From: Wontfailyah@aol.com
Date: Sat, 17 Nov 2001 15:07:31 EST
To: mwmiller@cwnet.com, vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com
Subject: Re: Van Gremlins

Just went thru similar ordeal with= my '86 Westy.
Replaced ECU.....3 weeks & several hundred miles so far......no more pr= oblem.
Of course it may have been just the connection, so I = plan to clean it well and reinstall the "apparently" bad ECU to de= termine if it was just the connections.
Tim Timothy
Pensacola, FL

In a message dated 11/17/2001 1:53:09 PM Central Standard Time, mwmiller@CW= NET.COM writes:

Volks,

My son and I took the 85 Westy on a trip.  Many times it has kind of <= BR> hesitated at about 100 miles, then it smooths out and is fine.

This time it started at 50 miles and got worse.  Had to go down a gear= lower
than usual to get up the mountains.  Stopped for dinner and it wouldn'= t
start afterward.  Starter spun it very well, no fire at all.

Checked for spark and it was weak but there.  Fuel pump made it noise = on
turning the key.  Tried it several more times, nothing, no effort to k= ick
over at all.

Had a spare coil [Bosche from the last episode of missing which turned out =
to be plugs wires] plugged it in, much better spark, no help with starting.=

Tried spraying carb cleaner into the intake [removed the air filter]
nothing.  Spent the night in the parking lot.  Started the next m= orning ran
like a tank until it ran out of gas 10 miles from home.  Put gas in an= d it
started and ran fine.  Got home and then tried to start it and it did = the
same no fire at all trick that it did at the restaurant the night before. <= BR>
My son's guess was that the first coil was bad [new Bosche] and when we put=
the old coil in the engine was flooded from the earlier tries to start it. =

But that doesn't explain why it's doing it again.  He still thinks fue= l
delivery problems, my guess is gremlins.

Anybody else got an idea.