Hi John,

My '80 Westy does this when the fuel in the tank gets low (about 3-4 gals
left). I discovered that there is a dent in the tank on the fuel outlet side
and that there is something in the tank that blocks the fuel outlet when the
tank is low on fuel. I have not pulled it yet to see what it is. If I blow
air (carefully!) into the tank to clear the blockage, all is well. Anyway,
see if you have fuel from the tank.   ...JMM

Justin Mayrand
'80 Westy "SuperVan"

On 8/18/02 8:07 PM, "John Brush" <jbrush@AROS.NET> wrote:

> 81 Air cooled. Runs flawlessly. Until a few hours ago.......
>
> Today it failed me for the first time in ten years and I don't understand
> what it could have been.
>
> Its around 90 degrees today, and I drove about 20 miles to pick up my son.
> Turned the van off, and spoke with some folks for about 10 minutes. When I
> got back in and tried to start it up, it sounded okay for a split second,
> like it was about to fire up, and then it just cranked and cranked and
> refused to start.
>
> I think most of us know how our vehicles sound when all is well, and for
> an instant, it was okay, and then sort of, well, stopped firing and never
> did start up.
>
> Cranked just fine. In fact, it spun the engine pretty fast, almost faster
> than when it is cranking up to start. No sign of any ignition taking
> place. Hope that makes sense. :)
>
> I got spark out of the distributor, although I only checked one of the
> four wires.
>
> At that point, I realized that I know nothing about these engines with
> regards to troubleshooting a no start.
>
> I waited, in the heat, for about 10 minutes, and tried again. Same result,
> just a fast cranking, but absolutely no sign of any ignition happening, or
> any chance of it catching. Just cranking along.
>
> I called a friend and when  he arrived, after about 30 more minutes, I
> tried again. Still nothing. Just spinning over and over.
>
> He rope towed me home.  What an adventure. I thought I would need the
> truck escape lane at one point :) and when I rolled up in front of my
> house, after about a 50 minute tow, I tried it again, and after a longer
> than normal cranking, it started up.  Right in front of the guy I took
> away from Sunday dinner....... :( Probably should have waited till he
> left.
>
> I will be buying lunch for Joe tomorrow, but we won't be going in the van,
> as I have no idea what happened, how to check out a no start scenario, and
> if it happened once, I assume it can/will happen again, at the worst
> possible moment. It has been a lot hotter around here and its never failed
> me, but it is still very warm if that might contribute to the situation.
> <shrug>
>
> Can anyone make suggestions or offer an opinion of what might have gone
> wrong? I can't see driving it again until I can get some sort of warm and
> fuzzy about what happened.
>
> Out in the middle of nowhere, with some tools at my disposal, what steps
> should I have taken to try and find the problem.
>
> Can fuel injection suffer vapor lock? With carbs, sometimes cranking with
> the pedal to the floor will clear it out. What does one do with FI?
>
> Much obliged for any words of wisdom I can apply.
>
> Thanks for reading this far!
>
> Regards,
>
> John

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