Last Wednesday I tried to go out in my Type 2 van. He’d worked fine a few days earlier but this time the engine fired and then died. Repeatedly. Thinking that maybe there was a problem with the pump I whipped the carb end of the fuel line off and cranked the engine. Petrol flew out of the end so that wasn’t the problem.
Reading my new indoor (i.e. not covered in grease and oil) copy of Haynes I reckoned that the problem probably lay with the ignition system. Well, I had fuel and air so it must be the spark that was missing. Knowing the HT lines weren’t in the best condition (I’d had a shock off them recently while tinkering) I took advantage of Just Kampers offer and bought a new Bosh Blue coil, spark plugs and leads set. Cost just over 30 quid plus postage.
Today I struggled to change the plugs. Whose crazy idea was it to put them there down those dark invisible holes ? Using a combination of the VW tool in the roll, a socket set plug wrench, a cranked version, perseverance and some bad language (why do the neighbours kids insist on watching when you really need to have a good rant ?) did the job with only a slightly skinned knuckle.
For an easy to work on van, this simple job is a pain in the backside. The trick is to find the tool that grips the plug and goes in the hole. Use this with fingers to start the thread and then finish with something that allows the final nip up. If the plugs were about 2cm longer this would be a much easier task as you could use finger tips to do the first stage.
Anyway, this is the plug from the offside front (under the air filter) cylinder. The spark gap is around a centimetre. All the others were fine. Where the hell did this electrode go ?
With new plugs, leads and coil the engine still wouldn’t fire. So remembering the fault we had after we replaced the fuse box, I cleaned and tightened the black wire to the + side of the coil. That fixed the engine. A little tickle of the mix and we had a good runner.
Now the moral of the story is that sometimes you get lucky. I doubt that many of the components really needed to be changed, the coil is being stored as a spare for example, but without doing all this work I wouldn’t have spotted this plug and replaced it.
On the road I have something I haven’t had for while. Power.
Cruising at 55-60mph along roads we previously struggled to 40 on was great. I suppose I’ve learned that you can run a VW on three cylinders but that fourth one doesn’t half make a difference !
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