Date:         Tue, 15 Oct 2002 13:31:10 +0100
Reply-To:     Jamie Bowen <jamie.bowen@ORCHESTRIA.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Jamie Bowen <jamie.bowen@ORCHESTRIA.COM>
Subject:      '89 2.1i digifant cutting out. Really need some help on this
              one... ; SOLVED?
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I think I've finally got this one fixed. Last night I put a new distributor rotor arm in and this morning the van was much better. It didn't seem to cut out as she was driving at all, although she did stall once pulling away from stop (she was warm and is an auto). This is much better than she has been the last few days. 
 
I think the distributor cap that I put on there a couple of weeks ago was a bad match for the rotor arm. I got a rotor arm from the same outlet that I got the distributor from and the contact on the new arm covers a far greater arc. The new cap that I put on was a far poorer fit than the last one, and more play in it when it is clipped on to the distributor housing. I think then that when the engine was especially advanced the rotor arm contact was to far from the contacts in the distributor cap to jump the gap and hey presto, engine cuts until the RPM and vacuum advance bring it back into range and she fires again. 
 
I hope this is it. I have only done 30 miles since the rotor arm change, but it did seem remarkably better this morning. Its possible that it is fixed because I disturbed the Hall Effect Sensor and nudged it back into life while fitting the new rotor arm I suppose. Will post more if it turns out that this wasn't the fix.
 
Thanks to everyone for their help....
 
Jamie.