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Howdy folks,

We have a lovely '78 VW Westy. Our main problem is that it starts to stall after about 2 minutes of driving, unless you are driving at highspeeds or revs.

Whether this is part of the problem or not, there is a piece of the body which is underneath the engine, where the accordian like thermostat is. Yeah. It fell off. We kind of found another use for it (holding up one of the batteries)... and apparently it maybe required to keep the engine at the correct temperature and therefore idling correctly.

The van idles ok if the engine has been started from cold... but after

2 minutes... starts stalling.

We've had the same problem very occasionally before, if we get stuck in traffic after having driven for several hours on the highway. But when we leave the van alone overnight the next day it's good to go again. However, now it happens right away and is not going away.

Thoughts? We live in Montreal any suggestions for a mechanic?

Dan & Meg

- Strider - 78 Westy

Reply to
Daniel
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There probably isn't enough salt on the planet to go with my newbie comment, but - besides just replacing the thermostat - couldn't you just just open the flaps manually to see if it is indeed thermostat related?

Please correct me if I am wrong but If the thermostat is gone, aren't the flaps closed so isn't the cooling minimal? That probably isn't a good idea..

Remco

Reply to
Remco

Sounds like the 'stat is still there, its the piece of tin going under pushrod tubes my guess thats gone. No help for the issue though...

Reply to
Juper Wort

If the thermostat is gone the flaps are open...

Joao

72 Super 1302
Reply to
Joao Eliseu

Thanks for the correction. I've only seen my thermostat and flaps statically, not in actual operation - it fails safe, then. Maybe his flaps are stuck closed?

Reply to
Remco

thanks all for the replies! yes we still have the thermostat, though the cable that runs from the thermostat seems kind of loose. we'll go and have a look at the flaps tomorrow, see if we can figure anything out from them.

the piece that fell off is according to the bentley manual the "bottom right air duct". my theory had been that there was some sort of cooling problem because the piece has been threatening to fall off since we've had the van, and as I mentioned before we've occasionally had this problem before as well, and then right after the piece fell off it got worse.

in which case the thing to obviously do would be to find a new 'bottom right air duct' and replace it, but we've had no luck finding such a part so far. so i guess we're just wondering, before we go trudging around scrap yards etc. looking for one, if that logic makes sense or if anyone has other thoughts on what might be going on?

cheers! Dan & Meg Strider - '78 Westy

Reply to
Daniel

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