[T3] car died on way home

Jim Adney jadney at vwtype3.org
Fri Mar 23 20:23:36 PDT 2012


On 23 Mar 2012 at 19:05, Bryon Garvin wrote:

> >
> > Back at the engine, against the "firewall," just to left of center,
> > there should be an inline connector that connects a FI wiring harness
> > wire from the brain to a wire into the rear main wiring harness. This
> > wire leads to the fuel pump relay and is what makes the relay close.
> > Check that connection and make sure that the wires are plugged
> > together correctly. Sometimes, if someone has been in a hurry, the
> > two connectors get pushed in there alongside one another instead of
> > inserted inside one another.

> Ok, I double checked that connector.  We ARE talking about the one
> that has 2 wires on the right, one on the left, at the rear of the
> engine compartment?  Mine was more center than left of center.  

The 3 wire connector is for the backup lights.

> There's another
> connector that has a small white wire coming and going out of it.  The
> connector itself is amber colored plastic.  I couldn't really figure that
> one out, but it didn't seem to be loose. 

The white wire is the giveaway; that's the FI wiring harness color. 
That's the one you need to check. If it's okay, I'm suspecting the 
fuel pump relay of getting resistive. I've seen a very few of them go 
bad, but more than zero. I have good ones available here.

> I started the car and it ran fine for a minute then began to die.  Running
> the pump primer, again seemed to save it from totally dying.

The primer bypasses the relay. Unless you hear the relay click off 
just before things start to go bad, the relay must be your problem.

My '72 developed this problem. I never figured it out until I 
attached a voltmeter to the output. It would show 14 V when I started 
off, but after about a half hour or so of driving, the voltage would 
drop and the engine would start to stagger.

The good news is that it's an easy fix.

-- 
*******************************
Jim Adney, jadney at vwtype3.org
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
*******************************




More information about the type3-vwtype3.org mailing list