Hey y'all, greetings from Chicago (previously Austin, Tx). I've made lots of Vanagon videos and now I've released my first Vanagon product: Van Tracker! Van Tracker is a Remote Automatic Kill Switch + GPS Tracker with Movement Detection, and start alerts / open-door alerts. 2 months free cell service + 60-day money back guarantee make for a risk-free purchase! Go to www.TheVanTracker.com for more.
Cheers, -j
www.TheVanTracker.com
Music I've made over the past 20+ years: Talk Radio: open.spotify.com/artist/4ZBogIfWzk6uTQSEwWt2V2 The Steed: open.spotify.com/artist/02EsnPEbcRthofVmKqMT5d Mason's Time: jimmyivory.com/mason/index.html
When you say new, I assume you mean new to you, right? Far as I know they stopped making them a really long time ago. Make sure it's screwed in all the way, sometimes it takes some jiggling and twisting at the same time. If that doesn't work, replace the regulator how I describe in the video. It worked on both of mine and wasn't too hard. I used a hacksaw to cut the new regulator stem part.
@@andrewmeadors936 this one was supposed to, so I have no good advice : ( There are a couple other good vanagon brake booster videos on youtube and I think you could see the part # on one of them and it was the same as the one I got.
Quick question, I installed a hard start relay in my mk1 golf a while back. I've noticed I don't get a battery light on ignition anymore, could this be because of the relay? Thanks
That's a great question. It **shouldn't** affect the battery light, but I don't know how that wiring works. VW did some questionable stuff with the starting circuit on some Vanagons. The refrigerator relay and the cruise control both use the starting circuit as a ground, so putting a HS relay in a Vanagon with a fridge requires a tiny mod, and for vans with cruise control AND automatic transmission, a HS relay is known to be a bad idea...
@jwgmail in my golf (automatic) the starter gets cooked because of the location of where it is right next to the manifold. So it's been a life saver for me the car starts everytime. Whereas before it was hit and miss if the car would start up turning the key.
Man that's a bummer, did you try the soapy water thing I did in the video? If you blew into it and it seems sealed, maybe the problem is the hose bringing the diesel to the heater? The black rubber hose rots really quickly in my experience, while the hard clear/white plastic seems to have a decent lifetime.
I have the white hard nylon hose. I found out the valve thing in the tank cap had fallen out and was in the bottom of the tank. I put it back in but still getting a diesel smell but not as bad. I've only burnt many 4 tanks of diesel.
@@kevinfarrell6948 I have the hard nylon hose too, but where the hard hose meets the pump and where it meets the bottom of the heater there are some 2 inch pieces of rubber, and that rubber degrades quickly, even though I got fuel line. I have the tank in a cabinet in my van and I did my best to seal that cabinet with caulk and everything, but any time you open it it smells like diesel. The smell even creeps out some. don't know if that's your issue but man, that stuff is just incredibly smelly : (
Thx for your reply, I have clear pieces of fuel line connecting the nylon line to the pump and heater. I have my air intake inside, that might be my trouble.
I seem to remember that there was, but I also just checked. Their website basically just points you to Amazon, where someone asked... Q: Is there a pressure bypass, cold oil or plugged filter? A: Yes there is a bypass if the filter were to become restricted. Answered by Magnefine Filters in the United States on November 29, 2018
My heater ran great for over a year, then it started smoking with a horrible diesel smell inside and outside,,, I changed the heater base unit but kept all the old hardware, Same thing it smelled awful, I tweaked the pulse settings and checked everything, Still could smell it.. then I changed the fuel pump and that solved the problem,, The pumps pump precisely 0.0288 milliliters each pulse,, ,, The old pump was rusted though it still pumped, its accuracy was gone and that is critical for these heaters because they're build for those precise pulses of fuel,, My old pump was dumping excess fuel into the chamber,, try changing the pump
I personally think the diesel smell you get when starting up and shutting down is caused by this scenario. My diesel heater is inside, and I expel the combustion exhaust out through a bulkhead fitting. Here is what I think causes the temporary SU/SD diesel smell. 1) You turn on the heater and the fan starts to spool up at a very slow rate, 2) After a few seconds the glow plug is energized drawing around a 100 watts , 3) After several seconds, diesel is pumped into the combustion chamber and is kind of vaporized and burned, 4) To keep the fan from cooling the glow plug and increasing the 100 watt draw time, the mapping of the ECU is such that it keeps the fan at a very low speed, not much air movement, 5) With the low air movement, I personally feel burned and unburned diesel fumes/vapors are back flowing out the fresh air combustion inlet into the cabin area. 6) Now when the glow plug is deenergized, the fan speed is increased preventing back flow. 7) Same thing kind of happens on SD, to little air flow causing a back draft.
I don't think it's the backdraft because the smell stopped after I put the silicone on there - but I agree that it's the fan speed and low heat that's causing there to be more unburnt diesel at startup... somehow that never dawned on me that clearly but clearly that's what's going on, so thank you. The fumes outside are definitely horrible at startup.
If you mean head like the cylinder head of an engine, check out this video ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-EB_W0EO4nZU.html&ab_channel=jwgmail (but it didn't really work). If you mean the brown seal over the glowplug, I put the red rtv around the mating surface of that brown seal and stuck it into the hole, so the rtv was squeezed out some and it sealed real nicely
@@jwgmailthanks for the reply, Yes I did mean the cylinder head and I see in your other video that you did the underside (only where the paper ripped). My gasket seems to be loose between the top two bolts, I put some red RTV on the glow plug, fuel gasket, as well as the underside the paper gasket. Well give it a run tonight and see how it goes 🤞
@@blairwhite2115 That's weird... the quality control on these things ain't that great, but the casting on mine generally seem to be ok. Good luck, bud!
If you have an exhaust leak it is the burn chamber gasket. You have to remove the fan-motor-intake assembly to get to the burn chamber bolts and gasket.
Just pul out that plug or rubber boot and cut it off, then use aluminum foil and use high temp silicone over the foil, over the hole where the glow plug is, that rubber smell is coming from that rubber plug that goes over the glow plug.
'Why' is the exhaust gas escaping past a poor seal? a poor seal should be 'good enough' as the exhaust gas should not have any back pressure unless you have a very poorly run exhaust system. Not saying it should have zero pressure theres the wall effect of the exhaust pipe causing restriction but the pressure should be very very low and not enough to get past a push fit rubber seal. Glad you found it as such leaks can be deadly
The glow plug under the red cap screws into the body of the heater. They use a metal gasket there to seal the glow plug but the gasket isn't working well enough. Search google www.google.com/search?q=diesel+heater+cutaway+diagram and hopefully you can find one that's shows the glow plug clearly
I put it in the description of the video but I should have put it in the video itself - YES it worked! I was so happy. Some people have a burning rubber smell and that's a different issue (the rubber seal on the bottom) but this fixed the unburnt diesel smell for me...
I know, I don't like that either but it was killin me. It was straight up unusable, especially if my girlfriend was camping with me. No way she was gonna tolerate that
Thanks for postingn this video. I also have an 84 and am i the process of replacing the 1.9L with a 2.1L motor. I thought I heard you say in the video that you had put a 2.1 in your van but had only replaced the plenum and the air intake runners. Can I ask you about that? I would like to do the swap with as little modification of the rest as possible. Planning to run the 2.1 for a couple of years while I decide my next steps for an engine conversion. thanks
We can talk on the phone if you'd like. It was a while ago so it's so it's cloudy, but I remember it not being too tough. I've done damn near everything to this van except torn into an engine, so I don't know what time about engines. But to me the blocks looked the same. I think the cylinders are just bored and possibly stroked to get a little extra volume. Check this out if you haven't already. Send me a text if you want to talk, happy to help. Also, I will attempt to talk you into getting a bostig, ha! oldvolkshome.wetwesties.org/19to21.htm Tried to send this message through theSamba but it gave a weird error, contact me at www.thevantracker.com/support
Thanks for the video I'm getting this smell too and I get migraines so bummer. Anyhoo, this guy found a way to seal around the blower motor, so yeah you can seal it too. Thanks for the video again good stuff... ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-sbK3KlrH_k0.htmlsi=4DEwqkH4Egnn5IW9
73 really isn't that hot for Texas...I have yet to install mine, but I am working on it today, and until it is in. I had all the cabinets out to fix the rusty side panel and paint it.
Exactly... when it was 95 it would run a very long time to cool to 37 and would race back to 40 even faster. Before installing, I put 1" solid pink insulation on 5 sides of the fridge. I bought the thing used, so maybe its cooling power isn't what it should be, fine, but why would its ability to *keep* stuff cool be so bad.... I'm baffled. I would greatly appreciate if you share your experience when your install is done. Good luck!
I thought the same about the holes in the corrugated floor. And I like the siphon of the diesel fuel tank. I like that idea so that you can remove the tank....you know, go to add diesel, which stinks, and I have a 100% chance of spilling it. 85 Westfalia, I came looking for locations for fuel tank and heater (5Kw)
the holes in the corrugated floor were letting a little smell in so I used a lot of red rtv to seal it and it worked pretty well, but overall the solution certainly wasn't great vs using a flat floor. But in general i like the install in this location
Seriously! Do you operate in Austin, and what would a ballpark estimate be? Also, we had a main line from the sewer to the kitchen sink but there were 2 branches, 1 to the bathroom, and 1 to the garage door the washing machine... How are those handled?
Thank you for this video. I copied what you did but the hot air that comes out still smells like plastic. Do you have any recommendations on what is causing it to smell like plastic?
sorry I don't know what it would be. are any of the electronics overheating or touching the metal? Have you let it run a long time, hoping the smell will fade and stop?
The rubber bushing on the bottom stinks when touching the exhaust , either cut it out 1/2 inch away from the pipe or toss it, it's just for vibration. If you take it apart and smell the black rubber gasket on the bottom you'll instantly recognize it, it should be silicone not rubber.
When I used this in near-freezing weather, guess what? It was a lot colder, and the air coming out of the heater was NOT overwhelmingly hot! When I shot this the ambient temp was maybe 75° F so a 5kW heater may not be a terrible idea. This one is a 2kW model heater.
To be clearer, the red/white wire going into that gray relay previously came from the fusebox. I disconnected it from the fusebox, cut the end off, and connected it to that white wire coming directly from the battery. I put an inline fuse holder to replace the fuse in the fusebox.
This is the 1.9L engine from my 1984. I made another video about the 2.1L engine from my friend's 1988 van here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-CgTGtpALEwk.html&ab_channel=jwgmail
Thanks so much for posting this and explaining the governor so well. I finally understand what my local transmission guy was trying to tell me. ...In the mornings, the automatic transmission in my daily driver (1993 VW Cabriolet 123,XXX mi) is not shifting out of first gear unless I drive it SLOWLY around a few side streets for a mile or so. Eventually it kicks into 2nd, and then I know I'm good to go for the rest of the day. Had the filter kit (NAPA) just changed and didn't fix the problem. Would like to buy a NEW one if possible to avoid future downtime. Please advise, if possible, if you have one or a source for one? I did look on ebay, but I don't have a part #. Thank you.
Hey, sorry, I don't know why i'm not getting youtube comment notifications anymore... The experts that can help you find the "name" of your transmission (for example, mine is an "090" transmission) and possibly a donor, rebuilt, or (unlikely) the governor itself are German Transaxle: www.germantransaxle.com/VW-Vanagon-Transaxles-.htm?m=5&s=744 It was very hard for me to find a new governor. Is there any chance you or your mechanic could do this fix I describe in the video? If not, you could try looking for the part on the classifieds on theSamba.com or do a "want ad" in the classified section. Or you could try to go to a junk yard to find your car or another model (maybe even an Audi) that shares the transmission. If you find the "name" of the transmission it might help.
Hi, thanks for the video! I saw someone else fix the leak at the shaft of the rotor as you say can't be fixed. He applied some sealant and closed it off.
Just did a service on my DH and did the same test too, air blows from the glowplug seal, but I don t have smoke smell. But a had it one time, and check the exaust, and it had a small crack. Check your exaust tube!
Great vid! Great idea with blowing into the air intake also! The other place that may be a problem is with the bolts holding the unit together, (the fan housing portion and the heat chamber). Those bolts may not have been tighten all the way at the factory. Then after the unit heats up it expands and closes the gap and many times they won't even put a gasket between the two parts. -Mike
They will always smell no matter what. 1 -The cap is vented, 2- the intake tube for burner air if not out side of the heated environment will let stink out. Never let one run unattended. Always have carbon monoxide and smoke detector in area of use. The life you save may be your own!
@@Den-ml7zg OK if the fan speed sensor fails. I found the shut down does not work right. The heater will just turn off. Then the unburned fuel vents back into area being heated. Very strong fumes! THEY WILL CHOKE YOU. IF YOU WANT TO TRUST YOUR LIFE TO AN UNCERTIFED DIESEL HEATER FROM CHINA GO AHEAD.
Hi Jack, I just posted a couple reply's to JWgmail's vid on diesel heater odors. Instead of me retyping everything, go back to his comments section and you'll see I have a couple posts. Hope this helps, -Mike
