
in his eye!  This was IT!  DO it again he said.  I did, and again the
engine hesitated.  This time, I pushed in three of the components (look
at the board, and compare component size with your toothbrush handle).  No 
effect - no change - the engine kept running. (By now our knees and calves 
were baldly burnt from standing behind what he still calls the Kraut 
cramper.

To this day, (18 months later) it has not skipped a beat!!  The 
components (resistors) are in the part of the circuit involved in 
suppression, just near the connector edge of the board.  NO ONE will
ever have the problem again, I bet.  If they do, I have the answer!

 . . . for what it is worth.
David Yates

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Hope this helps some people!!

Steven 
Sacramento, CA
sjohnson@pcocd2.intel.com